ã€ŠNothing is Impossibleã€‹


 Chapter 1: Slimy attacker

    Atlas felt a jolt go through his body, and he opened his eyes, only to find himself staring into a black void. The endless darkness was everywhere, threatening to swallow him whole. There weren¡¯t stars- or any light at all actually.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    He shuddered, blinking his eyes and glancing around to try and figure out what was going on. The last thing he remembered was seeing words on a screen, and watching his flesh turn into white light. And then¡­ A tremor went through Atlas¡¯s body as he shoved the swarm of unpleasant memories out of his head.

    A deep and masculine voice boomed throughout his brain, shocking Atlas enough to scream into the endless void. ¡°WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF LIMIT!¡±

    As he took a deep breath to calm his nerves, he was assaulted by the voice again. It rang from inside his head, and didn¡¯t seem to care that telepathy shouldn¡¯t be possible. ¡°WHERE YOUR DREAMS BECOME REALITY!¡±

    There was a brief pause, as though they were an announcer on television looking at a script. Atlas raised his eyebrow and scanned the void again, but to no avail.

    ¡°Wait no, that''s a different world.¡±

    There was another long pause, and Atlas glanced again at the infinite blackness that stretched all around him. Where was he exactly? And who was this voice prattling on inside his head?

    ¡°Found it!¡±

    The voice suddenly shifted into a booming monotone voice.

    ¡°WHERE YOU BREAK YOUR PERSONAL LIMITS AND GROW STRONG!¡±

    Atlas clamped his hands to his ears and winced. That was loud.

    ¡°Hello mortal.¡± The voice started. ¡°What tutorial difficulty would you like to have?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ What are the options?¡± Atlas said, taking a deep breath and fighting to sound calmer than he felt. And as though he had any idea of what was going on.

    ¡°Oh yeah. Here they are.¡± As the voice spoke, a screen appeared in front of Atlas.

    -Super Easy, G grade skill and potential.

    -Very Easy, F grade skill, talent and potential.

    -Easy, E grade skill, talent and potential.

    -Moderate, D grade skill, talent and potential.

    -Medium, C grade skill, talent and potential.

    -Hard, B grade skill, talent and potential.

    -Very Hard, A grade skill, talent and potential.

    -Super Hard, S grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

    -Nightmare, SS grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

    -Hell, SSS grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

    -Impossible, Z grade skill, talent and potential. +Title

    Wow, that was¡­ a lot. Atlas was still trying to understand the situation he had suddenly been thrust into, but he instantly ruled out anything below hard. If this was to be his new reality, as it was becoming increasingly apparent. He wants to be strong, and able to control his own fate.

    He was going to take this as an opportunity to get rid of all of his past mistakes and start over with a new clean slate. He didn¡¯t wonder if this was a dream, because his memories, hard as he tried to avoid them, told him otherwise.

    As he looked at them all over again, he narrowed his focus, he would go Super Hard at the minimum, he wanted to have whatever a ¡°title¡± was.

    He spent a long time looking at all of them, wanting to make the best choice possible. He wouldn''t screw up again, even if fate tried to intervene.

    He shouldn¡¯t have thought that last bit.

    Black text appeared in front of him, almost invisible with the void he was in.

    You are being forced to choose difficulty ¡°Impossible¡± all the other players have chosen there difficulties, as a punishment for being last, you are forced into this world.

    ¡°But he was just wanting to make the best choice he could!¡± The voice said, sounding very angry at this new development. Is it trying to defend me? Strange. Atlas wondered briefly.

    TOO BAD. The words said.

    ¡°Urgh, I hate them.¡± The voice said. There was a brief pause as the voice seemed to gather its thoughts.

    ¡°Alright, I will help you,¡± It said, sounding determined.

    ¡°Mortal, we- I mean I- will grant you our -ahem- my blessing, you will get it once you arrive in the tutorial, it won¡¯t be much help outside of the tutorial, but during it, it will be very helpful.¡±

    The voice turned serious. ¡°But ultimately, it comes down to you, if you don¡¯t do your absolute best to survive, you won¡¯t.¡±

    Atlas grit his teeth and smirked at the void. He was liking this less and less, but he wouldn¡¯t go against what he had already decided. He would crush this tutorial, and then get so powerful that nothing could do something like this to him again. He wasn¡¯t going to waste his second chance.

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Atlas said earnestly, this really meant a lot to him, he could tell that they actually cared for his well being, even though they didn¡¯t even really know him.

    ¡°You''re welcome.¡± The male said,¡°Goodbye Mortal.¡±.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ***

    Atlas blinked blearily. He didn¡¯t think he was ever going to get used to being thrown through space to another place. That was roughly what it felt like to him.

    He was in a small clearing in a lush forest, and he couldn¡¯t see anything other than the tops of the trees. No mountains, nothing.

    Another screen appeared in front of him, but for a change, it held good news.

    Blessing of the Tutorial: Grow strong and prosper. Your awareness has taken a step forward, and it is easier to notice things. Your body is stronger while in the tutorial. You level at double your normal leveling speed while in the tutorial.

    Atlas nodded to himself, that seemed very good this early on in the game. He froze only a split second after thinking that.

    This is not a game. He reminded himself sternly. He could die here, that kind of thinking could be disastrous.

    Atlas suddenly felt as though a searing hole was being burned into the back of his head, and he whipped around, remembering the warnings of the voice.

    He came face to face with the most disgusting creature he had ever seen. It was like a human and a slug had a child. It had beady stalks on the top of its head, and its skin was slightly transparent and looked slimy. It was hunched over and was roughly the size of a full grown man, just¡­ a slug.

    It opened its mouth, revealing dozens of razor sharp teeth and roaring in his face.

    It was actually far more like a gurgle, but it was still terrifying all the same. Atlas scrambled backwards, kicking out with his right foot as he fled.

    It landed directly on the creatures middle, and with a *Swelch* his foot sank into it. It was only then that he realized he was still wearing his dress shoes. Ripping his foot out of its- stomach? He didn¡¯t know what to call the mass of goo in the center of the slug-like creature. He stood up slowly, looking around frantically for anything that could be of use.

    Atlas glanced down at his foot, only to find himself without a shoe on his right foot. Glancing at the slug like thing, he saw he shoe vanish with a *pop!* inside of itself.

    Atlas¡¯s face turned pale. Had it just eaten his shoe? Now that he got a better look at the monstrosity, he saw words hovering over the creatures head.

    Humanoid Slime, Lvl 10

    That meant almost nothing to Atlas, but almost nothing was still more than nothing, so he could complain.

    He was a little occupied at the moment anyway.

    His foot came to rest on a rock about the size of a softball, and Atlas reached down, picking it up.

    It was a lot lighter than he had thought that it would be, and he hefted it over his shoulder, throwing it at the thing''s face.

    The slime opened its mouth, and the rock plummeted straight into its gullet, vanishing with another *pop!*.

    Welp, that was a bust.

    Atlas turned, running as fast as he could, wanting to be anywhere but with this creature.

    As he ran, he glanced back, only to find the creature steadily following him. At the pace of a slug. It slowly inched towards him as he ran, and the distance grew greater with everyday.

    He slowed down, thinking. He didn¡¯t want to die, and that thing was definitely capable of killing him, but as long as he kept his distance and found something that could kill it, it was definitely possible.

    If creatures like this were commonplace here -wherever the heck here was- he needed to get stronger. And fast.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t there supposed to be some sort of status?¡± Atlas murmured to himself, trying to think about what could kill this fiend.

    Water might do it, but they were surrounded by forest, so Atlas didn¡¯t think water would be all that easy to find, unless he found a stream of some sort. If he dropped something heavy enough on its head, he might be able to crush it altogether.

    Deciding that was the best course of action, Atlas searched around for a rock bigger than his head, he found a lot of small ones, but didn¡¯t see any rocks that would do the job.

    As he searched, he could hear the slime slowly crawling towards him, and occasional pops as it absorbed its surroundings.

    Atlas started to panic, maybe he should just run for it. Shaking his head, he snapped himself out of that line of thinking. If he couldn¡¯t kill this, he wouldn¡¯t be able to kill anything that came his way, which would mean almost certain death.

    Later down the line, there would be something he couldn¡¯t outrun, and he would have to stand and fight, might as well get in the habit while he was working his way up the food chain.

    He trotted a couple feet away from the slime, just to create a little more distance, when he spotted what he was looking for. The rock was about the size of a soccer ball, and looked like it would do the job nicely.

    Bending down, Atlas grabbed both sides of the rock and heaved. The rock lifted about 1 foot off the ground before it slipped out of his hands, thudding on the ground.

    Well, that was a bust.

    He tried again, only to get the same result. He started to get frustrated. What could he do? He froze when he realized he couldn¡¯t hear the slime, turning slowly, he came face to face with the creature. It opened its mouth and lunged at him, moving far faster than it had previously.

    Atlas dove out of the way, feeling needle like teeth rip through his pants and scrape against his leg. Rolling to the side, he stood up, fists raised like some sort of boxer.

    He backpedaled trying to maintain distance with the slime, but he felt his back hit a tree, halting him.

    Atlas whirled, grabbing a low branch and hurling himself up, climbing the tree with a quickness that left him gasping for air when he stopped on one of the higher branches.

    Looking down, he saw the slime staring at him with its two stalk-like eyes. ¡°What are you gonna do now? Eat the tree?¡± Atlas said, mocking it. He was getting really frustrated with this whole thing.

    The slime looked down like it would do exactly that, opening his mouth up wide and snapping its jaw shut on the trunk of the tree. The tree shuddered, and the slime ripped out a head-sized chunk of bark.

    The tree swayed, and Atlas started to glance around, looking for anything he could use. He spotted a branch that was barely hanging on, and ripped it out. It was a little longer than a baseball bat, and a little thicker too.

    It would do perfectly. He waited for the slime to go to take another bite. When it finally did, swallowing the bark with another *pop!* Atlas jumped from the tree, hurtling straight for the things head. He fell over 10 feet before landing on the things back, shoving the large stick into its head, like some hero in a movie.

    The slime gurgled from the sudden weight and stab, before goo started to spill out of the back of its head. Atlas jumped off, taking his stick with him. The slime turned, transparent goo still flooding out of its head. It gurgled at him, and lunged with surprising speed.

    But this time Atlas was ready, jumping to the side, he swung the bat with all his might, and with a spray of goo, the head of the creature flew off.

    Thinking it was over, Atlas fell to the ground, shaking slightly.

    The slime''s body turned to him, and started to advance.

    Atlas yelled, picking up his bat and throwing it with all his might. Only a moment after it left his hand, he realized that it was not a good idea to throw his only weapon.

    The bat flew through the air, spinning in the slime.

    With a *SCHULK* the bat sunk into the slime''s body. The slime exploded into goo, covering Atlas in the sticky fluid.

    LEVEL UP!!!

    LEVEL UP!!!

    LEVEL UP!!!

    LEVEL UP!!!

    LEVEL UP!!!

    Huh?

 Chapter 2: A big dino

    Atlas stared at the black words in front of him. Level up? That was a mechanic that was in most video games, was it now in real life? If so, that was absolutely awesome.

    The only problem was, how did he view his character sheet? He really wanted to view his abilities and powers.

    Just as he had that thought, another screen appeared in front of him.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 5

    Class: Choose

    Subclass: Reach level 15

    Titles: None

    Skills: None

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial (Current -Hard-)

    Potential: Complete tutorial (Current -Hard-)

    Stats:

    Endurance: 0

    Constitution: 0

    Strength: 0

    Dexterity: 0

    Wisdom: 0

    Intelligence: 0

    Free points: 5 +5 starter points

    Atlas looked over his stat sheet. It was very¡­ lacking. All of his stats were at a flat zero, and he had no skills, spells or titles. Not to mention he didn¡¯t even know what talent and potential did.

    He should start with what he could do though, he needed to get a class, and divy up his stat points. For now, he decided just to add 1 to every stat. He felt warmth creep through his body, and he felt stronger, faster, tougher, and his brain felt sharper.

    It wasn¡¯t a major change, but it was very noticeable. He had grown about 50% stronger. Which was a very nice improvement.

    He had used up 6 stat points, so he had 4 left over. After some deliberation he put them in Endurance, Constitution, Strength and Dexterity. They seemed the most effective for surviving.

    His body glowed a soft white light again, and he let out a breath. It was such a calming sensation, and also adrenaline inducing at the same time. He was growing stronger with a thought.

    His stat sheet now looked like this.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 5

    Class: Choose

    Subclass: Reach level 15

    Titles: None

    Skills: None

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial (Current -Hard-)

    Potential: Complete tutorial (Current -Hard-)

    Stats:

    Endurance: 2

    Constitution: 2

    Strength: 2

    Dexterity: 2

    Wisdom: 1

    Intelligence: 1

    Free points: 0

    Atlas clicked on the word ¡®choose¡¯ and he felt the world vanish around him. Spinning, he found himself back in the void. ¡°What now?¡± He asked for empty space.

    You will now be shown 4 options. Each option will change your abilities and power, so choose wisely.

    Champion: You are a master of a chosen discipline. This can be anything; from a weapon, to a skill. This is for someone who doesn''t want to think too hard and just be perfect at one, singular ''thing''. Make sure it''s something that''ll keep you alive! +2 STR, + 2 CON per level.

    Glass Cannon: Look at you, choosing the objectively best class. The best defense is a good offense, personified. Can''t be hurt if your enemies are wiped from existence! +5 STR, -2 CON per level.

    Destroyer: You are the ''edgelord'' who wants to be a dark, brooding figure that ruins all they touch. This is certainly for a specific type of personality...I wouldn''t choose it, but you do you. +2 STR, +2 DEX per level.

    Master Slayer: slay is such a nuanced term, don''t you think? This class is all about kill-ahem, ''slaying'' your opponents in any way possible. +3 STR, +3 DEX, +1 ALL per level. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    So...yeah...small selection, I know. But hey, there''s one objectively correct choice here from a power gaming perspective. Or maybe you don''t want to be overpowered. I don''t care. Choose quickly so we can get you into the tutorial!

    There was no doubt in Atlas¡¯s mind which one to choose. It had a dumb name sure, but the bonuses were far better than anything he could hope for.

    So he selected the Master Slayer.

    He found himself staring straight at a tree. That was fast.

    He glanced around. He would need to kill something to get stronger, now that he had his class, he would rise faster than before.

    Congratulations! You got a rare class! Rare classes are stronger and have a special skill to go alongside them.

    Skill gained! Weakening Punch: A grade. Your next hit channels the power of weakening. (This power grows alongside your level)

    He was excited about his new power. He tried to activate it, thinking of the skills name. Weakening Punch. There was a wave of gray that appeared around him, covering his fists.

    Atlas lashed out, slamming his fist into a tree.

    It hurt. A lot.

    Holding his throbbing hand, he glared at the tree. He watched in shock as it fell to the ground with a *thud*. That was¡­ unexpected, but definitely not an unwelcome event.

    After a few moments of taking in what he had just done, Atlas grinned. This would be a fun skill to test.

    He heard a gurgle and turned. Behind him were 5 more of those slime creatures.

    Atlas¡¯s grin faded a little bit. Why did he keep tempting fate?

    ***

    Atlas¡¯s fist crashed through the slime, sending its goo splattering all over him. He didn¡¯t have time to care, as another slime lunged at him. ¡°WEAKENING PUNCH!¡± Atlas yelled, slamming his fist into the slime''s head. Its upper body turned to paste.

    Just 10 minutes ago, he had killed his first slime. Now he was killing them like it was nothing, but there were just so many of them!

    He activated his skill again, swiping his leg through two slimes in a row, covering his leg in their sticky fluid. Swinging his fist, he sent a slime flying. It was more akin to splattering in a certain direction but¡­ it got the job done.

    He took a deep breath, glancing around to make sure none of them snuck up on him. When his heart beat had slowed, he was hit with a flood of messages.

    LEVEL UP!!! X7

    You have leveled up your skill Weakening Punch(A) to level 2!

    He allocated his seven points into each of his stats equally, adding the last point into endurance. He was starting to get tired, and the monsters were endless. His body glowed again, and this time, it hurt a little bit, probably because of just how much his stats had jumped up.

    He checked his stat sheet again, smiling at the increase in stats. ¡°Not bad for what? A couple minutes work? Something like that¡± he muttered to himself, still entranced with the fact that he could see a physical representation of how much he was growing from every fight he had.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 12

    Class: Master Slayer

    Subclass: Reach level 15

    Titles: None

    Skills: Weakening Punch: 2 (A)

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 11

    Constitution: 10

    Strength: 24

    Dexterity: 24

    Wisdom: 9

    Intelligence: 9

    Free points: 0

    His body was far stronger than any human should be able to be, he could run faster than an Olympian, along with a whole slew of other upgrades overall.

    Atlas threw a couple of punches, his fists shot out like bullets, and the air hummed with the power of his punches.

    This was more like it.

    He put his hands on his hips. Now he could handle pretty much anything the system threw at him. And this was only after killing a bunch of slimes! Just thinking about how strong he would be able to get made Atlas grin like a maniac.

    Of course, that''s when the system decided he was getting too cocky and threw a monster at him.

    There was a loud roar and Atlas whipped his head around looking for the source of the sound, he saw trees crashing in the distance, and fear crept through him, before he shook it off.

    He could take whatever it was, he was a different person than he was before. He could kill whatever came at him.

    Atlas had never been more wrong in his life.

    He saw what was coming after him, and he paled.

    Demonic Dino: Tyrant-o-saurus Rex

    Level: ???

    You have encountered the boss of Impossible difficulty! When you kill it, you are allowed to leave, and collect your rewards. Be wary though, as the final boss is no weakling, it is a foe that you can¡¯t face with your current powers. You may want to consider leveling up a bit before fighting it.

    ¡°No kidding¡­¡± Atlas mumbled, staring at the titanic creature. It was easily the size of a house, and then some. Just looking at it made him weak in the knees.

    So he did what any man would do in this situation.

    He ran. He tripped, fell over and got back up again. He would NOT die here, no matter what happened, he was getting out of this tutorial alive.

    Which, of course, is when the tutorial decided to be an even greater jerk. Atlas was starting to wonder if he was just ridiculously unlucky and lucky at the same time. Or maybe the system just hated him for some bizarre reason that Atlas couldn¡¯t comprehend.

    He heard another crash, and a large boar charged out of the trees in front of him, almost hitting him as it ran by.

    Atlas cursed, leaping to the side and looking at the boar''s nameplate.

    Dread Boar, Level 30

    Yeah, Atlas didn¡¯t think he would do so well against that. The level gap was a little too large for his liking.

    Was this how the rest of the tutorial was going to go? Encountering monsters that were so much more powerful than him that he was forced to flee?

    Atlas steeled himself. He wouldn¡¯t let that happen. Even if it killed him, he would try to kill whatever crossed his path. ¡­besides that giant t-rex.

    Clenching his fists, he turned to face the boar.

 Chapter 3: Boar-ed

    Atlas faced off against the boar, fists held out in front of himself. The boar snorted, shaking its twin tusks at him. ¡°Come at me bub.¡± Atlas huffed at it, deciding to fully commit to this fight to the death.

    They started to circle each other, like something straight out of a movie. The boar was definitely more intelligent than the boars back on earth, that was for sure. It was waiting for Atlas to make the first move.

    So he did.

    Atlas lunged forward with a Weakening Punch, but the boar sidestepped, and the punch missed. Atlas was caught off guard, and he tried to pull back.

    The boar was ready for him, however, and it swung its tusks, lashing out at Atlas and leaving a gash on his side. Atlas screamed in pain, clutching his side as blood seeped out.

    Grunting in pain, he slammed his fist into the Boar, and the boar shrieked in pain as it was hit with the skill that coated Atlas¡¯s hand.

    Grinning, Atlas lashed out again, scoring another gray wound on the boar side. The boar roared, swinging its head and slamming the side of its tusk into Atlas¡¯s abdomen.

    Atlas coughed, more blood spilling from the wound in his side. This was not going well for him. Atlas covered both of his fists with his skill, and started to release a flurry of blows on the boar¡¯s skull.

    It shrieked in pain as each punch left a deeper mark than the last, and it tossed its head, sending Atlas flying.

    His arms pinwheeled, trying to slow himself down, but it was all in vain. Atlas felt a *snap!* and he hit a tree. He wasn¡¯t sure if it was a tree branch or his ribs, but his chest throbbed in pain, so it was probably the latter.

    Atlas collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain. As he struggled to pick himself up, he heard the sound of feet? hooves? thudding against the forest floor.

    Scrambling up, Atlas came face to face with the boar, only to be run through a second later. The tusk ripped through his stomach, going through his body and out his back, before slamming into the tree behind him.

    Atlas tried to scream in pain, but found that he couldn¡¯t. Not having anything else to do, he started to punch at the boar''s eyes, too blinded by pain to use his skill, let alone even think.

    The boar squealed as Atlas¡¯s fist slammed into its eye, popping it with a sound akin to popping a grape. It tried to pull out from the tree but Atlas¡¯s other fist slammed into its other eye, rendering it incapable of sight for the rest of its (hopefully short) life.

    It writhed feebly, struggling to free itself from the tree''s grasp. It struggled in vain, and Atlas continued to rain blows on its skull. Trying to hit the places where his skill had already started to decay the flesh, making his punches much more powerful.

    After a few more moments of bloody beatdown, the boar collapsed with a final squeal.

    Atlas let out a ragged breath, feeling blood poor from all of his wounds. If this fight had been before he got all of his stats, he would have been a goner way sooner. The only reason he was still alive was because of his high constitution, but Atlas vowed to put more points into that stat from now on, it would pay off.

    He grabbed the boar, heaving it both off and out of him. As he did, fresh blood poured out of his stomach and Atlas¡¯s vision started to waver. He was losing a lot of blood, and even his newly raised stats weren¡¯t helping all that much.

    That was when he was hit with a ton of notifications.

    LEVEL UP!!! X6

    You can now choose your subclass!

    You are now the highest level player from your world! +1 to all stats.

    Atlas glanced impassively at the screen, feeling a violent tingling sensation as white light covered him once again. Gritting his teeth, he waited for the pain to fade. The bigger the jump in stats, the more painful it was. It didn¡¯t help that he was also bleeding to death as well.

    It wasn¡¯t all that surprising that he was the highest leveled, the only people who could really compete with him were in Hell and Nightmare difficulties.

    He felt a little better after he was cleansed in the white light, but ultimately, he was still going to bleed to death. Even after dumping all of his extra stats into constitution, he still felt light headed.

    That was when he noticed the subclass option in his status. This might be his only chance at survival. Something with healing, please. Atlas prayed to whatever entity was listening.

    Clicking on it, he hoped for the best. He felt a whirling sensation and he appeared in the void once more. It was starting to get exhausting how much he visited this place, he hoped that this wouldn¡¯t be a trend.

    Champion: You are a master of a chosen discipline. This can be anything; from a weapon, to a skill. This is for someone who doesn''t want to think too hard and just be perfect at one, singular ''thing''. Make sure it''s something that''ll keep you alive! +1 STR or + 1 CON per level.

    Glass Cannon: Look at you, choosing the objectively best class. The best defense is a good offense, personified. Can''t be hurt if your enemies are wiped from existence! +2 STR, -1 CON per level.

    Destroyer: You are the ''edgelord'' who wants to be a dark, brooding figure that ruins all they touch. This is certainly for a specific type of personality...I wouldn''t choose it, but you do you. +1 STR or +1 DEX per level. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Life Stealer: Most people have life, and that includes you. You are just a jerk who likes to steal their life. How rude, don¡¯t you know that they worked hard for that life? +1 INT or WIS per level.

    In case you were wondering, yes, most of these are the same class options as when you were getting your main class. I can be lazy, I¡¯m a god like figure, deal with it. Also, USUALLY whenever you enter the void, all of your wounds are healed, but because you are in impossible, that won¡¯t be happening. Bye bye now!

    Atlas sighed, there was only one real option here, even if he would much rather have the Destroyer subclass. So with regret in his heart, he chose Life Stealer.

    Skill gained! Weak Lifesteal: B grade. Whenever you defeat an opponent, you can take up to 2% of their life force. This adds onto your own lifeforce.

    Atlas released a shaky breath, with this, he might be able to survive. In a blur of motion, he was sitting against the now bloody tree.

    He stood up slowly, making sure not to lose too much blood in the process. Grabbing the tree so as to not fall over, he glanced around, spotting the giant final boss in the distance.

    He held onto his stomach and side, trying to keep his insides inside of him, where they were supposed to be. They weren¡¯t getting the memo it seemed, as blood continued to spurt out of his wounds.

    Gritting his teeth, he reached down, grabbing the boar and using his new power. His hand turned a bright green and the boar seemed to flicker for a moment, before disappearing in a flash of green and white light.

    Green light climbed up Atlas¡¯s arm, going into his stomach and side, sealing them closed. Atlas felt as though he could finally breathe. He took a deep breath before coughing, wet blood splattering on the ground.

    It looked like taking the boar''s life force hadn¡¯t completely restored him, only his outer wounds. Now Atlas was worried about internal bleeding.

    He grit his teeth, before slumping and lying on the ground. This was stupid, why was it so hard to stay alive? In the modern world, it was easy, just have a decent job and viola! You can live (somewhat) easily.

    Snorting, Atlas wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, warm blood coming away. He vowed he would survive this mess, but those chances were slowly getting dimmer as time went on.

    He still wouldn¡¯t give up yet though, he had so much more to live for, and so much of this world to explore. Grabbing the tree he raised himself up, wincing slightly as he felt something in his stomach pinch, sending pain throughout his entire body.

    Glancing at the sky, he noticed that the sun was starting to droop, he would need to get someplace to sleep before long, might as well start now. He started to shuffle away, looking for any place that he could call home for the next who knows how long.

    ***

    Atlas wandered for hours, coming across a couple more boars but avoiding them. He wasn¡¯t ready to face another one of those demons just yet. Or anything for that matter.

    After hours of searching, he had come across a frightening sight.

    He had been walking through the trees, having just escaped another boar, when he had the urge to look down. As he did, he froze terrified out of his mind.

    The trees simply¡­ ended. So did everything else. There was nothing but empty space as far as the eye could see. It was then that Atlas realized that he was on a floating island. There was no way out except by killing the final boss.

    As Atlas looked closer he also realized that the island was slowly vanishing. It was not to a large degree, but it was almost like a battle royal. The island was slowly closing into the middle of the island, and he would be forced to battle the final boss or fall off.

    He turned and ran. Whatever happened, he did not want to be close to what was effectively the edge of the world.

    After a couple minutes of running, Atlas was forced to stop. His side was killing him. His internal wounds weren¡¯t getting any better. In fact, they seemed to be slowly getting worse.

    He sat on the forest floor, feeling defeated. No matter what he did, his condition was only growing worse, it wouldn¡¯t be long before he was back to square one, bleeding out under the warm embrace of a tree.

    He had to take action. He would have to hunt another of those wild beasts. This time however, he would run into the fight not knowing what to expect. His last fight had been a brutal beatdown, he didn¡¯t know if he could survive another one of those. So he would have to fight smarter, not harder.

    ¡­ That felt so cliche when he thought about it. Oh well, it was still true.

    Glancing at the sky again, he only had about an hour or so before dark. And who knew what would happen if he was out in the dark with all of the shenanigans that had been going on.

    He set to work.

    ***

    After almost an hour of work, Atlas was ready for anything. Well, almost anything. He would stand no chance against the final boss, but it was the effort that mattered.

    Right?

    He was in a tree overlooking a small clearing in the middle of the woods. There was a suspicious amount of leaves and branches on the ground, but Atlas hoped that the boars wouldn¡¯t pay too much attention to small details like that.

    Stilling his beating heart with a steady breath, Atlas yelled at the top of his lungs, he had waited for the Final boss to go further away before starting his plan, otherwise it would be him getting eaten, not a boar.

    Atlas waited with bated breath, hoping for a boar to come so that he wouldn¡¯t have to expose himself. After a few long minutes of waiting, Atlas steeled himself for another shout.

    Just as he was about to yell again however, he heard something moving. Holding himself very still, he watched as a large form entered the clearing, raising its head and sniffing loudly.

    It was starting to get dark, but even so, Atlas could tell that wasn¡¯t the boar he had wanted to catch.

    Reading its tag, Atlas¡¯s blood ran cold.

    Dread Boar Lord: Skar

    Lvl: 50

    You have encountered a Mini Boss of Impossible difficulty! When you kill it, you will unlock another one of your skills, and get other rewards. Be wary though, as a Mini Boss is no weakling, it is a foe that you might struggle to face with your current powers. Consider leveling up a bit before fighting it.

    ¡°Oh no.¡± Atlas whispered, so quiet that he practically mouthed it.

 Chapter 4: Not so mini Mini Boss

    Atlas held very still, hoping that the mini boss would just leave.

    No such luck.

    The mini boss turned its head slowly, red eyes scanning the small clearing. After it seemed all was well, it trotted to the middle of the clearing, plopping down and yawning. It let out a loud squeal, that also somehow sounded like a battle cry at the same time.

    There was a loud ruckus, and 2 large boars came out from the trees, walking over to the mini boss. Atlas scanned them to see who these newcomers were.

    Dread Boar Knight

    Lvl: 40

    With those simple words, Atlas¡¯s hope of escaping these giant creatures dropped to basically nothing. He could barely take on a single level 30 dread boar, just these two could wreck him, not to mention that there was the mini boss to worry about.

    One of the knights let out a squeal, and it fell straight into Atlas¡¯s trap. His heart plummeted, he had completely forgotten about his plan to kill a boar.

    This boar was too large for the pit trap that Atlas prepared, and just its leg fell down, uncovering the hole that Atlas had dug.

    With a snort, the bright red eyes of Skar popped open. It glanced at its knight, and then at the hole below. It let out a grunt and slammed into the knight, freeing it from its earthen prison.

    It glanced around, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Atlas waited for the boar to notice him, but miraculously, it never did.

    Letting out a grunt, the boar lay back down on the ground, snorting at the knights. They seemed to nod, and lay down next to their lord, closing their eyes. Skar looked one last time around the clearing, before shutting its own eyes.

    Atlas let go of the breath he didn¡¯t know he had been holding, nerves frayed. This was all going so, so wrong. He climbed up higher in the tree, wanting to get further away from the terrors below him. Laying on a branch as more than twice as thick as him, falling asleep easily despite the deadly creatures far below.

    ***

    Atlas awoke with the sun shining through the leaves, acting like a filter and sending scattered sunlight all over him. Yawning, he sat up, almost falling off of the branch he had been sleeping on.

    With a jolt, all that had happened over the past day came to him, flooding his mind with memories of the terrors he had gone through.

    Glancing down, he saw the boars still sleeping on the soft forest floor. Atlas lay back down, waiting for them to wake up and leave so that he could get out of this place. At that moment, his stomach gurgled at him, telling him it was hungry. He hadn¡¯t eaten anything for almost a day, and he was starting to suffer.

    His body was hurt, and it couldn¡¯t heal itself properly without food, which put him in a dilemma. To get food, he would probably get hurt again, which would just restart the cycle. He wanted more than anything to kill the mini boss, but it just wasn¡¯t plausible with his current powers.

    At that moment, he got a notification.

    Congratulations! You have survived a night of Impossible difficulty!

    Title Gained! Moonwalker: you are stealthier than most people will hopefully ever know, and you can hide when there isn¡¯t anything to hide in. +10 to DEX when trying to hide or evade something. Your skin turns solid black during night, and your eyes grow dim and become far less reflective. You can see even without any light source.

    Atlas balked. This was awesome! It helped him in so many different ways! Not only would it help him hide, but knowing the darkness wouldn¡¯t be a problem for him. 10 dexterity wasn¡¯t anything to scoff at. It was almost a third of his total dexterity stat.

    Atlas realized he hadn¡¯t checked his status in a bit, he wanted to see what his stats were looking like now. He didn¡¯t actually know what all of his stats were right now.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 18

    Class: Master Slayer

    Subclass: Lifestealer

    Titles: Moonwalker

    Skills: Weakening Punch: 2 (A), Lifesteal: 1 (B)

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 16

    Constitution: 21

    Strength: 42

    Dexterity: 42

    Wisdom: 15

    Intelligence: 18

    Free points: 0

    Atlas smiled to himself. It was nice to be able to see a physical representation of how strong he was, it made him happy.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    He realized that his intelligence was higher than it should be. Where did the three extra stats come from?

    After thinking about it for a bit, Atlas assumed that it had come from his subclass, he should have chosen it but he hadn¡¯t been fast enough it looked like.

    Swallowing, he looked down at the three hulking beasts below him, with his new upgrades, he should be able to escape without waking them up.

    He stood up, jumping down and landing on another branch, the second he touched the branch, he felt strength fill him, his title must be recognising he was trying to escape.

    Filled with new power, he hopped down again, jumping down over and over until he reached the ground with a dull *thump*

    Atlas froze, staring at the large monsters that were just a few dozen feet away from him. Each boar was about the size of a small car, with Skar being slightly larger.

    Shifting his feet, Atlas crept away, making sure not to step on the many branches and leaves that were scattered around the forest floor.

    When he was a good distance away, he started to jog lightly, wanting to get away from the boars as quickly as he could.

    *SNAP!*

    Atlas looked back in horror as the tree that he had been on dropped one of its many branches, snapping loudly. Skar snorted, looking around before meeting Atlas¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Oh no¡­¡± Atlas mumbled, fear coursing through his veins, he turned and started to run.

    There was a loud *crash!* behind him as Skar stood up, trampling through the trees and charging at Atlas. Atlas looked back staring into the giant creature''s eyes and gulping.

    Facing forward again, he had an idea, and turned left running full tilt to maintain the distance between him and Skar. He heard another loud crash and heard a tree fall to the ground.

    Atlas grit his teeth. Skar was just charging through the forest, taking out anything in his way, while Atlas had to avoid the trees and go around them. It wasn¡¯t looking good for him, the mini boss was slowly gaining on him.

    Just as Atlas was starting to lose hope, he saw what he had been heading for.

    The edge of the world.

    Instead of slowing down, Atlas picked up speed, pumping his legs as fast as he could. Glancing behind him, he saw Skar still charging him, only about 10 feet away from him.

    Hoping that his impromptu plan would work, Atlas jumped, swiftly grabbing onto a tree and pushing himself to the side.

    He was only about a dozen feet from the edge when he did.

    Skar shot past him, flying straight off of the edge and plummeting to his death, or so Atlas assumed. For all he knew, he would just fall forever.

    He sat back, breathing heavily. That had been terrifying. After a few long seconds he stood up, stretching and looking off of the edge. He saw a distant dot falling before vanishing from view.

    Sure that he had successfully killed the mini boss, he started to walk back. After a couple of minutes, he got a notification.

    You have killed a Mini Boss! You get 1 skill and 1 spell! You get one basic weapon of your choosing as well.

    LEVEL UP!!! X12

    Atlas felt power rip through him, making him fall to his knees from the sheer amount of change that was going through his body. After a couple of seconds the pain shifted to a light burn, before finally vanishing.

    Atlas breathed deeply, staring at the sky and laughing hysterically. Finally! Finally things were going his way, with this power boost, he might be able to kill one of those knights, without having to use underhanded methods.

    Please choose what class/subclass to use your skill and spell tokens in. Please choose a basic weapon as well.

    ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Atlas hummed, thinking. Which would he use?

    After some debate, he decided to split them up, skill into his Master Slayer class, and spell into Lifestealer subclass.

    The second he thought that, more notifications appeared in front of him.

    Skill gained! Hunter¡¯s Instinct: A grade. You can spot the weaknesses of your enemies, allowing you to fight more efficiently.

    Spell gained! Drain: S grade. You can use magic to steal health. It is a 1 to 2 ratio of conversion.

    Atlas grinned. Those were some pretty good abilities if he did say so himself. One would make it easier to fight opponents, and the other would steal health while they were still living.

    He activated Hunter''s Instinct, and he felt his eyes shift somehow, perceiving the world differently. Nothing seemed to change, but Atlas assumed that was because he didn¡¯t have any opponents at the moment. He would have to test it in battle.Unknown to him, his eyes were a burning red while the skill was activated.

    Please choose a weapon. This is your last reminder.

    Atlas froze. He had almost forgotten. His mind started to churn, thinking of what weapons would be best for the kind of fighting he was doing. A sword was too close range and he didn¡¯t want to use something that used projectiles.

    After a couple more seconds of contemplation, he decided on a spear. It had good range, while also letting him use punches with his off hand if need be.

    Basic Spear chosen!

    A blue light appeared in front of him, hovering for a few seconds before popping. When it did, it left a shining spear in its wake, hovering in mid air.

    Atlas gaped, staring up at the spear in awe. This was only basic? When he stretched out his hand, reaching for the spear, it suddenly dropped, falling onto the ground.

    Atlas grumbled, reaching down to pick it up. It was about 8 feet long, with a triangular head at the top. It was the perfect weapon for piercing at range, but would be all but useless in close combat.

    Swinging it a couple times to get used to it, Atlas wondered what his next plan of action should be. He had a new skill and spell, along with a weapon, but was that enough to take on one of those knights? He would just have to find out.

    Pulling up his status, Atlas looked at the new changes.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 30

    Class: Master Slayer

    Subclass: Lifestealer

    Titles: Moonwalker

    Skills: Weakening Punch: 2 (A), Lifesteal: 1 (B), Hunter¡¯s Instinct: 1 (A)

    Spells: Drain: 1 (S)

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 28

    Constitution: 33

    Strength: 78

    Dexterity: 78

    Wisdom: 27

    Intelligence: 30

    Free points: 12

    He split his free points up. Adding one point to all of his stats, and divided the remaining six between wisdom and intelligence, as he assumed that they boosted the efficiency and power of his magic. Or at least he hoped they did.

    Resting his spear on his shoulder, he set off into the woods, looking for some new prey. This time, he would be the hunter, not the hunted, he decided. Goal in mind, he strode off into the woods, being watched by powers that were far greater than him.

 Chapter 5: The Other Difficulties

    James smiled to himself. He loved this new change, it was so easy and pleasant, he didn¡¯t have to take care of himself, and everything he needed was provided! All he had to do was take some classes, but that was a small price to pay overall.

    He would have to fight something to leave, but that was in the far future, he didn¡¯t think he would have to worry about that for a long time. He thought he was pretty strong overall, he had a skill called Parry (F) That let him redirect someone''s attack! It was an awesome skill that made enemies attacks worthless against him.

    He glanced at his status, which must be among the top contenders out of all of the players. He was only in easy difficulty, but his power was probably closer to nightmare difficulty.

    James Buzzler

    Level: 1

    Class: Warrior

    Subclass: None

    Titles: None

    Skills: Parry: 1 (F)

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1

    Constitution: 1

    Strength: 2

    Dexterity: 2

    Wisdom: 1

    Intelligence: 1

    Free points: 0

    He even had two stats with a 2 in them! That probably was far better than any of the other players.

    ***

    Lars swung his sword, slicing off the head of the last goblin. Breathing heavily, he lay against the ground. After a few seconds of deep breathing, he stood up, walking back to his small home.

    Opening the door, he hung his sword on the wall, sitting down at his small table. He held his head in his hand, crying softly. He missed his family. Why had he been forced to come here? It was so unfair. He thrived even though he hated it here.

    He stood up suddenly, chair scraping against the stone floor. Taking off his coat, he hung it on the wall, collapsing on his coarse bed. This world was harsh, yes, but it was survival of the fittest, and Lars was sure that he could take down almost any challenge that came his way. He wished he had chosen a harder difficulty, but where he was at was fine, as long as he persevered.

    Very hard wasn¡¯t a bad difficulty, it just wasn¡¯t the highest, and Lars wanted to be the strongest, no matter how much he had to work for it.

    As he started to drift off to sleep, he checked his status one last time, smiling softly as it shone above him.

    Lars Robin

    Level: 9

    Class: Hunter

    Subclass: None You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Titles: Driven

    Skills: Brutal Slash: 2 (B)

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 7

    Constitution: 8

    Strength: 12

    Dexterity: 12

    Wisdom: 6

    Intelligence: 6

    Free points: 0

    He would catch up to the frontrunners, no matter how long it took.

    ***

    Lesli raised her staff high above her head, casting three spells in quick succession. The ogre roared as three Fireballs slammed into its chest, sending it flying backwards.

    Narrowing her eyes, she cast her other spell, Lightning strike. The ogre screamed as its skull was hit with a lightning strike as thick as its arm.

    It wailed before collapsing into a heap of flesh, dead.

    LEVEL UP!!! X3

    Lesli hummed to herself, slinging her staff over her shoulder. She loved using magic, it made her so much more powerful. With a simple point of her staff and burst of magic, she could send a ball of fire the size of a volleyball hurtling at her enemies.

    She was easily one of the top 12 players, maybe even higher. She wondered how Atlas was doing. She had been told he was also a Player.

    She shook her head, that wasn¡¯t important right now. She pulled up her stat sheet, glancing at her powers.

    Lessli Levit

    Level: 18

    Class: Grand Magus

    Subclass: Elementalist

    Titles: Spellweaver

    Skills: Magic proficiency (A)

    Spells: Fireball (B) Lightning Strike (B) Water Spear (C)

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1

    Constitution: 1

    Strength: 1

    Dexterity: 1

    Wisdom: 30

    Intelligence: 30

    Free points: 3

    She invested two points into intelligence, and one into wisdom. She smiled at her stats, happy with the growth she had experienced over the last day and a half.

    She would rise, and she would grow her arsenal of spells, becoming the greatest mage there ever was.

    Lesli grinned to herself, lying on the ground and starting to doze off, this would be fun.

    ***

    Malcolm screamed, running as fast as he could. He hated this despicable world. Why had he been sent here? He wanted nothing to do with magic, or monsters.

    He just wanted to go home.

    He turned, throwing a bolt of lightning over his shoulder, hitting one of the many demonic birds chasing after him. It did nothing to lessen the pressure. There were just too many of them.

    One of them cawed, swooping down and trying to take a bit out of his shoulder. Malcolm screamed again, jumping to the side, narrowly dodging the giant bird.

    He fell to the ground, exhausted beyond words. Why? Why did this happen? He wished he had chosen a lesser difficulty, he had thought this was fake, so he had chosen one of the harder difficulties, not thinking that this would happen.

    How wrong he had been. Malcolm sobbed, watching as the birds descended, grabbing him and lifting him up, rising higher, and higher, until he couldn¡¯t even see the ground. ¡°What are you doing!?!¡± Malcolm screamed at the birds, thrashing violently and trying to get them to let go.

    Looking down, he realized that breaking free would surely kill him.

    He stilled, letting the birds carry him away.

    After a couple more minutes of flying the birds dove down, setting Malcolm down gently on the ground, before flying away.

    Malcolm was confused. Why had they dropped him off here?

    ¡°Hello young one. I can help you if you would like.¡± A gravelly voice said from behind him.

    Malcolm¡¯s eyes widened, whirling around.

 Chapter 6: The Knights

    Atlas held his spear, leaning against a tree and staring at the still sleeping forms of the knights. He was honestly surprised. He would have expected them to be awake by now, it was getting close to the middle of the day.

    He stared at their immoble forms, contemplating what his next action should be. He could just charge in there, and wound both of them, maybe even kill one, but he wasn¡¯t still completely sure if he could take one of them one on one.

    Or¡­ He did have his two new abilities¡­ and he wanted to test them¡­

    After a couple more seconds of contemplating, his eyes turned red as he activated Hunter¡¯s Instinct. The middle of the boar''s forehead glowed a sickly red, with their undersides a slight shade of red.

    Keeping his skill activated, he used Drain, and he watched as green energy shot from his hands, latching onto one of the boars. It started to glow red and Atlas felt his internal wounds close, and other small wounds all over his body started to close. He felt as though there was a mental pool inside of him that was slowly emptying as the spell went on.

    Was this his magic? If so, he seemed to have quite a lot of it, was it because of his intelligence and wisdom? As he puzzled this over, the boar that he was stealing life from woke up, squealing as it felt the spell that was sucking the life out of it.

    It turned, glaring at Atlas. When it saw him, its eyes narrowed even further. It kicked its buddy, who woke up with a snort.

    Atlas just remained calm, making sure that his hold over his spell didn¡¯t break. He kneeled, resting his spear on the ground and aiming it at the boar.

    The boar charged forward, before one of its legs buckled, and it collapsed. It looked like Drain had done its work. Its buddy saw, and turned to face Atlas, letting out a loud snort before charging forward.

    Atlas narrowed his eyes, shifting the target of Drain to the other boar, and it flinched as its life was taken.

    Atlas picked his spear up, deciding to take it into his own hands. He charged the boar, leaping forward and plunging it deep into the creature''s forehead.

    It squealed, eyes crossing as it tried to shake Atlas loose. Atlas grit his teeth, planting his feet in the ground and shoving the spear deeper into its skull.

    It collapsed, letting out a sad keen, before shuddering. It was dead. Atlas wrenched his spear out, falling on his rear as it came out with a *schulk* covering himself with brain matter and blood.

    Reaching out, he used Life steal, absorbing 2% of its max health. He felt his wound fully close and took a full breath. He turned and looked at the other boar.

    Only to be slammed with its entire body weight.

    He had underestimated the boar, thinking it was dead. It most certainly was not.

    It looked weak, but it still managed to send Atlas flying, spear flipping a couple of times before coming to rest more than a dozen feet away.

    Atlas rose on shaky legs, fists raised. He would die to this, of that, he was certain. But he was mentally beating himself up for not paying attention to his surroundings, he could have gotten out of this fight without taking any damage if he had simply dodged the foul beast.

    Sighing, he activated Drain again, and the boar''s legs buckled, but it didn¡¯t fall. Atlas felt as though he was starting to run low on magic, so he needed to finish this fight fast, he wanted to have some in reserve in case he was attacked again.

    He sprang forward, gray light appearing on his fist as he activated Weakening Punch. Roaring loudly, he thrust his fist forward, hitting the swaying boar with all his might. There was a loud explosion, and the boar was sent flying through the air.

    It spun in the air a couple of times before landing in a tree and snapping branches, before coming to a stop on one of the large branches.

    Atlas looked at his fist, which was now covered in bruises and bloodied up. He could use Lifesteal and patch it up, but his stomach growled at him loudly, he still needed to eat.

    LEVEL UP!!! X6

    You have leveled up your skill Weakening Punch(A) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Weakening Punch(A) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Drain (S) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Lifesteal(B) to level 2!

    System Message: When you reach level 10 in a skill, it ranks up! Keep this in mind as you fight, as the more intentionally you fight with your skills, the higher the chance of them leveling up! At every rank up, the skill becomes three times harder to level up.

    Atlas was happy with his gains. It wasn¡¯t a whole lot compared to what he got for ending the miniboss, but it was definitely a large improvement. He split the free points between intelligence and wisdom again, hoping it would help him us Drain for longer periods of time.

    It was nice to know that he could increase the rank of his skills, that just meant he could grow more powerful.

    He walked over to the tree that the boar had landed in, and started to climb. When he reached the place where the boar was, he propped himself up against the trunk, and shoved the boar.

    The boar toppled out of the tree, landing with a splat and sliding for a couple of feet, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

    Atlas jumped down after it, almost slipping on the blood. He grabbed the boar, dragging it to the middle of the clearing.

    Now¡­ how to cook it?

    ***This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Atlas bumbled around for a while, before finding some dry leaves and a couple of dry sticks. He cleared a spot, putting the dry leaves and sticks into a pile. He took two of the sticks and started to rub them together, using his supernatural speed and strength to ignite them in just a few minutes.

    Blowing gently, he watched as the small spark became a roaring fire, adding larger and larger branches into the fire.

    Once it was steadily burning, Atlas ripped off the boar''s leg, holding it over the fire and turning it slowly. The leg was huge, it took everything he had just to hold it above the fire.

    He lost track of time, slowly twisting the meat over the fire. When it looked fully cooked, he took it away, ripping off a piece and tasting it, chewing slowly. It was still pretty hot, and it didn¡¯t have any seasonings, but overall, it was pretty good.

    Atlas scarfed down the leg, burning his tongue multiple times, but not really caring. He was starving.

    After finishing the entire leg, he ripped off another dangling it over the fire much like the first and slowly turned it, waiting as the skin sizzled and popped.

    Atlas started to drool a bit, but he shook his head, snapping out of it. He could wait for it to fully cook before eating, or so he told himself.

    After a couple long minutes, the leg was ready. This time when he ate it, he all but scarfed it down, not caring about the immense heat that scorched his lips, tongue, and throat.

    Licking his lips, Atlas realized that he was incredibly thirsty, but he hadn¡¯t seen water his entire stay on this strange world, which put him in trouble.

    Where would he find water?

    Walking over to the tallest tree nearby, Atlas started to climb. Pushing himself up, he steadily climbed the tree until he was over a hundred feet off the ground. Wind brushed up against his skin, and the tree swayed gently.

    Atlas held the tree tighter, glancing around at the vast forest. He could see the edges that were closest to him, but he couldn¡¯t see the edge of the forest.

    He did however see two things of importance, one exciting, and one terrifying.

    He saw a wide river not too far away from where he was now.

    He also saw the demonic dino in the distance, and it seemed to be heading in his general direction again.

    Atlas climbed back down the tree, panicking. He finally had a full stomach, but the final boss was on its way. Even with the large boosts in power he had recently received, he was still but a pebble beneath its large clawed feet.

    He grabbed his spear and set off in the direction he had seen the river, deciding to leave the boar behind, he could just kill another one if he needed more food, and it wasn¡¯t worth the energy to carry it around with him. Best to just leave it here for scavengers.

    That made Atlas start to wonder about the ecosystem here, he hadn¡¯t seen any birds or other normal creatures, so how did it function?

    Before he could walk too far down that line of thinking, he snapped back, hearing something rustling through the bushes not too far away from him.

    Raising his spear, Atlas prepared himself for whatever the new challenge would be.

    What came out was not what he expected.

    Dread Boar Knight

    Lvl: 40

    There was a third one?

    Atlas and the boar just stared at each other for a couple of seconds. In a surge of motion, Atlas gripped his spear, lifting it over his shoulder and throwing it like a javelin.

    It soared through the air, striking the boar in its leg before it could even understand fully what was going on. With a roar of pain, it charged him.

    Atlas¡¯s eyes narrowed, glowing red as he activated Hunter¡¯s Instinct. The boar had very similar weaknesses to the other two, with its hind leg also being a light red color.

    Atlas jumped out of the way, feeling a surge of power as Moonwalker activated, letting him jump faster and further than he should with his current stats.

    The boar stopped almost instantly, swinging its tusks at him in wide, sweeping motions. Atlas avoided all of them without too much trouble, but the boar didn¡¯t let up, snorting at him and continued to keep him on the back foot.

    Deciding that it was his turn, Atlas jumped to the side, bounding off of a tree and landing behind the boar. In a flash of motion, his fist covered in gray light smashed into the creature''s hind leg, before he leaped out of the way.

    Just as he expected, the boar whirled, lashing out again with its tusks, missing Atlas by a pretty large margin. Atlas zoomed forward, smashing his Weakening Punch into the boar''s snout, sending it stumbling back.

    As it shook its head, trying to shake off the pain, Atlas hit it again, this time aiming for its forehead. The boar surprised him, ducking to the side and lashing out with one of its hooves, hitting him in the stomach.

    Atlas stumbled backwards, but stayed on his feet.

    He looked at the boar, more wary than he had been at the start of this fight. He had underestimated this boar because he had already killed two of his brethren, but he hadn¡¯t used Drain in this fight, which had been one of the largest reasons that he won the other fight.

    He still didn¡¯t want to use Drain yet, but he might be forced to if things started to get worse.

    Atlas frowned. Why was he hesitating? He should just kill it and be done with it. He launched forward, starting the boar and slamming his fist into its skull with all his might. It stung badly from his earlier fight, but he powered through, sending the boar flying much like the other knight.

    It slammed into a tree, letting out a feeble squeal. Is it still alive? That''s surprising. Atlas thought to himself, running forward and slamming his fist into its skull again, killing it for good.

    LEVEL UP!!!

    Atlas frowned. Only one? It was quite a few levels above him, so why was he getting so few rewards?

    (System tip, The closer a fight, the more bonus exp that is provided, the level of the opponent is just the base exp, it is the actual fight that matters more. You only received the base exp because you did not struggle with this opponent. Keep this in mind for future battles.)

    Huh, that was good to know, the closer the fight, the more exp he would earn, which translated to levels, which in turn translated to power. And he used that power to fight stronger creatures. It was a brutal and endless cycle.

    Atlas smirked, at least it''s fun. He thought to himself wryly.

    It was true though, the thrill of the fight was the most intense and amazing feeling he had ever experienced. And even that didn¡¯t compare to the adrenaline rush he got from getting more powerful from the aftermath of said fight.

    All in all, Atlas was enjoying his time in this new world, it really brought out the best in him.

    Or the worst, who could say.

    Atlas continued on, only pausing to steal life from the corpse of the boar on his way out.

 Chapter 7: Water Snake

    Atlas trudged through the forest for about a half hour, before finally hearing the melodious sound of rushing water.

    He got excited, and took off, running as fast as he could.

    Which was pretty fast.

    Trees bent as he soared past them, leaving a large gust of wind in his wake. His speed was on a completely different level than olympic sprinters, they couldn¡¯t even hope to get in a quarter of the track before he would be finished with the entire race.

    And that was without his boost from Moonwalker.

    He finally reached a break in the trees, finding a small slant that led to the large river. It was more than 100 feet across, no wonder he had been able to see it so easily from the top of the tree.

    Sliding down the rocky hill, he reached the river, thrusting both of his hands in and scooping water, bringing it to his chapped lips and drinking it in a single gulp. He did this a couple more times before forgoing it and just thrusting his entire face into the water, gulping down the water at a ridiculous pace.

    When he had reached his fill, he leaned back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and sighing loudly in content.

    He stood up stretching and yawning. He was now rested, full and ready to take on anything!

    Well¡­ almost anything.

    As he started to get relaxed, he failed to notice the water rippling just a few feet away from him. It grew larger and larger, until Atlas finally noticed it, eyes shifting into a burning red.

    As he watched, the rippling turned to large waves, and he was forced to take a couple of steps away from the river so that he wouldn¡¯t get drenched. Even so, he still got quite a bit of water on his now not so fancy business clothes. He really should have worn something more practical.

    He continued to watch as something finally emerged from the river, water sloshing down in colossal waves. Its blue scales gleamed in the sun and its twin eyes looked at Atlas with pure bloodlust.

    Terror of the River: Shakra

    Level: 80

    Atlas clenched his fists, staring in awe at the giant creature before him. It was almost the size of a house, and it wasn¡¯t even fully out of the water.

    Atlas continued to stare, and the snake roared, water sloshing around it as it channeled its fury, which was almost palpable.

    You have encountered a Hidden Boss of Impossible difficulty! When you kill it, you will unlock another one of your skills, and get other rewards. Be wary though, as a Hidden Boss is no weakling, it is a foe that you will struggle to face with your current powers. Consider leveling up a lot before fighting it.

    A hidden boss? How was this boss hidden? It was the size of a freaking building!

    He prepared himself, getting ready to fight this giant monstrosity of a snake. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could take it, but he was willing to try!

    He just hoped he wouldn¡¯t die trying.

    The snake shot forward, jaws snapping wildly at him. He pushed off of the ground with his spear, narrowly avoiding the gaping maw of the boss.

    It slid after him, a long serpentine body flowing like water in his direction.

    Atlas panicked, jumping away again and activating Drain to try and slow it down.

    The snake flinched for a brief second, before coming after him even faster than before, it looked like Atlas had angered it.

    He thrusted with his spear, hoping to hit one of the snake''s eyes. His spear missed spectacularly, throwing sparks as it struck the creature''s scaly neck.

    Shakra lunged forward, snapping wildly at him. Atlas leaped to the side, tripping on a rock and rolling a couple of feet before coming to a stop, head spinning.

    He turned just in time to see the gaping jaws of Shakra lunging for his face.

    He panicked, plunging his spear into the monster''s throat. Shakra hissed in pain, thrashing its tail and making huge waves and sending up large sprays of water in all directions.

    Atlas pushed his advantage, gripping the spear tightly and shoving it deeper into the snake''s mouth.

    Just as everything was starting to go in Atlas¡¯s favor, Drain gave out as Atlas¡¯s magic ran dry.

    Atlas and Shakra stared at each other for a brief moment, Atlas¡¯s spear still lodged deep in the snake''s throat.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    Atlas gave a sheepish smile, before gripping the spear and using all of his newfound strength to shove the spear ever deeper.

    The spear pierced through the snake''s mouth, coming out of the back of its neck with a spray of blood.

    The snake hissed loudly, shaking its head and trying to dislodge both the spear and Atlas.

    Atlas lost his grip of the spear, flying through the air before landing on the sandy earth just a couple feet from the churning water.

    The snake''s eyes narrowed, staring at Atlas with pure, unfiltered hatred. It wanted nothing more at that moment than to see Atlas writhe in pain.

    Atlas shook his head, sending sand flying everywhere. He turned his head looking around for the giant snake. He found it hurtling toward him, only a couple dozen feet away.

    He screamed, activating Weakening Punch out of pure instinct and standing up, fists raised defensively.

    The snake didn¡¯t slow down at all, if anything, it got even faster.

    It steamrolled Altas, before he even had a chance to react.

    Luckily for him, the snake was blinded by hate and rage, and didn¡¯t use its fangs, it simply ran over him, two tons of muscle squeezing the life out of him.

    He screamed in pain, lashing out with his fists, using Weakening Punch over and over, with no stop.

    If he stopped, he would die. Of that he was almost certain.

    The snake hissed, lifting up and slamming the full weight of its body onto him.

    Atlas gasped for breath, but his face was covered with hard scales, making it all but impossible to breathe.

    He yelled, using all of his breath and channeling every resource he had, gripping the scaly body of the snake and shoving it with all of his might, yelling even louder.

    For a split second, nothing happened, but then the snake was thrown over a dozen feet into the air, soaring through the sky before landing with a large splash in the river.

    Skill gained! Full Might! S grade. You use the entire might of your body into one movement, strike, or block, making it far more powerful than it should ever have any right to be. (Warning! This skill has severe drawbacks, and you will feel incredibly weak after using it.)

    Congratulations! You are the first player to create your own skill! This is a skill that only you can use, unless you teach it to others or they experience similar things that you have. Title gained.

    Title Gained! Skiller: You are a master at creating skills, and it is now 200% easier to create said skills, you can understand the workings of a skill and break down its effects just by witnessing it once. You can choose to upgrade this title, and make it a 600% increase, but you will no longer be given skills by the system. (This does not apply to the tutorial reward or skills gifted from achievements)

    Atlas reread the message, a smile growing on his face as he realized what this was saying. ¡°upgrade!¡± he wheeze-yelled, not wanting to waste a second on this golden opportunity.

    ¡°Shesh, you only had to think about it, don¡¯t yell at me.¡±

    This system message seemed unnecessary to Atlas, and he raised an eyebrow at it.

    ¡°Fine.¡± Upgrading title¡­

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Title benefits have raised from 600% to 1,000%.

    You have received a lucky bonus! You are the third player to receive this bonus so far, as such, you will gain a minor title. Lucky bonuses are effects that have a 0.001 chance to trigger when upgrading or gaining a benefit. (doesn¡¯t trigger for spells or skills)

    (System tip: minor titles are far less powerful than normal titles, as they are usually awarded to people who get a certain thing second or third.)

    Title Gained! Lucky: you have a +1% chance to gain a lucky bonus. (1.001% chance)

    Atlas blinked. What was happening? Since when has he ever gotten this lucky before? It was like the calm before the storm.

    He heard something lurch behind him, and turned to come face to face with the snake.

    It was only then that he realized that he was tired, really tired. This must be the aftereffects of his new skill.

    Deciding to end this quickly, he activated Full Might, lunging forward and slamming a Weakening Punch into the snake''s snout, sending it flipping head over tail over the river and crashing onto the bank.

    LEVEL UP!!! X20

    Atlas screamed in pain as white light descended upon him, this was almost double his levels, and it hurt.

    A lot.

    Atlas convulsed on the ground, the power literally remaking him and ripping away impurities in his body.

    Too bad it was ridiculously painful.

    Atlas could barely think through the mind-rending pain, but it soon wore off, to just a dull throb.

    His body was weak. It must be because of using Full Might twice in a row, with no breaks. It had certainly taken its toll.

    ¡°You would usually get some skills at this point, but because of your title, you instead gain +20 free stats, enjoy!¡±

    Atlas saw the words, but didn¡¯t really comprehend them. He was just too tired.

    Before he could lose consciousness, he pulled up his status.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 57

    Class: Master Slayer

    Subclass: Lifestealer

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky

    Skills: Weakening Punch 2 (A), Lifesteal (B), Hunter¡¯s Instinct (A), Full Might (S)

    Spells: Drain (S)

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 55

    Constitution: 60

    Strength: 159

    Dexterity: 159

    Wisdom: 80

    Intelligence: 82

    Free points: 40

    Still not fully comprehending the insane growth he had experienced, he split the 40 equally between all of his stats, adding the remaining four into endurance and constitution.

    He smiled dully as he looked at his stats again, happy about what he had been through.

    But he was just too tired, and with droopy eyes, he fell asleep, not aware that he was being watched.

 Chapter 8: Running effectively

    Atlas felt his body jostle slightly, and he blinked blearily, sitting up.

    He found himself in a wooden cage. Surrounded by large green men with tusks protruding from his face. He glanced at the tags above their heads, trying to stay calm.

    Orc warrior

    Level 40

    He was pretty confident that he could take out a couple of them easily, but there were a couple dozen of them, and he didn¡¯t know if he could take that many on.

    Atlas tried to figure out exactly what was happening.

    It seemed like he was on some sort of wagon, and it was being pulled by two dread boars. The orcs were walking alongside it, acting like guards.

    Were they protecting him, or making sure that he couldn¡¯t get out? It was hard to tell, but Atlas was betting on the latter. He wouldn¡¯t be in a cage if he was an honored guest.

    A gust of wind hit him in the back, and he realized he was only wearing a simple loincloth.

    Where had his clothes gone?

    Looking around, he found the answer, one of the orcs was dressed like a professional businessman, wearing Atlas¡¯s clothes.

    They were ripped in places as the orc was considerably bigger than Atlas. Which was saying something, cause Atlas was a tall man.

    Standing at 6¡¯3¡±, Atlas towered over most people, and the only people taller than him were practically giants.

    These orcs looked to be around 7 feet tall, if not taller.

    He stood up, walking over to the wooden bars and gripping them tightly.

    He felt the wood give as his herculean strength overwhelmed the weak material. After making sure he could break out without too much trouble, he sat back down, observing his surroundings.

    They were going down a well worn path, but they were still going through the forest, as apparent from the towering trees on all sides.

    ¡°HEY! HUMAN!¡± a deep voice growled at him. Atlas whirled, finding an orc staring at him, a displeased expression on his face. ¡°Oh good, you awake.¡± it said, walking up beside the cage.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± Atlas blurted out, before he could think about what to say more. He winced, hoping that the orc wouldn¡¯t take offense.

    The orc just snorted at him. ¡°I orc chief. I bringing you to orc village, we having a celebration!¡± it said, grinning and exposing its pointy teeth at him.

    Atlas was weary. ¡°Oh? What are you celebrating?¡± He asked, relaxing back down against the cold floor of the cage.

    ¡°We is celebrating the system! We was brought here from orc home, and we get to be tutorial! We are sacrificing human to please the system!¡± It said, lifting its arms and smiling at him as though Atlas should be happy.

    ¡°I feel the need to defend myself. I helped bring them here, yes, but I did not expect them to do this, so please just act like they are just more monsters blocking your path.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas furrowed his brow at the message. Why was the system pretending to be nice to him? It was as though it was trying to get on his good side for some reason.

    From all of the books he had read from the LitRPG genre, he had expected a snarky system that hated him.

    ¡°Ah no, that''s my brother, he is in charge of giving out classes, you have already met him.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas just blinked. Could it read his thoughts?

    ¡°Um¡­ no? That would be ridiculous¡­¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas just grumbled to himself. Whatever, it was time to get out of this place.

    Just as he was standing up, there was a lurch, and everything jolted. The orcs grabbed sticks from a bag, lighting them and creating torches.

    Why were they lighting torches? Was it some sort of cultural thing? As he looked around. He realized they were underground. The only reason he could see was because of his Moonwalker title. He really liked that title, it had been so helpful for him recently.

    The orc continued to walk deeper down, until they reached an opening in the earth.

    They walked through, and Atlas gawked.

    There was a giant orc village down here, and it was made completely of¡­

    ¡°Welcome human, to crystal village.¡± The orc chieftain said, with not a little pride in its voice.

    It was an apt name. Everything was made out of crystals. Blue crystals, pink crystals, purple crystals. There were crystals of almost any color that Atlas could imagine, and they were beautiful.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    He stared in awe at the beauty that surrounded him, briefly forgetting about his plan to escape.

    He shook it off though, as they went down the steep incline, slowly getting closer to the village.

    Atlas walked over towards the bars opposite from the chief, grabbing the bars and ripping them off in one clean motion, jumping through and tackling the nearest orc warrior.

    The orc yelled, collapsing to the ground. Atlas rolled standing up and raising his fists, he had never gotten his spear back from the snake, so it was just him and his fist again.

    That was fine with him, they were more reliable than any weapon.

    He took off, running back up the path that they had come from, wanting to be anywhere but the village full of orcs anxious to eat him.

    ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t say anxious¡­¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Shut up.¡± Atlas snapped, not wanting to be distracted.

    He could practically feel the system sulking at him.

    Atlas just rolled his eyes running faster and focusing on the movement of his legs trying to create a movement skill somehow.

    Skill gained! Sprint! D grade. You can run faster when using this skill.

    Atlas¡¯s face fell. That was it? He had expected something¡­ better somehow.

    As he continued to run, another message hit him.

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 2!

    Already? Did the 1000% effect leveling speed as well?

    Atlas tried to be more specific about where he placed his feet, trying to make everything more intentional so it would level up faster.

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 3!

    Atlas continued like that, not even paying attention to his pursuers as he focused on making every step intentional.

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 8!

    His skill rose rapidly in levels, but started to slow the further he ran.

    He glanced up realizing that he had already ran past where he had woken up and realized he was underground, but the path continued to go up.

    Glancing back, he saw over a hundred orcs in hot pursuit of him.

    He paled, turning and activating Sprint continuing to step in only the places he wanted to.

    You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 9!

    He was so close! He hyper focused, running in an erratic way, trying to make his steps more somehow.

    After a few more seconds of running, his odd behavior paid off.

    You have leveled up your skill Sprinting (D) to level 10!

    Sprint has reached level 10! Upgrading¡­

    Sprint (D) is now Zoom (C)

    Skill gained! Zoom! C grade. You can run a lot faster when using this skill.

    Atlas¡¯s legs sped up, going almost twice as fast as he was before, steadily widening the distance between him and the orcs.

    Glancing back, he saw one orc starting to close the distance, gaining on Atlas with every step. He glanced at its tag.

    Orc Speedster

    Level 60

    It was running about twice as fast as Atlas, gaining on him at a frightening pace.

    Atlas grit his teeth, doubling down on trying to upgrade his skill.

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 6!

    He was improving at a ridiculous speed, but it wasn¡¯t enough.

    He could now hear the orcs breath behind him, it was only a couple dozen feet away from him.

    Atlas channeled everything he had into the skill.

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 8!

    The orc was now only 10 feet away from him, and it was still gaining.

    Atlas clenched his fists, activating Full Might in a last, desperate measure.

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 10!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 11!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 12!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 13!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 14!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 15!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 16!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 17!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 18!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 19!

    You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 20!

    Atlas blasted through the air, going so fast that his eyes were forced closed. He grit his teeth, waiting to impact the ground and get messed up.

    Zoom has reached level 10! Upgrading¡­

    Zoom has reached level 20! Upgrading¡­

    ERROR

    Processing¡­

    Skill is low rank¡­

    Player has Title: Skiller¡­

    Zoom has leveled beyond the cap, upgrading twice!

    Zoom (C) is now Blur (A)

    Atlas activated the new skill, arms pinwheeling.

    He yelled as he fell, hitting the ground and rolling, trying to spread the force evenly through his body.

    He lay there, body groaning in pain. He had pushed his body beyond its normal limits.

    Too bad this wasn¡¯t the first time he had done this.

    He felt hands grab his shoulders, and looked up and saw the orc that had been chasing him. How had it caught up so fast?

    Blackness encroached upon vision, but Atlas struggled, he didn¡¯t want to black out again.

    Just as he was starting to blink it back, the orc slammed his head against the ground, and everything went white.

 Chapter 9: Atlas vs the Orc tribe

    Atlas woke up in a cage for the second time in a day.

    He groaned, sitting up and pinching himself to make sure he was really awake. He had some weird dreams. He was being chased by an orc and then¡­

    He smacked his forehead. That was real, and it all rushed back, how even his ridiculous leveling speed hadn¡¯t been enough to escape.

    He was starting to wonder if that path went on forever. It certainly felt like it.

    He grabbed the bars preparing to rip them apart again. But he found that he couldn¡¯t, glancing down at his hands, he noticed two metal bands on his wrists.

    ¡°What are these?¡± he asked nobody in particular.

    ¡°Bands that block your powers. They only work on creatures under level 100 and in tier one, or at least these ones do.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Thanks.¡± Atlas said, grateful that he had an omnipotent god-like figure on his side.

    ¡°Technically, I am on nobody''s side, but I will let it pass, because it''s nice to be noticed.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas just sighed and put his hands on his hips, peering outside of the cage.

    He was in the middle of the village, a couple dozen feet from a large open fire.

    He hoped that he wouldn''t experience that fire burning his flesh.

    If they were gonna cook him, could they at least kill him first? Being burned alive wasn''t on his bucket list.

    He shook his head. What was he thinking? He wasn''t going to die here! Not even close! He was going to kill all of the orcs in this village, and easily.

    ¡°Is this what humans call fake confidence?¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas slumped. Who was he kidding? He would be hard pressed to even kill a dozen of these orcs.

    ¡°Hmm. I have a proposal.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°What is it?¡± Atlas said, lying back down, and trying to calm his beating heart.

    ¡°You are pretty interesting, and I don¡¯t want you to die just yet, so if you promise to kill all of the orcs in this village, I will upgrade your class and break those bands.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas turned it over in his head. It was a good offer. But it might also be certain death.

    He might be able to escape some other way, but it was looking like this would be the best possible course of action. And the class upgrade didn¡¯t hurt anything.

    Class upgrade in process¡­

    Master Slayer (Rare) -> Reaper (Epic)

    Stat bonus +3 STR and DEX, +1 all stats -> +4 all stats.

    Weakening Punch (A) -> Reaper¡¯s Touch (S)

    Hunter¡¯s Instinct (A) -> Reapers Senses (SS)

    It was short, but sweet. Not only did his class get upgraded, but so did two of his skills.

    As he was marveling over the new changes, the bands on his wrists fell off, clanging on the wooden floor.

    As the nearby orcs turned to look to see what the sound was, the system sent him another message.

    ¡°Since this is entertainment, could you please make this battle fun to watch? I will reward you if you do.¡± -System of Stats

    Quest: Entertain the system. Reward: Variable depending on how well you perform.

    ¡°Fine.¡± Atlas grumbled, hating that he was being used as a form of entertainment. He wouldn¡¯t complain too much if he got out of this alive, but until then, he wasn¡¯t gonna be happy about it.

    Atlas yelled, charging the bars and shattering them with the force of his shoulder.

    The orcs yelled, charging him with all sorts of weaponry.

    He activated his new skill, Reaper¡¯s Senses.

    Everything seemed to slow by just that much, and he could feel all of the orcs, even the ones on the other side of the wooden cage. He no longer could see weak points on the orcs, but he could feel them now.

    He just instinctively knew where to put his fist, and it took off an orcs head, and Atlas easily avoided a swipe at his head from the side, grabbing a spear and shoving it back, sending its owner crashing into its buddies.

    He entered the rhythm of battle, and it felt like he was completely in control of every second of the fight. The orcs were simply meat bags when compared to the sheer speed and strength of Atlas.

    He blew through them all, killing an orc every second.

    Before long, he had killed over a hundred of them, and they were starting to slow down, not wanting to attack the ¡°Scary human¡± just to join their brethren.

    Atlas paused, smirking at the enemies before him. They were nothing to him now, just a few minutes ago, he had been scared of these bumbling brutes, but they were pathetic now.

    He put his hands behind his back, and yawned, taunting the orcs.

    They glared at him, but made no move to attack him, unlike what Atlas thought, they weren¡¯t dumb enough to jump into certain death willingly.

    Atlas just grinned at the scared faces of the orcs, striding towards them over the bloodied and broken forms of their brothers.

    He made sure to shatter a few skulls on the way.

    The orcs'' faces turned red with rage. How dare this filthy human tread on their brethren! They had fought honorably, but this human didn¡¯t understand the pride of the orcs, and was trampling them beneath his dirty feet.

    Unable to watch their brethren dishonored any more, they charged, weapons raised and faces set. If they died, they would die in battle, not running like cowards that was not who the orcs were.

    ***

    Atlas¡¯s fist punched through the final orcs chest, gripping his heart and yanking it out.

    LEVEL UP!!! X 8

    ¡°Ewww¡± -System of Stats

    The system whined.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    ¡°Why would you rip its heart out? I mean I guess it was cool, but it was also gross and made you look like a psycho.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas just rolled his eyes. ¡°Why don¡¯t you come show me how it''s done then?¡± he asked sarcastically, looking over his new status sheet.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 65

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Lifestealer

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky

    Skills: Reaper''s Touch (S), Lifesteal (B), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Full Might (S), Blur (A)

    Spells: Drain (S)

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 95

    Constitution: 100

    Strength: 197

    Dexterity: 197

    Wisdom: 118

    Intelligence: 120

    Free points: 8

    Once he was satisfied with his stats, he added 5 points to endurance, and 2 to wisdom, keeping one stat left over. That made all of his stats equal to another stat, which made him happy for some reason.

    As he was starting to wind down, the system sent him another message.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t killed all of the orcs yet. There are 10 speedsters, 3 chieftains, and 15 guards. You only killed the warriors, who are the weakest of the lot.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas slumped. He had thought it was over, but he guessed it made sense, he had only killed the fodder, now it was time to kill the leaders.

    ¡°Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Or something like that.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas spun, and he saw six orcs emerge from a crystal house not too far away.

    One was the chieftain he had talked to, and the others were far wider and bigger than any other orc he had seen before.

    Orc Guard

    Level 60

    Atlas narrowed his eyes, preparing for another fight.

    The chieftain looked at the wide area, filled with dead orc warriors. His eyes widened, and he stared at Atlas with both shock and pure hatred. ¡°Was this you?¡± He spat.

    ¡°Yes, it was. What are you going to do about it?¡± Atlas said, turning up his acting skill to the max to try and make this more enjoyable for the system. He wanted a good reward.

    ¡°Kill him.¡± The chieftain said, face a mask of fury.

    The guards needed no prompting, sprinting at Atlas with huge greatswords.

    Atlas¡¯s mind started to churn, eyes turning a deep crimson as he activated Reaper¡¯s Senses. On the inside, he was scrambling to come up with a plan, but on the outside, his lips were curled up in a grin and his face was confident.

    An orc leaped forward, bringing its sword down with a thrum of air.

    Atlas sidestepped, grabbing its shoulder with Reaper''s Touch. The Orc froze, arm seizing up and it toppled to the side, arm starting to turn gray and collapse in on itself.

    ¡°I am rethinking this whole upgrade thing, you might have been able to take these guys out without a boost. Did I give you too much power?¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Just enjoy the show.¡± Altas grunted out, activating Blur and appearing behind all of the orc, hitting two of them with a gray fist before blurring away.

    The orcs he had punched collapsed, struggling to stay on their feet. With not a little malice, Atlas activated Drain on the orc chieftain.

    He screamed in pain, crumpling to his knees. He had just been overlooking the fight, but Atlas had attacked him before the chieftain could attack first.

    His focus was not on the guards for a split second, and they took the opportunity to ram him with their blades, cutting deep into his abdomen.

    Atlas spurted blood from his mouth, but he didn¡¯t make a sound, activating Blur.

    A second later, the guard''s head went flying.

    Atlas breathed heavily, clutching his stomach. How did he make such a stupid mistake? He was wounded now, and he couldn¡¯t¡­ he couldn¡¯t¡­

    In a burst of inspiration, Atlas grabbed one of the many orc corpses, using Lifesteal. He was hit with a rush of euphoria, and his wound writhed, not healed, but looking better than it had.

    Atlas activated Blur and Lifesteal running around and fixing his wound with about 5 more orc corpses.

    Running back to the guards, he jumped, slammed his leg into one of their skulls, crushing it and leaping off again.

    Now there was only one guard who was capable of fighting.

    ¡°Blur!¡±

    Now there were none.

    Atlas walked over to the three orcs he had used Reaper¡¯s Touch on.

    They were shriveled up, barely breathing. Had his skill done that much damage? He put them out of their misery, turning towards the chieftain.

    Only to find two more chieftains. And ten guards. And ten speedsters.

    Oh joy.

    The speedsters all shot after him, and Atlas shot towards them as well, gray mist on his fists, and red light spilling from his eyes. One speedster was faster than the others, reaching Atlas within a few seconds, Atlas lashed out with his fist, hitting the orc straight in the face, obliterating its face in a spray of blood and brain matter.

    The other orcs slowed down noticeably, but that is when Atlas activated his movement skill.

    He became a blur of motion, and all of the speedsters collapsed to the ground, gray mist eating away at their backs.

    Atlas didn¡¯t let up, blurring towards the guards as well. The guards picked up on what was happening, swinging their swords blindly in hope of hitting him.

    None of them were even close. In the blink of an eye, half of the guards were dead, or as good as.

    The remaining guards panicked trying to make a break for it.

    None of them got more than a couple steps before they died still standing up.

    Atlas held up one of the guards by the throat, glancing at the chieftains with a bloody smile. One of the orcs had hit him in the mouth by accident while trying to flee.

    He started to walk towards the chieftains, only to find himself frozen in a psychic prison. He could still move, but barely, and not easily.

    So he just brute forced it.

    Full Might!

    The prison shattered, and Atlas all but teleported in front of the chieftains, killing one with a stomp to the face, messing up its face.

    He turned to the others, punching one''s head off with a flash of gray mist, and deactivating Drain. He wanted to kill this last one on his own terms.

    He turned to it, finding it already dead. Crap.

    Well, that had been anticlimactic, but the fight had still been fun, he had gotten to play with his new powers, and had fun doing it.

    LEVEL UP!!! X5

    Quest completed!

    Rewards pending¡­

    The levels were a nice bonus, but they weren¡¯t anything big, compared to his total.

    ¡°Hmm. I might have to nerf you now. I think I upgraded your class a little too early. I forgot how weak monsters around your level are.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas panicked. He just got this power! He couldn¡¯t lose it now! ¡°How about my reward is for you to leave me with this power as it is!¡± He thought aloud, hoping that it would work.

    ¡°Hmm. That is an intriguing offer. I was going to give you a couple dozen levels or a SS tier skill, but this is fine too. You have yourself a deal.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas breathed a sigh of relief. With this power, he would be able to get out of the tutorial pretty quickly.

    ¡°I¡¯m bored.¡±

    Atlas¡¯s blood ran cold.

    There was a deep rumbling beneath his feet. ¡°Can¡¯t you at least let me rest for a few minutes.¡± He yelled, knowing it was useless.

    The ground a hundred feet away opened revealing a large mole.

    King of the Caves: Mole

    Level 100

    You have encountered a Boss of Impossible difficulty! When you kill it, you will unlock another one of your skills, and get other rewards. Be wary though, as a Boss is no weakling, it is a foe that you might struggle to face with your current powers. Consider leveling up a bit before fighting it.

    Great. Just great. Could a guy ever get a break?

 Chapter 10: King of the Caves

    Atlas scratched the back of his head, looking at the mole the size of a semi. ¡°Do we have to do this? Why can¡¯t we just be chill and not bother each other? Doesn¡¯t that sound so much better?¡± Atlas asked, preparing himself for another fight. He swore that once he killed this boss he was going to find a bed and go to sleep.

    And not one that was brought upon by blacking out. That wasn¡¯t real sleep.

    The mole snorted at him, turning its head this way and that, before ¡®looking¡¯ in his direction. It didn¡¯t seem like it had eyes, so it most likely didn¡¯t see him. It more likely smelled him.

    That was an odd thought.

    Atlas decided to just get this over with, activating Blur and zooming towards the creature.

    The mole raised its claws, swiping at him. Atlas ducked, sliding under its claw and punching upward with gray mist cloaking his fist.

    The mole vanished, and Atlas punched empty air. Atlas launched himself away, weary of a counter attack.

    What had just happened? The mole just¡­ vanished.

    There was a loud drilling sound, and the mole appeared in front of him again with a slide of rocks and dirt.

    ¡­ did it just come out of the ceiling?

    Now on guard, Atlas¡¯s eyes turned a glowing red color, and he felt his body move instinctively, ducking out of the way of a large boulder that tried to take his head from his shoulders.

    Now even more on guard, Atlas rushed the giant creature using Blur to go faster than the naked eye could even track.

    He slammed into the moles side, gray light flooding the moles middle. He gripped the moles fur, shoving himself off and dodging the moles claw.

    If he had been even a second too late, he would have been in trouble.

    This was a game of hit and run. Each of Atlas¡¯s attacks were deadly, but if he got hit, he was a goner.

    The mole disappeared again, going through the ceiling. This time however, Atlas was ready, jumping out of the way as the mole slammed down where he had been just seconds prior.

    He lashed out with his fists, hitting the mole three times before using Blur to get away. The moles claw swiped through empty air, and Atlas could see that it was growing weak from the extended exposure to Reaper¡¯s Touch.

    The mole reached down, scooping up a handful of crystals and throwing them with the force of a rocket launcher.

    Atlas panicked, diving out of the way and feeling Moonwalker help him go just a little bit further. The crystals hit one of the houses, ricocheting and almost hitting Atlas.

    Atlas decided enough was enough, and he pulled all the stops, using Blur and Full Might at the same time.

    Atlas moved so fast it was as though he teleported, slamming his fist covered in gray light into the mole''s giant skull.

    There was a loud *crunch* as the mole''s skull capsized, gray fluid leaked from a large crack in its head.

    The mole let out one last, sad snuffle, letting out a final shudder as it collapsed.

    Atlas let out a sigh, crumpling on the ground and ignoring the annoying messages that appeared in front of him.

    In just a few short moments, he was asleep.

    ***

    Atlas awoke to over a dozen messages cluttering his vision.

    Grumbling, he sat up, stretching and reading them.

    LEVEL UP!!! X12

    You would usually get some skills at this point, but because of your title, you instead gain +20 free stats, enjoy!

    Atlas continued to swipe away the clutter, finally getting to the good stuff.

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 2!

    Some nice skill upgrades, but there were still more notifications vying for his attention.

    You are the first player to kill all three types of bosses! Reward: Title

    Title Gained! Boss Slayer: You deal 100% extra damage to bosses (Minibosses, Bosses, and Hidden Bosses) You instinctively know when a boss is within a mile of you.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Atlas felt a tingling sensation spread throughout his body.

    After examining himself, he didn''t notice any changes so he continued to read.

    Skill Gained! Fistfighting: C grade. You understand the basics of hand to hand combat.

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting(C) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 6!

    Atlas wondered why he was just now getting this skill, but he wouldn¡¯t complain. There was only one more message waiting for him.

    I am sorry for the inconveniences caused by my brother. Here are some invincible clothes as compensation. PS, please note, these clothes cannot be damaged, but you can still be hurt through them. This is simply to make it so that you can keep your clothes while also not making you indestructible. -The System of Gear

    A black suit appeared on Atlas, resembling his old suit, but instead of a white shirt, both his tie and shirt were black. It also came with a cool cape and belt.

    Soulbound Item gained! Reapers suit: A grade. This suit cannot be destroyed, but it does not block any damage received. All reaper abilities are twice as effective while wearing this suit.

    (System tip, Soulbound items will level alongside you, and will become more potent the longer you own and use them. Soulbound items can never be lost but they CAN be taken. You can only own up to 3 soulbound items. You will always know the location of your soulbound items.)

    You are the first player to receive a soulbound item! You gain a title.

    Title Gained! Strong soul: You can now own up to four soulbound items, and they can never be taken from you.

    Not the best title, but definitely better than nothing. Now his clothes couldn¡¯t be taken from him again.

    ¡­ onto bigger and better things.

    Now. How to get out of here.

    Atlas decided his best bet was to go back in the way that he had tried running before.

    Using Blur he ran out of the crystal village, using the technique he had used before, running in a zig zag and focusing on every step he made.

    Blur was quickly becoming one of his main abilities, so it would be good to level it up as high as he could to improve his combat capabilities.

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 7!

    He continued to build up speed running so fast he left an after image.

    Atlas was struck with an idea.

    Running as fast as he could, he ran over to the wall, jumping sideways and continuing to run.

    He didn¡¯t slow down running on the wall like some sort of superhero.

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 8!

    Atlas almost tripped on a section of the wall that juted out, but he regained his balance by falling onto the floor and then jumping back up.

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 9!

    He was so close! He pumped his soul into his legs running so fast that his legs became a blur of motion.

    Taking a deep breath, he ran sideways, going upside down.

    For a brief moment. He was running on the ceiling, forcing himself to stay moving.

    And then gravity took over.

    Atlas fell, but in a flick of his legs, he landed on the ground, still running.

    You have leveled up your skill Blur (A) to level 10!

    Blur (A) -> Blitz (S)

    Atlas grinned, and pumped his legs ever harder.

    He shot off like a bullet, running multiple times faster than he had been before. As he ran, he noticed that his body was nothing but a blur when he looked down, he couldn¡¯t even see himself, only vague shapes.

    Blasting through the cave, he let himself get carried away. The wind rushed past his head, making his black hair flap wildly on his head.

    He closed his eyes, basking in the feeling of the wind rushing past him in all directions.

    That was not a smart choice.

    He felt his body slant upwards, and he opened his eyes, only to find himself soaring through the skies, over a hundred feet in the sky.

    Glancing backwards, he saw that he had exited out of a hole in a hill, which had acted like a ramp, throwing him into the air.

    He narrowed his eyes, glancing around wildly for some sort of tall tree or lake that he could land on.

    There was nothing close by that fit that category. Atlas fell, plummeting like a rock towards the ground.

    Crap.

    He closed his eyes, focusing all of his magic into slowing himself down, hoping that it would work.

    Skill Gained! Aerial mobility (A): You can control your movements easier in air.

    Spell Gained! Air manipulation (B): You can control the air around you slightly.

    Synergy found! Spell and Skill (Aerial mobility and Air manipulation) have formed into skill: Glide (A)

    Atlas needed no further prompting, activating the skill immediately.

    He felt the air give around him, carrying him slowly downwards. He was still falling, just slower.

    He leaned towards the tallest tree that he could see, using his body to control his movements.

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 2!

    Atlas continued to position himself in the air, trying to make his descent as calm as possible. After a few more long and tense moments of just slowly floating, he was close enough to grab the tree.

    He sighed in relief, hanging on to the tree and deactivating his skill with a thought. It had been a while since he checked his status sheet. He opened it and divided his stats into all of his stats except for strength and dexterity.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 82

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Lifestealer

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul

    Skills: Reaper''s Touch (S), Weak Lifesteal (B), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Full Might (S), Blitz (S), Fistfighting (C), Glide (A)

    Spells: Drain (S)

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 177

    Constitution: 177

    Strength: 265

    Dexterity: 265

    Wisdom: 197

    Intelligence: 197

    Free points: 2

    He decided to add his final two points into STR and DEX. When he was satisfied with his status, he turned to his new predicament.

    How was he supposed to get down?

    He let go of the tree, activating Glide again and slowly coming to a stop on the ground. He couldn¡¯t believe how effective this skill was, and couldn¡¯t wait to level it up. Just the thought made him almost drool at the thought of flying through the skies.

    He settled on the ground, scanning the lush forest around him. It was time to start growing his skills absurdly. He was going to grow so much that he would be able to face the final boss. That was his plan.

    Just as he was about to start however. There was a very loud ringing noise and a large message appeared in front of him.

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    Just as that message disappeared, it was immediately replaced with a dozen others.

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    ¡­

    ANNOUNCEMENT!!! A PLAYER HAS BEATEN THE FINAL BOSS AND ESCAPED THE TUTORIAL!!!

    There were over 100 messages, maybe even 200. It boggled his mind. How had so many people already beaten the tutorial? Was he really that weak?

    His motivation to grow strong only became bigger. He was going to get out of this tutorial, and he was going to prove he was the strongest.

    It was then that he remembered that there was a chance that all of those players were from easy difficulty.

    Nah.

 Chapter 11: Skill Montage

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 4!

    Atlas landed on the ground, taking care to land on a specific branch he had set up beforehand.

    For the last 10 minutes, he had been going up and down. Climbing up a tree and then gliding down, making sure to be intentionally and in control.

    It was harder than he thought it would be.

    He placed down another branch, making sure that it was smaller than the last one he had used. Once the branch was in place, he climbed up the nearest tree.

    Reaching the top, he jumped off, using Blitz to jump into the sky, activating Glide when he reached the peak of his jump. He flattened his body, turning and controlling his moments as precisely as he could, he wanted to get the most out of every jump.

    He continued this cycle over a dozen times, each time getting better at controlling both the speed and direction of his glide. He looked over all of the notifications he had gained in the past hour.

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Blitz (S) to level 2!

    The last notification was somewhat surprising, but made sense considering how he had been using it. He decided he would move onto another skill, but come back to this one later. He had other skills that he wanted to develop.

    Mentally beating himself up as he realized something, he activated Reaper¡¯s Senses. His eyes glowed a sharp red, and Atlas realized that he could have been doing this for the entire duration of his training. It didn¡¯t take much to control, but it was one of his most useful skills, so every level would be monumental.

    It was also his only SS tier skill, so he should pay more attention to how it worked. Now that he thought about it. He had never actually looked at the reaper skills, just used them after they were upgraded.

    Reaper¡¯s Touch (S): Your touch is death, and everything that is hit by the gray mist starts to rot away. This effect can only be reversed by killing the user, or by healing from a skill or spell at the same grade as this skill (S grade)

    Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS): Your perception increases considerably, to the point where everything seems much slower than it actually is. You are also much slower to your own senses. Your hearing is also vastly improved, to the point where you can hear frequencies that other humans cannot, such as a bats screech. Your taste does not change. Your sense of touch does not change. Your sense of smell becomes equal to that of a bloodhound, if not greater. Your eyes glow red while using this skill, and the skill will show you all of the weak points and best places to be while in combat.

    Atlas was happy with the large growth in both of his skills, they were far more powerful and potent than their original versions.

    Using Reaper¡¯s Senses constantly, he activated Reaper¡¯s Touch, turning to face one of the smaller trees. As gray mist cloaked his fists, he lashed out, scoring deep marks on the tree.

    He tried to keep the mist revolving around his fists, but it collapsed the second his fist touched the tree, and he had to reactivate it. He looked at his fists, wondering how he was going to keep the mist revolving around his fists.

    He took it off of his left fist, adding all of the mist around his right hand, wrapping it in mist all the way up to his elbow.

    He lashed out again, focusing on keeping the mist there. It stayed for a split second before sputtering out. Atlas groaned in frustration. This was going to take a while.

    ***

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 7!

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 2!

    Atlas had made steady improvement over the last couple of hours, growing his two most powerful skills into an even stronger force. He had destroyed more than a hundred trees, and he could now keep the mist wrapping around his fists, making his damage output higher as he could hit faster without having to reactivate the skill.

    Reaper¡¯s Senses had played a large role in helping him advance Reaper¡¯s Touch by allowing him to watch everything that happened to the skill in what felt like slow motion, helping him break down what was happening to the skill. If he hadn¡¯t used it in such a way, both skills would be lower level than they were now.

    Now time to move on to one of his favorite skills. Full Might. It had a special place because it had saved his life more than once, and it was his first skill. Or at least the first skill he had made.

    The only problem was that everytime he used it, he grew exhausted, very fast. He was going to try and prevent that, but it was going to be difficult. He sat down, picking up a rock and taking a deep breath.

    ¡°Full Might!¡± he threw the rock upwards, and it shot up, going so fast it completely disappeared after a couple of seconds. Atlas waited, wondering if it would come back down.

    After a couple minutes of waiting, it became apparent that it wouldn¡¯t. He picked up another rock, performing the same movement.

    The rock hurtled into the sky, and Atlas felt exhaustion start to creep in. He fought it, doing it again, and again, and again..

    After a dozen rocks had become rockets, Atlas was fighting to stay awake. He was so tired¡­

    He snapped out of it, shaking his head tiredly. He started to fall asleep. ¡°No.¡± Atlas groaned, doing everything he could to stay awake.

    In the end, it was fruitless, and he fell down, fast asleep.

    ***

    As Atlas snored, three boars approached his unmoving form. They looked at him for a second before realizing that this was the man that had killed their leader.

    Snorting in anger, they charged him.  Just as it looked like Atlas was done for, a rock fell from the sky, hitting a boar in the head and shattering its skull.

    The other boars halted, trying to comprehend what had just happened. As they did, another boar was hit in the back, crushed under the sheer force of the rock that was going at insane speeds.

    The last boar squealed trying to run away, but it was hit with another rock. Rocks started to pepper the ground, hitting everywhere but Atlas, every rock he had thrown had been slanted by just the tiniest bit, and so none of them hit him.

    ¡°¡­ How can someone be this lucky?¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°¡­ I have no clue.¡± - System of Gear

    ***

    Atlas woke up feeling refreshed, he was greeted by some notifications.

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 3!

    Atlas was happy, he had somehow kept Reaper¡¯s Senses running while he slept, which had led to another level in the skill. He was surprised at how many times Full Might had leveled up though. He hadn¡¯t been that precise with how he threw the rocks, so he had expected, one maybe two levels.

    ¡°System? Can you explain why I got so many levels?¡± Atlas asked the empty air.

    ¡°Hmph.¡± -System of Stats

    Did the system just¡­ grunt? Why was it mad at him? What had he done?

    ¡°Look around you dimwit.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas glanced around, finding three boar corpses and a bunch of small craters in the ground. There were the remains of shattered rocks lying all around. ¡°Was this me?¡± He asked, already knowing the answer.

    ¡°Yes. How are you so ridiculously lucky?!¡± -System of Stats

    The system seemed¡­ mad. Atlas decided to continue working on his skills.

    He was going to work on gliding again. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences. He shielded his eyes, glancing at the sun. It was starting to go down, he had maybe three hours of daylight left, and he was going to use them.

    He cracked his knuckles, wincing in pain as his newfound strength crushed his fingers a little too much. He started to climb.

    ***

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Glide (A) to level 10!

    Glide (A) -> Float (S)

    You have leveled up your skill Float (S) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Float (S) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Full Might (S) to level 10!

    Full Might (S) -> Endless Strength (SS)

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) to level 10!

    Reaper¡¯s Touch (S) -> Death Mist (SS)

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Fistfighting (C) to level 10!

    Fistfighting (C) -> Hand to Hand Combat (B)

    You have leveled up your skill Blitz (S) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Blitz (S) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Blitz (S) to level 5!

    Atlas collapsed, staring at the insane amount of skill levels he had gained in the last 6 hours. He had been working nonstop, using more than one skill at all times, it was night time, but because of Moonwalker, Atlas could see like normal. He had barely even noticed the light changing.

    He couldn¡¯t believe how much he had grown in the past few hours, he was an entirely different person now, his skills were all upgraded. Or at least the ones he could upgrade.

    Atlas was tired. He was hungry. He was also incredibly thirsty. But those couldn¡¯t compare to how proud he was of his rapid growth, he doubted that any other player was stronger than him right now.

    ¡°Atlas, the council of systems has spoken. If you do not kill the final boss within two days, you will be thrown into the void. You are growing too rapidly, and we do not want you to use the tutorial as a grinding spot, as in the tutorial, it is infinitely easier to level up your skills. We are telling you this both to help and to warn you. If you do not kill the demonic dino within two days, your life is over.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas blinked his eyes slowly, taking in the sudden information. Atlas¡¯s knees crumpled beneath him. How dare they! They had no right to control his life like this, he couldn¡¯t believe the sheer audacity of this. They had sent him into another world, and now they were forcing him to kill the final boss within two days? He was confident that he could, but they had no right to do this.

    Right then and there, Atlas made a decision. He would use every last second he had to become stronger. He would fight the boss near the end of his time, after wiping out every other boss out there.

    The systems had made a horrible mistake.

 Chapter 12: Boss hunting

    A man tore across the island, going so fast that he was moving a mile every minute, or roughly 60 miles per hour. The island was 200 miles wide and long, so he was able to cross the entire island in a little over 3 hours.

    Everytime he felt a weird sensation in the back of his head, he would stop and scour the area closest to him, looking for the boss that his title was telling him about.

    Everytime, he would find it, and then proceed to beat it into pulp, the only fights that were actually a challenge were those with bosses over level 100. He had found the final boss again, but had avoided it. He had, however, seen its level.

    Demonic Dino: Tyrant-o-saurus Rex

    Level: 200

    It was over double the bosses he was fighting, he needed more powerful bosses to level himself up quicker.

    He continued to Blitz everywhere, leveling up the skill once as he ran, he killed another three bosses before he finally found something close to a challenge.

    Northern Wolf: Moon

    Level 130

    It was only 30 levels higher, but 30 levels was still a decently large jump.

    Atlas squared off against it, eyes shining red and arms covered with dense mist all the way up to his shoulders.

    The wolf narrowed its eyes, white light gathering around itself.

    Atlas didn¡¯t let it make the first move, using Endless Strength and Blitz to charge directly towards the wolf, fists ready to beat the wolf to a pulp.

    The wolf had basically no time to react, as to its eyes Atlas teleported, but it somehow managed to disappear from where it had been standing. Atlas didn¡¯t stop, kicking off of a nearby tree and changing directions, coming face to face with the wolf.

    Atlas still had Reaper¡¯s Senses activated, so he had both heard and smelt where the wolf had teleported, and had changed directions accordingly.

    The wolf wasn''t prepared and Atlas¡¯s fist smashed through its sleek fur, thick ropes of gray mist digging into its flesh and dealing a massive amount of damage.

    The wolf howled in pain, but Atlas pummeled it even further, killing it quickly.

    He snorted. He had expected that to be more of a fight, but he was reaching ridiculous levels of power now, so every little bit helped.

    LEVEL UP!!! X8

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 100

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Lifestealer

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul

    Skills: Death Mist (SS), Weak Lifesteal (B), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Hand to Hand Combat (B), Float (S)

    Spells: Drain (S)

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 249

    Constitution: 249

    Strength: 339

    Dexterity: 339

    Wisdom: 289

    Intelligence: 289

    Free points: 20

    Atlas¡¯s stat sheet was starting to look good. He put 10 points into Endurance and Constitution each, strengthening his weakest area, defense.

    ¡°Ahem.¡± -System of Stats

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°What do you want now?¡± Atlas growled, glaring at the sky. If they moved the deadline up, he swore he would find a way to kill them, he hated being forced to do whatever the crap they wanted him to do.

    ¡°Woah there, calm down, it''s nothing like that. At level 100, you get a class upgrade, you usually can choose either your subclass or class but¡­ ¡° -System of Stats

    ¡°Since your class has already been upgraded, we are automatically upgrading your subclass, be happy we are upgrading it at all.¡± - System of Gear

    ¡°Yeah, what he said.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas tried not to show his excitement, even if he wasn¡¯t getting another boost to his main class, upgrading his subclass would still help him out quite a bit.

    ¡°Well, here it is.¡± -System of Stats

    Lifestealer (common) -> Absorber (Rare)

    +1 to INT or WIS -> +1 to all stats

    Weak Lifesteal (B) -> Absorb (S)

    You may delete the spell (Drain) to upgrade Absorb to SS tier.

    Atlas rolled his eyes, could they be any less obvious? Still, it seemed like a good trade.¡°Fine.¡±

    Absorb (S) -> Consume (SS)

    Atlas opened the description of the skill.

    Consume (SS): After defeating an opponent, you can take one of the skills or traits of that enemy. All skills will then be combined into one master skill. If the created skill is similar to another one of your skills, it will instead be turned into levels for that skill.

    Atlas reread the description to make sure he understood it properly. He could take his enemies'' skills? Heck yeah.

    Congratulations! You have reached level 100! This is the max level for tier one and the tutorial. Complete the tutorial to advance to tier two!

    Atlas glared at the text. Really? Were they going to do this to him?

    ¡°I swear on my soul this was a thing long before you were even born. It was made a few centuries ago when the systems were made. This isn¡¯t something that was made just to annoy you.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°You don¡¯t have a soul anymore though, remember?¡± -System of Gear

    ¡°Oh yeah, I swear on Limit then.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Fine by me I guess.¡± -System of Gear

    Atlas just snorted. ¡°Fine, Guess it''s time for me to test out my new skill.¡±

    He walked over to the broken form of the wolf activating Consume. Red and black light flowed out of his hand, covering the entire body of the wolf.

    The wolf started to evaporate, turning into light and rushing towards Atlas¡¯s hand, until eventually there was nothing left of the animal.

    Skill Gained! Fade Away (A): You can turn to mist and teleport up to 10 feet away. Uses a small amount of mana.

    Atlas was glad for the new skill, but he wished it was stronger.

    Oh well, that could be solved with a lot of training.

    Well. Time to grind some skills. Bosses would give him skills now right?

    ***

    You have leveled up your skill Blitz (S) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Consume (S) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Consume (S) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Consume (S) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Fade Away (A) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Fade Away (A) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Fade Away (A) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Fade Away (A) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Fade Away (A) to level 6!

    Skill Gained! Berserk Mode (A): Enter a state of being where you lose your sanity, but gain 200% stat bonus.

    Skill (Berserk Mode) has been absorbed into skill (Endless Strength)

    You have leveled up your skill Endless Strength (SS) to level 2!

    Skill Gained! Tremor Sense (A): Sense all tremors in the ground nearby.

    Skill (Tremor Sense) has been absorbed into skill (Reaper¡¯s Senses)

    Skill Gained! Keen Senses (A): All of your senses are improved by a large amount, enabling you to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel things that much better.

    Skill (Keen Senses) has been absorbed into skill (Reaper¡¯s Senses)

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 6!

    Skill Gained! Enhancement¡­

    ¡°What have we done¡­¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But I hope it doesn¡¯t come back to bite us.¡± -System of Gear

    ¡°You guys worry too much, we¡¯ll be fine. He isn¡¯t even tier two yet. He still has 19 tiers to go before he is on our level.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°I agree, he is just some small fry. Sure, he is doing well in the tutorial, but so are almost all of the other players.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°¡­ Okay, maybe you''re right, but it''s still awe inspiring to watch.¡± - System of Stats

    ¡°I will agree with you on that.¡± - System of Gear

    ¡°Come on guys, Impossible has only been beaten twice before, there is only a small chance he will actually defeat the final boss.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°He is killing Bosses like they are common monsters, granted, they are only tier one bosses, but still.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°And?¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°And that''s insane!¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°We did that as we grew in power. It¡¯s not that out of the ordinary.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°¡­¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°We are literally the strongest beings on this plane, and far outside of it.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°So? What does that have to do with anything?¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°You are comparing him to us.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°Oh. I see why you guys are scared now.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°It will take a long time and a lot of luck, but¡­ he has the potential to possibly join us someday. He is definitely one of the most promising Players in a while.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ***

    Atlas leaned against a tree, drinking water from a stone cup he had created by punching a rock. The cup had an imprint of a clenched fist carved into a rock. He was starting to wonder just how strong he was.

    Atlas Channing

    Level: 100

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul

    Skills: Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Hand to Hand Combat (B), Float (S), Fade Away (A), Toughen (B), Herbalism (D), Crafting (B)

    Spells: None

    Talent: Complete tutorial

    Potential: Complete tutorial

    Stats:

    Endurance: 259

    Constitution: 259

    Strength: 339

    Dexterity: 339

    Wisdom: 289

    Intelligence: 289

    Free points: 0

    Atlas had grown a lot over the past day, creating a skill of his own as well as earning two others. All of the other skills he had Consumed had been absorbed into his other skills.

    He had killed dozens of bosses, taking their skills and absorbing them into his own skills.

    He was finally ready for the big standoff.

 Chapter 13: The Final Boss

    Chapter 13: The Final Boss

    Atlas stood in mid air, using Float to remain suspended there. He couldn¡¯t go upwards, only stay in one place or go down, but it was still better than the old version of the skill, Glide. He had been forced to go down, and couldn¡¯t use it to inspect his surroundings.

    Atlas was preparing to fight the final boss, but there was just one problem.

    He couldn¡¯t find it.

    How do you lose a 5 ton dinosaur? Atlas thought to himself, starting to get worried. He only had about 12 hours before he would die, he had to kill the boss, and fast.

    ¡°Blitz¡± Atlas murmured, deactivating Float and sprinting away. He had killed the majority of the bosses, so he was just going to try and use Boss Slayer to his advantage.

    As he ran he tried to think how the boss could just disappear. Had it gone underground? Was it hiding from him? Had the system hidden it from him? Atlas¡¯s mind whirled with possibilities.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t us.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°It was you.¡± -System of Knowledge

    What did that mean? It was him? What had he done?

    As Atlas pondered this, another message appeared in front of him.

    Player (Atlas Channing) Has scared the Final Boss (Demonic Dino: Tyrant-o-saurus Rex) and the Final Boss has ascended.

    SECRET FINAL BOSS APPEARS!!!

    Atlas read the text, understanding instantly. He had grown too fast. If that was even a thing. He had scared the final boss and now it was stronger somehow.

    He used Endless Strength, launching himself into the sky and using Float to remain in place.

    Where was the boss? He would have expected it to be quite noticeable.

    ¡°Up¡± -System of Stats

    Up? What did that-

    Atlas looked up, and his face grew pale.

    Diving towards him was a giant gray dragon.

    Scion of the Skies: Shenzra

    Level 250

    Oh no.

    Atlas tried to stay calm, which was very hard to do when you were being dive bombed by a creature of myth. He stopped using Float and fell down, hitting the ground and rolling, instantly using Blitz when he had the chance. He shot off, creating distance between him and the giant dragon.

    Shenzra opened its mouth, spewing a gray mist from its mouth, much like Atlas¡¯s Death Mist skill. Every tree that was caught in the mist began to rot at a frightening pace, leaving stumps in the dragon''s wake.

    Atlas pumped his legs faster, creating distance between him and the freaking dragon behind him. Every couple of seconds, he would also activate Endless Strength to go even faster.

    The dragon continued to spew mist, leaving a trail of decay and death in its wake. Atlas''s eyes started to shed bright red light, and time slowed, he could see the end of the island not too far away, which meant that he would have to turn soon, or he would go hurtling to his death.

    Atlas used Float instantly stopping his momentum before turning the skill back off and turning. He used Blitz again, blasting off yet again.

    Shenzra swooped after him, continuing to endlessly spew gray mist. The mist was starting to gather on the forest floor and spread, destroying more flora. By the time this fight was over, the island would not be a forest any more.

    Atlas decided it was time to take this fight into his own hands. He skidded to a halt, spinning around and staring the dragon dead in the eyes. ¡°Come at me you jerk¡± he spat, raising his fists and preparing for the fight of his life.

    The dragon roared, spewing mist like a jet straight for Atlas. Atlas smirked, crouching low and then springing upwards with Endless Strength, using Float to remain in the air.

    The dragon narrowed its eyes at him, snorting out more of the deadly mist. Atlas wrapped his fists in Death Mist preparing to fight a dragon. Shenzra flapped its wings, launching itself at Atlas and opening its mouth wide, mist drifting out of its mouth like smoke.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Atlas waited until the last second before turning to mist and appearing 10 feet above where Shenzra had been aiming. The dragon soared under him, and Atlas fell down, landing on the back of the dragon and gripping its scaly back.

    The dragon roared, thrashing around violently, trying to throw Atlas off of its back. Atlas held on, punching the dragons back and pushing Death Mist into the divet he had made in the bosses scales.

    Shenzra roared in pain again, flapping its wings once before diving towards the ground. Atlas narrowed his eyes, gripping the scales tighter. He didn¡¯t know what the dragon was planning, but he suspected he was about to be in for the ride of his life.

    The dragon swooped low to the ground, flapping its wings so fast that a gale began to build between its wings- right where Atlas was. He grit his teeth against the fierce winds, but he was starting to lose his grip on the dragons slippery scales.

    In one final flap, Atlas was launched off, immediately using Float to steady himself in the air. He got a notification but shoved it out of the way, too busy to deal with it.

    That split second of lost focus was everything, and the dragon''s jaws snapped shut inches from Atlas¡¯s face. Using pure instinct, Atlas teleported above the dragon again, but this time the dragon was ready, smacking him with its tail.

    Atlas was hit squarely in the chest, and was sent soaring. He tried to use Float again, but it didn¡¯t work. He tried again and his momentum halted instantly, and he stopped falling. Feeling his stomach, he thought that a rib might have been broken, but it was hard to tell for sure.

    He was less than half this thing''s level, it had far superior stats to him, he was lucky to have gotten away with just a broken rib. He looked up, preparing to play smarter, not harder, and he found himself staring at a cloud of gray mist.

    He turned to mist himself, appearing underneath the misty death. His burning red eyes scanned the sky, looking for any trace of the final boss.

    Atlas looked at the mist, and noticed that it was more than big enough to house a dragon. He used Blitz to get away from the cloud, not wanting to take any chances.

    Sure enough, the dragon swooped out of the cloud, chasing after him. Atlas turned activating Endless Strength and leaping at the dragon, fist in front of him like a superhero.

    The dragon had no time to react, and was in the bottom of his head, and there was a crack as his neck snapped up. Atlas used Death Mist and sent it racing up the dragon''s skull.

    Shazra roared, snapping at him, but Atlas had already landed back on the ground. He smirked at the dragon, waving at it. Shazra¡¯s eyes became clouded in bloodlust and it dove after him, gray mist leaking out of its mouth.

    Atlas just smiled darkly, activating all of his skills. Reaper¡¯s Senses, Death Mist, Endless Strength, Toughen, and Blitz, shooting towards the dragon with his fist pulled back, ready to send the giant beast into tomorrow.

    They clashed, Atlas¡¯s fist meeting the dragon''s fangs. There was an explosion of gray light, and they were both thrown back. Atlas had gray mist creeping all over his body, seeping into his skin, but the dragon was missing a tooth.

    In fact, its own tooth had been snapped off, shooting into the mouth of the dragon and lodging in the back of its throat. Shazra was in a lot of pain, hacking and coughing, trying to dislodge its own tooth.

    Atlas stood on shaky legs, teleporting after the dragon and reactivating his skills, slamming his fist into the dragon''s snout. Shazra roared in pain and Atlas readied himself.

    They began a huge and bloodied brawl, with Atlas slamming into the dragon with every one of his combat skills, and the dragon using the deadly mist and its natural weapons.

    They both backed away from each other, sporting sickly wounds all over their bodies. Atlas looked to be in worse shape than the dragon, the dragon''s mist was far more potent and it was everywhere, seeping into Atlas¡¯s very bones.

    Atlas was weary. He was exhausted. He didn¡¯t know how much longer he could go on like this. But he would try his best.

    He shot towards Shazra, and the boss swooped towards him, maw open wide. He teleported on top of the dragon, but in a whirl of scales, the dragon snapped his teeth- directly around Atlas.

    The dragon swallowed, flapping its wings slowly and landing on the ground, sitting down primly. After a few short seconds, it was apparent that Atlas was gone.

    The dragon reached into its mouth, trying to take out the tooth lodged in its mouth, but it was useless, its claw was far too big to fit in its mouth.

    It spun around a couple of times, before finally settling on a spot and lying down.

    ¡°See? No matter how strong you are, there is always something stronger, unless you''re at our level. It¡¯s impossible to grow strong without luck.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°¡­ I guess you''re right.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Such a disappointment. I wanted to meet him in person.¡± -System of Gear

    ¡°Shut up.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°Jerk.¡± -System of Gear

    The dragon suddenly choked, and a tooth shot out from the back of its neck, it collapsed. From the hole emerged Atlas, covered in saliva and blood, both his own and the dragons.

    He raised a shaky fist, triumphant.

    He collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

    ¡°Wow.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°I did not see that coming.¡± -System of Gear

    ¡°I expected it to happen, I was just trying to tell you that he might die later on.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°Liar.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°Am not! I really was!¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°No one believes you.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Fine, maybe it was just a teensy bit surprising.¡± -System of Classes

    ¡°Even us godlike figures don¡¯t expect everything I guess.¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°We aren¡¯t gods though.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°We are close enough¡± -System of Stats

    ¡°Grossly inaccurate but fine.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ***

    Atlas found himself back in the void, and for a moment he panicked, thinking that maybe he hadn¡¯t killed the final boss fast enough. Then he calmed down, remembering that the sun was still high in the sky when he had ended the creature''s life, so that couldn¡¯t be right.

    Just as he was starting to wonder what was going on, a notification appeared in front of him.

    Congratulations on completing the tutorial! You are the 578th to complete your tutorial, leaving 322 remaining players still in their tutorials.

    You are the third person to complete Impossible difficulty in the entire history of the tutorial. No other players even joined this difficulty. Reward: Title

    Title Gained! Legend of the Tutorial: All stats raised by 10. You can ask the system questions and they are obligated to answer. This is a perk usually reserved for those in a tutorial though slightly stronger.

    Talent and Potential raised to Z grade. (two grades lower than in the tutorial)

    Skill Gained! Ultimate Debuff (Z): You inflict a multitude of random debuffs to a strike. Some have a lower chance of triggering but are stronger overall (Rare debuffs) (Maximum of 5 debuffs per strike) The debuffs that can be given are: Stun, poison, bleed, curse (Rare), blind, weaken, slow, confuse (Rare), burn, freeze, dispel, blight, glitch (Rare), nullify (Rare), shine, fear, root, silence (Rare) corruption, vulnerability, and doom (Super Rare). Each instance of Ultimate debuff costs 50 mana.

    (System tip, Talent is how fast you can create and level new skills, while potential effects your leveling speed (Multiples the base exp gained from killing an opponent), both of these can be raised artificially, but it is much harder than leveling skills)

    ¡°You will be teleported to the main world in just a few minutes. Please stand by.¡± -System of Stats

    Atlas was ecstatic. He not only got an amazing skill, but it seemed like his leveling speed had just gotten a boost. For both him and his skills.

    New feature unlocked! You can now combine titles, skills and spells. Be warned, the abilities you put in may drastically change, so only do this if you are 100% sure that you will succeed, or you don¡¯t care about the abilities.

    ¡°When you reach the limit, you will go from tier 1 level 100, to tier 2 level 0. This does not affect your stats, it is just showing that you are more powerful than before.¡± -System of Knowledge

    Atlas was excited to use the new feature, as it was easy for him to gain new skills, so he could test it quite a bit, but didn¡¯t know how to feel about the second message. He was going down in levels, but staying the same? Oh well, at least he could finally level up again, he had missed out on so many levels from the final boss.

    ¡°Teleporting¡­¡± -System of Stats

    Everything turned a glorious, beautiful white and Atlas squeezed his eyes shut.

 Chapter 14: The Grove

    Atlas found himself standing in the middle of a large lush clearing. There were large oak trees surrounding the clearing in a perfect circle. It was the second time something like this had happened in about a week, or maybe even less, the incident with the orcs had thrown off Atlas''s mental calendar.

    ¡°System, where am I?¡± Atlas asked the empty air, calling open his newest title.

    ¡°You are in the Grove, the starting point for new Players. It is here to help you acclimate to Limit and understand what is happening. The first day you will need to explore and prepare for the coming days. You will be in the grove for 11 days.¡± -System of Knowledge.

    Atlas hummed quietly to himself, wondering how to best use this new information. ¡°Do players know this?¡± He wondered aloud, wanting to know, but also just thinking about how much of an edge he had on other players.

    ¡°No, they do not, they are expected to be smart and figure it out for themselves, though the easy difficulty and below got told about what to expect.¡± -System of Knowledge

    Atlas nodded to himself and stretched. ¡°Well, time to get to it.¡± He set off into the trees trying to get a gauge on how big this ¡®Grove¡¯ was.

    As he pushed aside leaves and branches, he found himself in front of a large cave.

    You have found a dungeon! Impossible dungeon may not be entered until wave 5 has been cleared. Time will halt while inside of the dungeon.

    ¡°Oh? System, what is this?¡± Atlas asked, not knowing exactly what he wanted to hear.

    ¡°Exactly what it sounds like, though this is not an average dungeon, this is a rare version of a dungeon known as a trial dungeon, and will put you through a total of 7 trials, one for each stat and a final one that mixes all of the other trials together. Your skills and spells don¡¯t work in a trial dungeon, so you have to rely on your stats and wit. Which honestly, should also be a stat.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°Nice to know.¡± Atlas said, spinning around and walking in the other direction back to the grove. ¡°Well, it''s useless ¡®till the 5th wave starts. Whatever that means.¡±

    ¡°I cannot tell you that information.¡± -System of Knowledge

    ¡°Eh, I thought as much, but I had to at least try.¡± Atlas gave the sky a weak grin before his face became set and he started to think.

    ¡°Waves¡­ that sounds like something close to a video game¡­¡± Atlas trailed off, thinking more before giving voice to his thoughts. ¡°With what I already know, I should expect a wave of monsters to attack me sometime¡­ tomorrow? Yeah, sounds about right, so I need to either train up my skills, make a little base to make my life easier, or a little of both.¡±

    ¡°... I¡¯m not going to tell you if you''re right or not, you know that right?¡± -System of Knowledge.

    ¡°I know, this is just me thinking aloud. Speaking of, what are my stats now? I am having trouble sorting it all in my head.¡± Atlas muttered as he brought it up, feeling a wave of pride as he saw the astronomical values in front of him.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 0

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul, Legend of the Tutorial

    Skills: Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Hand to Hand Combat (B), Float (S), Fade Away (A), Toughen (B), Herbalism (D), Crafting (B), Ultimate Debuff (Z)

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 269

    Constitution: 269

    Strength: 349

    Dexterity: 349

    Wisdom: 299

    Intelligence: 299

    Free points: 0

    He took a moment to arrange his skills in a more aesthetically pleasing way, having his highest skills first with his lowest skill (Herbalism (D)) in dead last.

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Float (S), Hand to Hand Combat (B), Fade Away (A), Toughen (B),Crafting (B), Herbalism (D),Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    He soon found himself on the opposite side of the clearing. There was a shed and another cave.

    ¡°Uh, system? Is this another dungeon? I¡¯m not getting a notification.¡± Atlas said, clearly confused.

    ¡°This is not another dungeon, it is, in fact, a mine. There are ore veins inside as well as a few gems sprinkled throughout the stone, so be sure to clear as much as you can! The shed is filled with tools of all kinds, and even has a Beacon!¡± -System of Knowledge

    Atlas tilted his head in confusion. ¡°A Beacon?¡±

    ¡°A Beacon can be used to construct a settlement by using the necessary resources.. This Beacon can only be used during the grove, unless you can keep the settlement alive AND get it up to rank 2, also known as town rank¡± -System of Gear

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Atlas mused, walking to the shed and opening the door. The shed was packed to the brim with all sorts of different tools and items. There were anywhere from pickaxes to what he would hesitantly call an axe-shovel.

    In the middle lay a large crate about the size of Atlas. Grabbing a crowbar, Atlas pried it open with little trouble. His stats really were scary.

    He found himself holding a cube that had a deep red button on each of its six sides. He pressed one of them and got a message.

    Soulbind item: Beacon? Soulbound Beacon can be split off from if the user so chooses. y/n

    Atlas selected yes and the Beacon started to erupt with light.

    ¡°Bring it to the middle of the clearing!¡± -System of Gear

    Atlas didn¡¯t question the system and bolted to the center of the Grove. ¡°What now?¡± He asked quickly as the cube continued to glow brighter and brighter.

    ¡°Place it where you would like the town center to be constructed.¡± -System of Gear

    Atlas ran to the exact center of the clearing and placed it down before fleeing to safety. He watched in amazement as a building started to be constructed.

    It was a squat building with a circular shape and two large double doors leading into the building itself. It was at least two stories high and it took up the majority of the clearing. If he wanted to add any more buildings, he was going to have to chop down a lot of trees.

    Town Center: Rank: Village. Owner: Atlas Channing. Resources: None. Residents: One. See list?

    It was¡­ lacking, to say the least, but at least it was something.

    He opened the door and stepped inside, glancing around at the mostly empty inside of the town center. The only thing that caught his eye was the big red sphere hovering in the middle of the room, and the stairs leading up to the next level.

    Atlas approached the orb and held out his hand, brushing it against it softly, almost caressing it. He felt¡­ linked to it, somehow, as though it was a part of him, and he, it.

    Town Core: Rank: Village. Upgrade? Core/Town/Buildings. Create? Defense/Production/Residences/Other

    Atlas startled at the screen that suddenly appeared in front of him, not really expecting it. He took a moment to read over all of the information in front of him before selecting Production, thinking that it was as good a place as any to start.

    Production-

    Farm- Lumber 50, Fertile soil (minimum 100 square feet), Animals (Any two domesticated animals)

    Mineshaft- Lumber 30, Stone 20, 50 square feet inside of a mine.

    Lumber Mill- Lumber 50, Stone 10, Soil (minimum 100 square feet), Water source

    Water Mill- Lumber 50, Stone 10, Soil (minimum 100 square feet), Water source

    Blacksmith- Lumber 20, Stone 100, Iron 20, Soil (minimum 120 square feet)

    Upgrade for more!

    Atlas rubbed the stubble on his chin consideringly. He had no idea how much 10 lumber was, and there was no real way to find out without experimentation.

    Atlas rolled up his sleeves. ¡°Time to get to work.¡± He said, turning to leave, before realizing he had never gone upstairs.

    He ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He found what looked like a storage area, with a small room off to the side, after some investigating, he found it held a bed and a desk with a journal and ink pot and quill.

    He had no idea why they were there, but decided to check them out later. Pulling back out of the room he found that the storage room was completely empty, but it had a nice perk.

    Magic Storage: Rank: Village. When you harvest a resource, it is atomically sent here unless there is not enough room. All resources will be cleanly organized and easy to find. Resources: 0

    With a grin on his face, Atlas fled the building running over to the shed. He grabbed the largest ax he could find and set to work.

    ***

    *Crack!*

    Atlas felled the tree in one fell strike, sending it crashing into the ground with a ¡°Timber!¡± and a loud thud. The tree dissolved into motes of light and Atlas continued on with his resource gathering. He had more than doubled the size of the clearing, and it hadn¡¯t even been a half hour yet.

    He worked with ruthless efficiency, tearing into trees at a ferocious pace and moving on before they even had the time to hit the ground. All but this last one, that is.

    Atlas stretched before heading back to the shed and swapping out his ax for a pickax and heading into the mine.

    ***

    Many hours later, Atlas found himself back in the storage, looking over all his spoils. The storage system split the resources for him, into cubes that were a perfect 1 foot on each side. He checked the storage coffers.

    Resources: Lumber: 601, Stone: 253, Iron: 127, Tin: 142, Copper: 136, Gems: 14

    All in all, it was a good haul well worth all the effort Atlas had put in. He started looking over all of his building options and set the ones he wanted aside.

    Mineshaft- Lumber 30, Stone 20, 50 square feet inside of a mine.

    Watchtower - Lumber 20, Soil (10 square feet).

    Palisade - Lumber 4 x feet of wall.

    Blacksmith- Lumber 20, Stone 100, Iron 20, Soil (minimum 120 square feet)

    Armory - Lumber 20, Stone 50, Iron 70, Soil (minimum 100 square feet), Blacksmith

    Atlas set to work, setting up a wooden wall all around the clearing and putting a watchtower in each corner. That cost him a total of 600 lumber, which meant he had to go back and chop down more trees so that he could afford the rest of the buildings.

    When he had enough he went over to the mine and created a mine shaft. Stone started to vanish from the mine, and appeared in the storage. It was only at a rate of one stone per minute, but it was automatic, which is what Atlas needed.

    When that was done, he went over and created the Blacksmith and Armory, leaving him with¡­

    Resources: Lumber: 31, Stone: 83, Iron: 57, Tin: 142, Copper: 136, Gems: 14

    It wasn¡¯t a lot, but it was quite a bit for all the building he had done.

    He realized that in all of the ¡®adventures¡¯ he had been on today, not once had he seen water. ¡°System? Is there water here?¡± Atlas asked, just now remembering that the system was (Essentially) at his beck and call.

    ¡°First off, no, I am not at your beck and call. Second, after the first wave you will be able to place a river somewhere in your territory.

    Atlas nodded, that was convenient, it would let him place it in the most optimal position for his new town.

    He checked in on the Blacksmith and Armory to find weapons slowly being made all by themselves and then teleporting into the Armory. Atlas paused briefly to check in on both buildings before going to the town center and collapsing into his bed.

 Chapter 15: Powering Up

    Atlas awoke to a most unpleasant message.

    Your watchtower has found an enemy presence! Wave starts in 00:01:12

    00:01:11

    00:01:10

    Atlas cursed, scrambling out of bed and launching out of the building in a few short seconds. Seconds were all he had before he would be harrassed by the mysterious 1st wave.

    He rushed into the Armory and grabbed a greatsword before rushing back out, he figured that a weapon was better than his bare fists, and he wasn¡¯t willing to use a spear again, as it hadn¡¯t been the most useful weapon he had ever fought with.

    Straightening his already impeccable clothing, Atlas reached the wall, lightly hopping and balancing precariously on the spiked tops. The wall was not very large, only about 10 feet or so, but at least it was something.

    Atlas eyed the dwindling timer.

    00:00:10

    00:00:09

    00:00:08

    Atlas steeled himself, eyes flaring red as he slowly turned his head, watching the forest carefully. The treeline was a good 20 feet away from any wall, but it would still be far to easy for monsters to sneak up to the wall and potentially break through or hop over. There was not a gate in the palisade, as Atlas did not need one, but if anything that was a detriment. A gate might be more likely to be attacked as opposed to a solid wood wall.

    00:00:02

    00:00:01

    Wave 1 starts¡­ Now!

    The forest exploded in a cacophony of sound and light.

    An entire army of slimes charged out of the treeline, gunning straight for the walls. There were anywhere from fire slimes to what Atlas could only assume were light slimes, shedding of such a bright light that it hurt his eyes whenever he looked at them, and Reaper¡¯s Senses didn¡¯t help.

    They all had one thing in common.

    (Type) Slime

    T2 Lvl 0

    They were all the same level as him.

    Atlas grinned. That could be changed.

    He sprang from the wall, activating all of his skills. His eyes burned a deep red as gray mist swirled around him. Atlas¡¯s body bulked slightly as Endless Strength gave him strength, Toughen made his skin turn into a fortress of health, and Blitz gave him the explosive speed to rocket directly into the center of the slimes, swinging his greatsword filled with his new strongest skill, Ultimate Debuff.

    It wouldn¡¯t be an understatement to say that the slimes were as soft as butter against his unending power and strength. If he didn¡¯t kill a monster outright, it would be inflicted with a debuff that killed it soon after. The power of the debuff seemed to scale off of his intelligence stat, which was also monstrously high.

    As Atlas fought, his vision was flooded with notifications.

    Level Up! x9

    Atlas quickly cut off the notifications and shoved them out of the way, feeling power flood through his body as he continued to turn the slimes into a juicy paste. Most of the notifications seemed to be skill level ups. As Atlas fought, he tried to develop a new ability, focusing on every movement of the greatsword and trying to maximize its efficiency.

    He started to use Fade Away to travel throughout the battlefield quicker, stopping the slimes from reaching the wall. He had no doubt that if they could touch it, it would break down in a matter of seconds. He would rather not let all of his hard work burn into the ground.

    After a few more utterly exhilarating minutes of fighting, Atlas managed to create a new skill for his greatsword while also whittling down all of the ranks of slimes. Every once in a while he would use Consume and attempt to steal a skill from their corpses- which were more puddles of goo than anything else.

    While his attempts went mostly unsuccessful, that didn¡¯t mean they were completely unsuccessful. He gained at least one skill from every different type of slime, of which there were seven.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    You have created the skill, Great Weapon Mastery (D)!

    You have gained the skill, Fire Manipulation (B)!

    You have gained the skill, Water Manipulation (B)!

    You have gained the skill, Earth Manipulation (B)!

    You have gained the skill, Air Resistance (C)!

    You have gained the skill, Light Manipulation (B)!

    You have gained the skill, Dark Manipulation (B)!

    You have gained the skill, Water Resistance (C)!

    You have gained the skill, Fire Resistance (C)!

    Level Up! x4

    You have gained the skill, Dark Resistance (C)!

    Skills with Synergy have been found! Would you like to combine the skills: Float (S), Fire Manipulation (B), Water Manipulation (B), Earth Manipulation (B), Light Manipulation (B), and Dark Manipulation (B)? y/n

    (System tip: Skills with Synergy are far more likely to become a powerful skill, and have little to no chance of failing. Chance of failing increases with the amount of skills being combined.)

    Atlas wasn¡¯t using Float at the moment, so he saw no reason not to. Bisecting another slime- this one made of molten fire, he selected yes.

    Combining¡­

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Energy Manipulation (SS) has instead become Elemental Affinity (SSS)!

    Atlas felt an explosion of power ripple throughout his body and he cried out in both pain and pleasure. Soon it faded away and Atlas¡¯s face split into a wild grin. ¡°Oh¡­ You guys are so dead.¡± He told the slimes, who had continued to charge him, unknowing of the new power that Atlas had unlocked, leaving him with perfect test subjects for his new skill.

    Ultimate Debuff was a very powerful skill, of that, there was no doubt. But it seemed to thrive in one on one situations, where his enemy was powerful enough to survive multiple of Atlas¡¯s ferocious attacks, which left it lacking in large scale fights.. He had a feeling that Elemental Affinity was different.

    He pulled up its description briefly to understand exactly what it could do and how he could utilize it.

    Elemental Affinity (SSS): You can control all elements within a 500 foot radius centered on you. You can combine elements in different ways to create different effects. This ability is innately powered and hard to explain. Play around with the different powers to fully understand what you can do. Costs mana. (differs depending on effect.)

    Short, but sweet. Atlas tugged on the ground and spikes shot out from under all of the slimes, killing all but the earth slimes and some stragglers instantly. Atlas grabbed them with what he could only describe as the wind and sent them careening into the sky.

    They didn¡¯t survive the drop.

    You have cleared the first wave! Second wave starts in 1 minute!

    Atlas used Consume to grab the final few resistance and combined them all together.

    Combining¡­

    Skill gained! Damage Resistance (A)

    It wasn¡¯t a lucky bonus, but it was a good skill for his growing arsenal. As he finished consuming all of the goo lying around for some levels in his resist skill, a system notification rocked him just as he neared his wall.

    Second wave starts¡­ now!

    A flood of goblins flooded out of the forest, and Atlas Blitz-ed back to the armory and switched the greatsword out for a spear before jumping into the fray. He was going to see if he could develop a bunch of weapon skills and try to combine them. He assumed they would have high synergy with each other.

    ***

    You have cleared the second wave! Third wave starts in 1 hour

    Atlas lay, panting heavily. He hadn¡¯t expected this to be so tiring, but he had the feeling that some of his stronger skills required magic, which tired him out faster. He couldn¡¯t be sure, because he didn¡¯t have any spells, which somehow made him understand how much magic he could hold. It was hard for him to understand how exactly, but it was the best guess he could come up with.

    He glanced briefly at the list of new skills that awaited him. This really was a perfect farming ground for him.

    Level up! x7

    You have gained the skill Spear Mastery (D)!

    You have gained the skill Bow Mastery (D)!

    You have gained the skill Light Weapon Mastery (D)!

    You have gained the skill Axe Mastery (D)!

    You have gained the skill Staff Mastery (D)!

    Atlas watched as skill levels flashed past his eyes, most of them related to his new weapon skills, but a couple in some of his other skills.

    He was focused on other things.

    Skills with Synergy have been found! Would you like to combine the skills: Hand to Hand Combat (B), Great Weapon Mastery (D), Spear Mastery (D), Bow Mastery (D), Light Weapon Mastery (D), Axe Mastery (D), Staff Mastery (D)? y/n

    Yes.

    Combining¡­

    Skills: Hand to Hand Combat (B), Great Weapon Mastery (D), Spear Mastery (D), Bow Mastery (D), Light Weapon Mastery (D), Axe Mastery (D), Staff Mastery (D) have combined¡­

    New skill created: Weapon Mastery (A)! You have basic proficiency with all weapons, even if you have never used the weapon in question. It is far easier to get better at wielding a weapon with this skill.

    (System tip: You get two more free combinations. You were supposed to be warned earlier, but you combined faster than other people.)

    Title gained: Synthesiser!  Once per week you can ask which of your skills have perfect synergy.

    Atlas sighed, and fell flat on his face onto the ground. He groaned into the ground. This was getting stupid. He would do something, grow far stronger, then the system would either show him a barrier that he hadn¡¯t known about or placed a barrier on him. Sometimes it didn¡¯t even feel like he was making any progress or getting any stronger.

    Well, at least he had a new title and skill for it.

    He pulled up his new status sheet.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 20

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Elemental Affinity, Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Fade Away (A), Weapon Mastery (A), Damage Resistance (A), Toughen (B), Crafting (B), Herbalism (D),

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 369

    Constitution: 369

    Strength: 449

    Dexterity: 449

    Wisdom: 399

    Intelligence: 399

    Free points: 20

    Atlas raised his eyebrows in surprise, how had his stats raised so high? He racked his brain for a clue. His stats should be much lower so why?

    Then it struck him, his upgraded class! It added an extra point per level, which meant that he had gained something like 20 extra points.

    He divided his free points between all his stats but put an extra into endurance and constitution.

    Stats:

    Endurance: 373

    Constitution: 373

    Strength: 452

    Dexterity: 452

    Wisdom: 402

    Intelligence: 402

    Free points: 0

    Atlas nodded, satisfied. His stats were all around 400.

    Now, he really needed to get ready for the next wave.

 Chapter 16: Tier 2 Miniboss

    Atlas stood on top of the armory, sharpening a sword. He had fended off two more waves of enemies, both being more difficult than the last. The first wave consisted of a swarm of lightning bats that would flap rapidly to get higher and higher before swooping down at him while sending a beam of lightning ahead of themselves. It had been annoying to say the least.

    He had gotten a new skill out of it, and felt that being electrocuted over a dozen times had not been in vain.

    You have gained the skill Lightning Beam (B)!

    He had also gotten a couple skill levels in Weapon Mastery and Damage Resistance.

    You have leveled up your skill Damage Resistance (A) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Weapon Mastery (A) to level 4!

    The second wave had been more interesting, consisting of strange hybrids that lay somewhere between a doglike creature and a demon, the tags hovering over their head noted them as Hellhounds. In Atlas¡¯s opinion, they looked more like wolves than hounds, but he decided that he didn¡¯t care too much about naming conventions.

    They had been more interesting for Atlas for two reasons. The first being that they could exhale large amounts of green fire. The fire burned like nothing Atlas had ever seen before, and when it landed on his skin he felt like he was being burned alive from even just a couple wisps of the potent fire. The second reason they were so interesting is that they could coat their claws in wispy red energy that would rip huge gouges out of the earth.

    Atlas had taken one look at it and decided that he did not want to be hit by that at all. He had gotten only one skill from Consume no matter how many hellhounds he used it on, the most he got was another level in Elemental Affinity which was nice, but still disappointing.

    You have gained the skill Demonic Claw (S)!

    Luckily for him, it was the stronger skill of the two that the hellhounds had shown, and so he wasn''t feeling too miffed. He checked the description of the skill to understand how it worked.

    Demonic Claw (S): You coat your hands in a demonic energy, creating large claws extending from each finger, this energy steals magic from your victim, but this skill also passively requires magic to work.

    That intrigued Atlas. He could steal magic from his opponents? If only he had some spells to use it on.

    A thought suddenly occurred to Atlas, how many of his skills required magic to work? After a quick check he brought them up. Ultimate Debuff, Elemental Affinity, Death Mist, Fade away, Lightning Beam and now Demonic Claw.

    He checked the description for each of them except for Demonic Claw.

    Ultimate Debuff (Z): You inflict a multitude of random debuffs to a strike. Some have a lower chance of triggering but are stronger overall (Rare debuffs) (Maximum of 5 debuffs per strike) The debuffs that can be given are: Stun, poison, bleed, curse (Rare), blind, weaken, slow, confuse (Rare), burn, freeze, dispel, blight, glitch (Rare), nullify (Rare), shine, fear, root, silence (Rare) corruption, vulnerability, and doom (Super Rare). Each instance of Ultimate debuff costs 50 mana.

    Elemental Affinity (SSS): You can control all elements within a 500 foot radius centered on you. You can combine elements in different ways to create different effects. This ability is innately powered and hard to explain. Play around with the different powers to fully understand what you can do. Costs mana. (differs depending on effect.)

    Death Mist (SS): You create mist with mana. (1 cubic foot of mist per 10 mana.) The mist eats away at any enemy within it and lingers indefinitely. This effect can only be reversed by the user ending it, by killing the user, or by a skill or spell at least the same grade as this skill (SS grade)

    Fade Away (A): You can turn to mist and teleport up to 10 feet away. Uses a small amount of mana.

    Lightning Beam (B): You shoot a beam of lightning at anything within 50 feet of you that costs 5 mana.

    He nodded to himself. None of his skills were too expensive, but then again, he didn¡¯t actually know how to calculate how much mana he had.

    Tentatively, he called out to the system for the first time in quite a while. ¡°System? How much mana do I have?¡±

    ¡°You have 4,020 mana.¡±

    That seemed like¡­ quite a lot. ¡°How did you calculate that?¡±

    ¡°Your mana is 10 times your intelligence modifier.¡±If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Hmm¡­ how quickly does my mana regenerate?¡± Atlas asked, understanding now why he had such a large amount of mana.

    ¡°Your mana fully regenerates from 0 in exactly an hour. Depending on your mana pool, you regenerate faster. You currently regenerate 67 mana per minute, and 1.1 mana per second.¡±

    Atlas nodded, deep in thought. If a fully empowered Ultimate Debuff strike, 5 debuffs, cost¡­ 250 mana, then he could afford to attack with it cranked to the max¡­ 15¡­ 16 times? Yeah, that sounded about right.

    ¡°Ahem¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Atlas glanced upwards, it was weird talking to someone he couldn¡¯t see, so he acted like the system was above him to make it less weird on himself.

    ¡°You can now place the river anywhere, you would have been told earlier, but you were pretty busy.¡±

    Atlas blinked. He had completely forgotten about that.

    He sheathed his sword on the scabbard at his hip. He bent his knees before flying into the sky and landing gently on the roof of the town hall.

    Atlas spun slowly, surveying the land he had recently cleared of trees and other foliage. He frowned slightly. Where would a river fit well? He had to make it have a clear area by it so that he could place buildings on its banks. He didn¡¯t want to just choose a spot at random, because that could conflict with his future buildings.

    ¡°Hey system? Is it possible to get rid of buildings?¡± Atlas asked, having a burst of inspiration.

    ¡°Yes, it is possible, but you have to demolish it yourself. As a bonus, you get all of the resources back from the building.¡±

    Atlas nodded, Blitzing over to the toolshed and getting a large ax. He started to meticulously chop down the palisade.

    A couple minutes later, he had completely deconstructed the wooden wall. ¡°System, I would like to place the river where the palisade used to be.¡±

    Checking¡­ Granted. Please stand by as the river is placed.

    There was a loud roar as dirt was replaced with rushing water. It completely encircled the town, if it could even be called that. It only had 3 buildings, not counting the watchtowers and the mineshaft. The water replaced the palisade perfectly, except instead of a square it looked more like a circle with slightly straightened sides.

    Atlas opened up his resources, wanting to see what he could build.

    Resources: Lumber: 829, Stone: 386, Iron: 147, Tin: 462, Copper: 232, Gems: 24

    He nodded, his wood had skyrocketed because of the palisade, but his others were lower, in the 100 to 400 range. He brought up the lumber mill and windmills descriptions.

    Lumber Mill- Lumber 50, Stone 10, Soil (minimum 100 square feet), Water source

    Water Mill- Lumber 50, Stone 10, Soil (minimum 100 square feet), Water source

    He quickly bought both of them, placing them on his side of the river, close to the armory and blacksmiths'' buildings. Atlas suddenly realized that he didn¡¯t actually know what either of them did.

    Lumber Mill: Generates 50 lumber per day.

    Water Mill: Generates 10 units grain per day.

    Atlas felt a smile creep onto his face. Free resources? This was amazing! He created 3 more of each, quadrupling his production of each per day.

    His resources had fallen drastically.

    Resources: Lumber: 29, Stone: 306, Iron: 147, Tin: 462, Copper: 232, Gems: 24

    He now almost had as many gems as lumber, which was his rarest resource. He hadn¡¯t found any use for them yet, but he knew that they would probably require either only a few of them, or all of his few gems, depending on how useful they were. He really wished he could know the value of each resource.

    Wave starting in: 00:01:00

    ¡°Shoot.¡± Atlas winced at seeing the timer. He had really lost track of time. And the worst part? He didn¡¯t have a wall anymore, he would have to be extra careful this time around.

    Wave starting!

    Flee mortal! There is a beast of terrible power approaching, the famed Mini Boss wave has come upon you! Fight or flee, you will lose either way!

    Atlas smirked, a miniboss? Really? That''s what all the hype was about? He had killed far worse with ease.

    He watched as the ground roiled and roared, opening up as though a great beast was opening up its maw. A large snake leapt up for its depths, crashing against the ground and hissing loudly at Atlas.

    Atlas blasted forward, pulling his newly sharpened sword in a rasp of steel and scanning the miniboss.

    Depthless Snake: Dnar

    T2 Lvl 50

    Atlas felt cold sweat rise on his neck but shook it off. He had killed things that were far stronger than him before, why would this be any different?

    The snake reared up, lashing at him with its tail. Mana poured into Atlas¡¯s sword as he used Ultimate Debuff, he activated Blitz and Endless Strength at the same time, colliding with the snake¡¯s tail with the full power of his skills. As an afterthought, he activated Toughen and Reaper¡¯s Senses, and time seemed to slow down as his sword cut deep into the snake''s tail inflicting 5 different debuffs.

    The snake hissed loudly in pain and snapped at Atlas, but Atlas was in the zone now. His sword flashed and the snake pulled back, a gash on its snout that hadn¡¯t been there before.

    Atlas felt a sudden calm wash over him and his body started to move the very instant Atlas thought it. The sword ripped through the snake, leaving more and more debuffs on the now very confused snake.

    The snake, in a burst of motion, opened its mouth and venom splattered onto Atlas¡¯s eyes, and Atlas screamed in pain before recovering quickly, not letting go of the deadly trance he was in.

    Atlas closed his eyes, relying on his other senses to fight. His sword flashed in perfect rhythm, falling on the snake over and over, gouging out more and more flesh. The snake struggled but Atlas did not yield, somehow always knowing where the snake was going to be.

    There was a loud crack and the snake''s tail slammed into Atlas, and his burned eyes widened in surprise and pain before he collided with one of his watchtowers, embedding deep into the wood.

    He jumped forward, but the snake slammed him into the water, and he plunged into the frigid water.

    He leapt out instantly and swiped his sword at the snake, but he had lost his trance and the snake flipped him into the sky, opening its maw wide as he fell.

    Atlas felt time slow, and he closed his eyes, reaching deep inside himself before something in his mind suddenly clicked.

    He fell like a meteor from space, spinning his sword in intricate arcs and slicing the snake before it could snap at him.

    He used Elemental Affinity for the first time in this fight, and the snake was speared from below by earthen spikes.

    The snake tried to break free, but it was too weak from all of the many debuffs that Atlas had inflicted him with. It was bleeding to death, along with many other different debuffs that were slowing it, burning it and freezing it all at the same time.

    It was dying.

    The snake realized this and glanced at Atlas-

    Only to find his sword right in front of it, ripping into its eye, sending blood and brain matter everywhere in an explosion as the snake''s head imploded.

    The gore landed on Atlas¡¯s suit and vanished, leaving him still impeccably dressed. Atlas bent down and grasped the snakes limp body and used Consume.

    Atlas watched as the notifications rolled in.

 Chapter 17: Z-Grade

    Level Up! x15

    You have severely upgraded your skill Weapon Mastery (A), into Battle Trance (SS)!

    You have leveled up your skill Ultimate Debuff (Z) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Endless Strength (SS) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Blitz (S) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Damage Resistance (A) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Toughen (B) to level 10!

    Toughen (B) has become Harden (A)

    You have leveled up your skill Harden (A) to level 2!

    You have gained the skill, Venom shot (S)!

    Venom shot has been absorbed into Ultimate Debuff (Z)!

    You have leveled up your skill Ultimate Debuff (Z) to level 3!

    Atlas watched with growing surprise as the notifications flashed by.

    He had gotten two upgraded skills? Battle Trance made sense, but he didn¡¯t understand how he had worked Toughen enough to upgrade it. Was it from being battered by the snake in the middle of the fight? It would make sense.

    He at first had been annoyed at losing Venom Shot to Ultimate Debuff but he eventually realized one more level on his most powerful skill was probably worth it. He felt like he was wasting the potential of a lot of his skills, but he didn¡¯t know how to make it better. He just had too many skills to focus on in battle so he relied on the ones he used the most. He still wasn''t used to Elemental Affinity, and that bugged him.

    He needed to start training his skills like he had in the tutorial, his newer skills were stagnanting and it was showing. If he had used his skills more effectively, he might have come away from this fight without a single wound.

    Atlas heaved himself off of the ground, wincing in pain as his ribs screamed at him. Atlas couldn¡¯t know for sure, but he was reasonably certain that he had broken at least one of his ribs and possibly his shoulder. That snake had hit him hard.

    He dragged himself back to the town hall and collapsed into his bed. He wanted to do nothing more than sleep right now.

    ***

    Atlas yawned, easing out of bed. His ribs still felt like they were burning up, but the pain was far better than it had been before. It was nice to see that he healed faster, though he didn¡¯t know what stat exactly helped with that, it was most likely either endurance or constitution. His other stats were more geared towards battle and magic, as opposed to constitutions defense and endurances stamina.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    Atlas hauled himself outside and over to the wall, even in his battered shape, there were still quite a few skills he could practice, namely his most complex one - Elemental Affinity.

    He saw a lot of potential with this skill, but he didn¡¯t understand how it worked. Even its skill description was vague.

    Elemental Affinity (SSS): You can control all elements within a 500 foot radius centered on you. You can combine elements in different ways to create different effects. This ability is innately powered and hard to explain. Play around with the different powers to fully understand what you can do. Costs mana. (differs depending on effect.)

    Atlas sighed while staring at the screen hovering before his eyes. It literally told him to play around with the skill, but how?

    As Atlas thought more on the predicament he had found himself in, he decided to try asking the system. ¡°Hey system? How do I ¡®play around¡¯ with this skill?¡±

    ¡°Hmm? Oh, now he wants help. He ignores us for so long just to remember we exist when it''s convenient.¡±

    ¡°What? I talked to you literally yesterday though?¡± Atlas was flabbergasted, didn¡¯t the system say it was annoyed with his endless requests? Where did this attitude come from?

    ¡°You do realize how valuable being able to talk to the system personally at any time is right? You''re treating it like a nifty tool whenever you''re stuck on some random subject that''s giving you a little trouble. Did you even try to use Elemental Affinity before asking for help? No, you didn¡¯t, and it makes me so-¡±

    The system suddenly stopped, and a monotone voice boomed through the Grove.

    The System of Knowledge was getting annoyed at player -Atlas Channing- for reasons that should not concern an entity of its power and stature. As recompense for this undignified behavior, Atlas will be given a tip to help him unlock a small fragment of his potential and the system of knowledge has been rebuked. For the next day it shall talk through proxy to prevent any lingering emotions from affecting the players growth.

    You have gained a tip! Please read carefully.

    Z-grade is the grade where skills can combine with other skills briefly to multiply both abilities, but they are not permanently combined, allowing for other combinations to be used. Z-grade skills can only be combined with skills of a lower grade or level.

    Atlas watched in utter confusion as the screens flitted by, telling him that the system had been rebuked by the - grand system? He didn''t actually know what to call it. All he knew was that it was strong enough to rebuke the system of knowledge, which meant it was strong.

    His eyes zeroed in on the tip, it was interesting, to say the least. It was telling him that he could briefly make entire new skills? How did that work?

    His mind raced with the possibilities. He brought up Ultimate Debuff, looking for any indication of the power it hid.

    Ultimate Debuff (Z): You inflict a multitude of random debuffs to a strike. Some have a lower chance of triggering but are stronger overall (Rare debuffs) (Maximum of 5 debuffs per strike) The debuffs that can be given are: Stun, poison, bleed, curse (Rare), blind, weaken, slow, confuse (Rare), burn, freeze, dispel, blight, glitch (Rare), nullify (Rare), shine, fear, root, silence (Rare) corruption, vulnerability, and doom (Super Rare). Each instance of Ultimate debuff costs 50 mana.

    Atlas frowned, thinking. It specified strike, did that mean that if he used two skills that affected his weapon at the same time, they would combine.

    He stared into the sky, still terribly confused, the system had said a tip to unlocking his potential, how did this help at all? It gave him more questions than anything else.

    Trying to get inspiration, he used Ultimate Debuff, the roiling black power reminded him of something, but it took him a moment to realize what. He glanced at his skills, humming to himself and trying to see what Ultimate Debuff reminded him of, then it struck him. Death Mist! It had the same roiling consistency as Ultimate Debuff did.

    Atlas jolted, wincing before opening his hand and releasing Death Mist into the air. He watched as it floated lazily around him, coating him in the cold embrace of death. He shivered, opening his other hand and pushing Ultimate Debuff into it. There was a click in his mind and the Death Mist changed.

    You have successfully made a temporary skill! Ruinous Mist! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Death Mist(SS). You can have up to three temporary skills at one time, and you can change them with a brief moment of concentration. It IS possible to change your temporary skills mid battle, but it can be highly disadvantageous and dangerous, so if you do so be careful.

    Atlas watched in awe as the mist became more deadly, he felt very uncomfortable being next to it, as though he was standing next to a dangerous beast. He watched sparks go off and fire rage inside the mist. A more apt name would be chaos mist, he thought, but he understood why it was named ruinous mist equally as much. He would not want to be caught in that.

    Atlas grinned to himself, and started experimenting.

 Chapter 18: Enter the Dungeon

    Atlas was able to make plenty of very interesting skills, he attempted to use it on all his skills and found that there were a couple skills that it couldn¡¯t be combined with, for whatever reason. Endless Strength, Blitz, Fade Away, Damage Resistance, Herbalism and Crafting. Atlas quickly found that passive skills couldn¡¯t be combined with an active Z-grade skill, or at least, that had been what he thought until he tried to combine Ultimate Debuff with Weapon Mastery.

    You have successfully made a temporary (passive) skill! Debuffed Weaponry! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Weapon Mastery(A). You now have 2 temporary skills, see list?

    He now thought it just depended on the skills he was combining and if they had synergy or not. He had then gone on a combining spree and used every single one of his skills that could be combined, into a temporary skill.

    You have successfully made a temporary (active) skill! Elemental Debuffs! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Elemental Affinity (SSS). You now have 3 temporary skills, see list?

    You have successfully made a temporary (active) skill! Ultimate Consume! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Consume (SS). You now have 4 temporary skills, see list? This skill is not one of your main three, add?

    You have successfully made a temporary (passive) skill! Sense of Death! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Reapers Senses(SS). You now have 5 temporary skills, see list? This skill is not one of your main three, add?

    You have successfully made a temporary (passive) skill! Demonic Debuffs! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Demonic Claw (S). You now have 6 temporary skills, see list? This skill is not one of your main three, add?

    You have successfully made a temporary (passive) skill! Armor of Debuffs! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Toughen (B). You now have 7 temporary skills, see list? This skill is not one of your main three, add?

    You have successfully made a temporary (passive) skill! Debuffing Beam! To use this skill, you must be able to activate Ultimate Debuff (Z) and Lightning Beam (S). You now have 8 temporary skills, see list? You cannot make any more temporary skills! One Z-grade skill can only make up to 8 temporary skills on its own, and you can only have a maximum of 16 temporary skills total. (You can get rid of temporary skills on the list)

    When that last message had shown up, Atlas had been slightly sad, but it wasn¡¯t too disappointing, as he didn¡¯t really have any more skills to even test it on. He had gotten lucky and now had the maximum amount of temporary skills possible right now. He finally gave in and clicked on the list, bringing up all the skills to test them and see which skills would fit best in his repertoire.

    Temporary Skills-

    <ol>

    <li> Ruinous Mist -In use</li>

    <li> Debuffed Weaponry -In use</li>

    <li> Elemental Debuffs -In use</li>

    <li> Ultimate Consume -Add?</li>

    <li> Sense of Death -Add?</li>

    <li> Demonic Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li> Armor of Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li> Debuffing Beam -Add?</li>

    </ol>

    ***

    Atlas collapsed on the ground, breathing laboriously. He had just completed another wave. He had tested out every new temporary skill in his arsenal, and had a decent grasp of what they all did. Unlike normal skills, he couldn¡¯t just bring up a screen that told him the general information of the skill, he had to figure it out by himself. On the plus side, they were far more powerful than normal skills and seemed to be more specialized than his other skills.

    But that cost a TON of mana. He had run dry more than once and had to wait an hour for it to fill back up before continuing testing. He was not idle during those times though, jumping into the mine or felling dozens of trees while he waited. He managed to gather quite a bit of resources, and was feeling pretty good about the rest of the waves.

    Resources: Lumber: 634, Stone: 543, Iron: 389, Tin: 522, Copper: 423, Gems: 41

    He had gathered quite the amount of resources in the brief waits, and was sitting on quite a large pile of them. Earlier, Atlas had found a journal and pencil in his room, and now he was using it to keep track of the powers of his temporary skills as testing. He looked over all the written information and nodded to himself.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Ruinous Mist-

    Creates a large mist, similar in volume to Death mist. The mist will spark randomly, inflicting debuffs on creatures in the mist. Does not affect the user.

    Mana cost: 1000 Mana

    Time before dissipating: 10 minutes

    Other: Works on inanimate objects, and at a glance seems to inflict less debuffs than Ultimate Debuff, but the inflictions stay for far longer than Ultimate Debuff, and the cost is worth 4 Ultimate Debuffs, but inflict far more debuffs than it does.

    Weaknesses: Can be blown away by both non-magical and magical winds, dissipating the mist far before it is usually dissipated. It cannot be used in quick succession, requiring a 10 second wait to cast again. Inflicts debuffs over time, where Ultimate debuff gives 5 at once.

    Strengths: Is very effective against a large group of creatures.

    Ruinous Mist seemed to be one of the better skills in Atlas¡¯s arsenal, but it was not nearly as effective on single opponents as opposed to crowds.

    Debuffed Weaponry-

    Continues to give proficiency in all weapons, but now adds a debuff every hit, no matter the weapon being used.

    Mana cost: None

    Other: The weapons can only add the normal debuffs, and are not able to add any of the rare or super rare debuffs.

    Weaknesses: Only add one debuff, and doesn¡¯t work on projectiles.

    Strengths: Costs no mana, and is automatically added to every weapon without needing to activate.

    Atlas had decided to use these two skills, and one more.

    Ultimate Consume-

    Causes the target to vanish from existence, leaving no trace. The user does not gain a skill, but instead gains one to five stats from the creature''s highest stat, depending on the creature''s level in relation to the user. High end may be higher as it hasn¡¯t been tested on stronger creatures.

    Mana cost: 100 Mana

    Time that it must be used after creatures death: 5 minutes

    Other: Can be used on a living creature, but instead of stealing their stats, it instead gives them a random amount of debuffs (Costs 2000 mana). The reason for this high cost is because the skill can inflict anywhere from 0 to seemingly infinite amounts of debuffs. No upper limit has been found as of yet, but the most in one cast so far is 126, and instantly killed the target from the sheer amount of debuffs.

    Weaknesses: Requires a couple seconds of concentration to use either of the two effects.

    Strengths: Can potentially one-shot a creature and also gives stat points.

    Atlas didn¡¯t know why Ultimate Consume was so powerful, but he definitely wasn¡¯t complaining. It both gave him free stat points and a roll of the dice attack.

    Atlas stood up and stretched, happy with his gains, but now he wanted to try the dungeon that he had found earlier.

    He ran through the woods and came across the dungeon once again.

    You have found a dungeon! Impossible dungeon may not be entered until wave 5 has been cleared. Time will halt while inside of the dungeon. Do you wish to enter the dungeon?

    Atlas smiled and mentally selected yes, entering the depths of the dungeon. He felt the familiar and nauseating sensation of being teleported and found himself in a large white room. There was a dome above him that held a massive crowd of people. They all roared and clapped when he saw them, but none of the sound reached him. Either they were projections, or the dome was sound proof.

    A strange group of people did catch his eye though, and he quickly inspected them.

    ???

    Level ???? Tier ??

    The message was the same for all of them, and Atlas looked closer at them. They were all clad in dark black robes that reminded him of the grim reaper, and their faces were shaded in a way that didn¡¯t look natural, to the point where he could only see their eyes shining through. They all had glowing red eyes that looked like they wanted to eat him up just by staring at him.

    Atlas shuddered, deeply unnerved. As he tried to make sense of his surroundings, a message popped in front of him

    You have entered the impossible dungeon! You will be tested 7 times, one for each stat, and then a grand finale! You are not able to use any skills, spells, or titles (Stat boosting titles still boost your stats, but do not do anything else.)

    Enter the Trial of Strength. (Red Torches)

    Atlas blinked and then frowned. He couldn¡¯t use skills or titles? That was harsh, but it wasn¡¯t called impossible for nothing it seemed. He glanced around and found different colored torches all around him. He walked over to the ones with red torches and entered, walking quite a distance before coming to an edge.

    It overlooked an arena, and the same dome hung over it. The walls of the arena were made of a deep gray stone, and the sand on the ground seemed to glow, filling the room with light other than the dome hanging overhead.

    Taking a deep breath, Atlas jumped.

 Chapter 19: Trial of Strength

    Chapter 19: Trial of Strength

    Atlas landed on the soft sand, raising his fists and glancing around. Nothing had changed, except for now everything was closer. He took everything in carefully, making sure that nothing would get the jump on him.

    He felt vulnerable without his skills, as though he wasn¡¯t wearing armor when it mattered most. After a few tense moments, he glanced upwards, and found the 6 dark figures staring down at him. From this angle, he felt like he could almost see under their hoods.

    Trial of Strength starts in 10¡­ 9¡­ 8¡­

    Atlas¡¯s eyes snapped forward, staring at the message. It was time.

    7¡­

    Atlas took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to steady his shaking hands. It had been a while since he had been this scared.

    6¡­

    Was it because of the crowd? This would be the first time he would be fighting with people watching him, other than the system and the ¡®gods¡¯ that had been intent on watching his tutorial.

    5¡­

    Atlas opened his eyes, shaking his head. Best not to think about that. He felt scared, and that was all. He would rise past this fear and beat his opponent anyway. You couldn¡¯t have courage without fear after all.

    4¡­

    Atlas raised his fists, glancing up at the glass dome overhead one final time.

    3¡­

    Another deep breath, another tense moment of waiting.

    2¡­

    Atlas took a step forward, legs spaced out evenly to give himself a steady base.

    1¡­

    The last second felt like an eternity. Nervous sweat rolled down his temples, and he tried, and failed, to relax his fists.

    The Trial Begins!

    Atlas watched as the gate across the pit started to rise, cranking and grinding sounds echoing throughout the arena.

    He didn¡¯t wait for something to emerge, sprinting towards the gate. He was almost positive that something was going to come out of that gate, and soon. It was a trial of strength, which made Atlas assume that this was fist fight.

    The gate clanged open, and a roar sounded from within the black space.

    That definitely isn¡¯t a human¡­ Atlas thought nervously.

    He quickly backtracked, fists still raised protectively. As he watched the inky blackness in front of him, he saw a dark form emerge. He clenched his teeth and planted his feet as the form came into view.

    It was roughly in the shape of man, but that was where the similarities ended.

    Two large horns jutted out from its head, and it stood a fearsome 8 feet tall. Its face was long, like a cows, and it had a golden ring in its nose. It was absolutely jacked, with easily discernible abs. There was hair all along its back and instead of feet, it had hooves.

    Atlas gaped. This was what he was going against? A friggin Minotaur? Atlas grit his teeth even harder, and he rushed forward, trying to get an edge on the creature.

    The minotaur glanced around, seeing him and lowering its head. Letting out a bellow, it charged him. Atlas had finally shaken the fog that had been stuck in his head, reacting quickly and darting out of the way. The humanoid bull ground to a halt, but it had some difficulty turning to face him, and Atlas took note of that.

    A plan was starting to form, but he needed more information on the beast.

    The minotaur charged again, and Atlas chose not to jump to the side, but up instead. He shot upwards, going so high that he could have brushed the side of the dome if he tried. He fell back down, and he angled himself to land on the minotaur, his experience with Float helping him control his descent.

    He didn¡¯t have his skills, but that didn¡¯t mean he was the same person he had been before getting his skills, he had the knowledge that they had provided, just not their effects.

    When he was only feet away from the bull-like creature, it glanced up, only for his feet to slam into its face. It moaned in pain, but Atlas didn¡¯t let up there, grabbing its horns and swinging onto its back.

    The minotaur started to buck and jerk, trying to send him flying off of its back. Atlas gripped on harder, but the minotaur reached behind itself, attempting to grab him.

    Atlas heaved himself out of reach, and the hands missed him by a long shot, it didn¡¯t seem very flexible. Atlas suddenly let go, and the minotaur whirled, glaring down at him and snorting as it reached for his skull.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Atlas, part wanting to show off to his crowd, and also trying to evade the grasping hands, did a backflip high into the air, landing dozens of feet away. He definitely couldn¡¯t be compared to a normal human anymore, he felt like a cat as he whirled through the air.

    The minotaur didn¡¯t hesitate, lowering its head again and launching at him before he could think through his next course of action.

    Too bad he already knew what he was going to do.

    When the minotaur was only a half dozen feet away, Atlas dove to the side, watching as his opponent slammed into the wall. There was a snap that Atlas felt deep into his bones as one of the creature''s horns weren''t soaring through the arena, coming to a rest near the center of the sandy battlefield.

    Atlas and the minotaur stared at each other for a long second, both waiting to see what the other would do. For a brief moment everything was calm.

    Then both ran straight at each other, shattering the peace.

    They collided, the minotaurs'' forehead clashing with Atlas¡¯s fist.

    The minotaur won.

    Atlas felt the bones in his hand shatter, sending pain lashing up his arm. Atlas grit his teeth, snapping his leg up and kicking the minotaur in the chest, sending it stumbling back.

    Atlas whirled, sprinting away and sliding into the middle of the battleground, grabbing the broken horn and lifting it, facing off against the minotaur again.

    Only to find it charging straight at him.

    Atlas yelped, leaping to the side yet again, watching as the minotaur brushed past him. Watching the rippling muscle under the thin layer of fur, Atlas narrowed his eyes, lancing forward, horn held out in front of him.

    The minotaur was too slow, and it was speared through the side. It screamed in pain, and Atlas yanked the horn out, stabbing it again and again, until it collapsed to the ground, dead.

    You have completed the challenge!

    1/2 challenges completed.

    Next challenge begins¡­ now.

    Atlas stared at the screen. There¡¯s more? Of course there is. He grumbled mentally to himself.

    There was another grumbling sound, and another dark form emerged from the area beyond the gate. It was definitely larger than the minotaur, that''s for sure.

    As Atlas watched, a dragon strode into the arena, head held high.

    Atlas reached down, planting his foot on the corpse of the minotaur nearby, snapping off its other horn with a grunt and a tug. He turned, facing off against the dragon.

    He felt far less scared than he had been waiting to face off against the minotaur, maybe it was the adrenaline from his earlier fight. He held both the horns in each hand, holding the one in his right hand gingerly, not wanting to injure himself. They were slightly curved, which made holding onto them easier.

    The dragon glanced around, then locked its eyes onto him. A shiver of fear crawled up Atlas¡¯s spine, but he brushed it off, staring defiantly at the overgrown lizard. The dragon snorted at him, smoke curling out of its nostrils.

    Atlas was worried. This dragon definitely was smart, or at least far smarter than the minotaur. Which, now that he thought about it, wasn¡¯t a very good comparison. The minotaur had been like a rabid animal, whereas the dragon¡¯s intellect seemed more like that of a human.

    They faced off, and Atlas instinctively knew that this was going to be a quick fight, but he didn¡¯t know who¡¯s favor it would be in.

    For a couple few terrifying moments, the only thing anyone could hear was Atlas¡¯s quick breath. Then they both exploded in motion.

    The dragon leaped upwards, wings wide open and legs tucked in close to its body, hurtling through the arena ¡®sky¡¯. Atlas sent sand spraying behind him, legs pumping as he hurtled towards the giant creature.

    As the dragon flew towards him, Atlas¡¯s mind spun with ideas on how to take down his second dragon. Even that thought made him want to laugh maniacally. Who would have thought he would be fighting not one, but two dragons?

    The dragon swooped down, talons open wide and aiming for the human''s face. Atlas, to his credit, reacted fast, diving to the side and dodging the sharp, dagger-like claws and getting back up to his feet quickly.

    They faced off again, and Atlas¡¯s mind was a whirl of motion as he tried to come up with some sort of plan to best this large creature. As they stared each other down, Atlas scanned the dragon, looking for potential weaknesses.

    The dragon was covered in red scales, with huge wings and a large snout. It had long legs with six razor sharp claws on each talon. There were two curved horns rising from the back of its skull, with spines jutting up from its back.

    The only potential weakness Atlas could find was the dragon''s wings, the skin was pulled tight and should be easy to punch through with the help of the minotaurs horns. Atlas glared at the dragon, before taking initiative and darting forwards, running a couple of steps before crouching low and launching upwards.

    The dragon swooped down low, trying to go underneath him. Atlas was prepared however, and tucked his limbs towards his body, hurtling towards the dragon. Before the dragon could react, he landed on its back, thrusting both of the horns into the dragon''s large wings.

    The horns were just barely long enough to hit both wings, and Atlas stood up quickly, ripping two long gashes in the wings. The dragon roared in rage and pain, spiraling out of control before crashing into the ground.

    Atlas was flung off of the dragons back, soaring through the air before landing on his arm. The arm that was attached to his broken hand. Atlas screamed in pain, releasing the horn and hearing a snap. He glanced down to see his mangled right arm and hand, as well as the horn¡¯s tip having snapped off, leaving a jagged edge at the end of the horn.

    As Atlas lay in pain on the sandy floor, the dragon, sensing weakness, rushed towards him, maw open wide to take a large bite out of him.

    Atlas saw movement from the corner of his eye, and acted without thinking. He grabbed the broken horn, whirling and stabbing it upwards with a scream of pain and frustration.

    Straight into the dragon''s throat.

    For a brief second, Atlas stared into the endless depths of the dragons throat. His mind blanked. He had almost been eaten by a dragon for the second time in his life.

    The dragon let out a groan, before slumping onto the horn. Atlas let go, watching the dragon collapse to the ground. He kicked it, but there was no reaction. It¡¯s dead all right. He thought wryly to himself. Looks like the fight was in my favor.

    You have completed the challenge!

    2/2 challenges completed.

    Trial of Strength has been completed.

    You may advance to the next challenge.

    Your wounds have been healed.

    Atlas sighed as a rush of green light washed over his body, healing his body and leaving his hand and arm tender, but not a wrangled mess of flesh and bone.

    He glanced up, staring at the six cloaked forms high above him. He watched as they all stood up, walking out of the room.

    Atlas grit his teeth. This is stupid, I need to complete these challenges and get out of this place. I hate not being in control of my fate. He angrily thought. He took a calming breath. No, that''s not true, I still have some control over my situation. I just have to beat all of these trials, no biggy.

    He watched as a section of the arena opened up, and he glared at it, before rolling his eyes and walking through.

 Chapter 20: Trial of Dexterity

    Atlas walked through the hallway, watching as the torches shifted from red to yellow, showing that he had indeed gone into another trial.

    He continued to walk down the hallway, anxiously glancing around. After that last trial, it would be adequate to say he was just a little bit on edge.

    He saw the hallway open up. With a tentative step, he went through.

    He found himself in another large dome, with only the very top of the dome being made of glass. And there, 40 feet above him, were more people watching him. He saw the 6 cloaked figures standing at the edge of the dome yet again.

    In the middle of the room, there was a steel kite shield, and, glancing around carefully, he went over and picked it up.

    Trial of Dexterity starts in 10¡­ 9¡­ 8¡­

    Atlas hefted the shield, wondering why exactly he needed it. He watched in awe as the room began to change, and the platform under him lifted. He found himself carried over to the side of the dome, watching as the room continued to shift.

    4¡­

    There were platforms all over, spikes, bars, poles, and tons of other things Atlas didn¡¯t have a name for. The ground broke in chunks, melting into roiling magma and sending up sparks.

    It looked like a giant playground, Just more dangerous.

    Atlas watched as the ground bubbled, before turning into roiling magma.

    Oh, so that''s what this trial is, a giant parkour course. But I still don¡¯t understand why I need this shield. Atlas thought to himself, glancing around.

    1¡­

    The Trial begins!

    Atlas lept from the platform, grabbing a bar with his free right hand and swinging himself onto another platform. He glanced around calmly, jumping again and landing on the top of a tall pole, over a dozen feet tall.

    Atlas took a moment to observe the course, trying to find the optimal path. He didn¡¯t think he was being timed, but there was no real way of knowing for sure.

    As he scanned over the course, he spotted a bar hanging from the ceiling. In a burst of inspiration, he leapt, grabbing the bar and swinging himself forward before releasing it.

    He flew through the air, landing with a grunt in the middle of the room.

    Atlas took a deep breath, glancing around. He heard a faint whirring sound and tried to find the source of the odd sound.

    He watched in terror as dozens of ballistas rose from the magma all around the room. In unison, they all turned to him. Well, I think I know what the shield is for¡­ Atlas thought wryly to himself.

    He held the shield out in front of him, crouching down to make himself a smaller target. All of the ballistas shot, aiming straight at him.

    Atlas jumped, going high above the majority of the bolts. A couple of the bolts were still aiming at him however, and he bashed them away with his shield.

    He landed, briefly taking in his surroundings before launching himself forward, heading for the platform that seemed to be the end of this course.

    Atlas performed some legendary parkour, ducking and bashing bolts away, while jumping, swinging and otherwise using his surroundings to go forward. There was a close call with one of the bolts almost hitting him in the face, but he bent his knees, barely avoiding it in time.

    He reached the platform without much trouble and took a deep relieving breath. Is that all? That was suspiciously easy¡­ Atlas felt uneasy.

    You have completed the challenge!

    1/2 challenges completed.

    Next challenge begins¡­ now.

    Oh, that''s why. Atlas grumbled internally to himself, glancing around cautiously. Do all of these trials have two parts? He wondered briefly before watching the course change yet again.

    The magma vanished, and all of the random bits and bobs all around the room sunk into the ground, leaving an empty room. After another moment, a portal appeared in front of the platform, which was still hovering over the ground. He watched as another portal appeared in front of the other platform. A glass wall sprung up in the middle of the room, cutting the space in half.

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    A message popped up in front of Atlas.

    The next challenge starts as soon as you enter the portal. Your goal is to reach the other portal, while racing a few other entities.

    Other entities? It was almost as though the system was keeping information from him, which made him immediately on edge.

    He took a few moments to prepare himself. Don¡¯t want to go jumping into a situation I¡¯m not ready for. He thought to himself. I like to think I¡¯m learning, and no longer just doing whatever the heck I feel like. After a few moments he grimaced. Not sure how much I¡¯m actually improving.

    He realized with a jolt that the shield he had been holding had vanished. When did that happen? He wondered briefly, before jumping headfirst into the portal.

    It took him a second to reorient his body, but when he did, he was awestruck.

    He was in a completely different world, or realm, or whatever it was called. The sky was a glaring red, with an absolutely massive sun blazing across the world. He was surrounded by people, but taking a closer look, he realized they were actually not human. They had black horns, red skin and claws, some of them even had a tail.

    Demonkin

    T2 level 20

    Demonkin? Did that mean they were descended from demons? Were there full fledged demons out there?

    He shook his head lightly, tensing. The system said something about a race? He looked forward, finding himself on a long racetrack. He couldn¡¯t see the end, but he assumed that a portal lay at the end of the long path.

    Ready? Set. GO!

    Atlas didn¡¯t think, he reacted, flinging himself forward and breaking out into a run. He didn¡¯t know how long the track was, but he was confident in his ability to run full speed for long amounts of time, so he wasn¡¯t going to hold back.

    He was surprised to find that the demonkin were almost keeping pace with him, only about a couple feet behind him. There were about a dozen of them in total, which just made Atlas''s challenge harder. More opponents meant more people that could overtake him, he needed to stay at the front of the pack.

    Atlas wasn¡¯t sure if he would win if he only got second or third, but he wasn¡¯t going to risk it. First place was the only real spot for him.

    He ran, making sure that he remained slightly ahead of the rest of the group so that he didn¡¯t lose his spot. As he ran, he started to notice odd things. For one, the demonkins'' eyes were completely blank, as though they had absolutely no soul inside of them, and were simply robots being controlled by some other force.

    He also noticed that they all stepped in unison, which, if you have ever run a race before, is all but impossible. Everyone is not only running at different speeds, but their legs are different length, resulting in different step times.

    They were all stepping at the same time, and they definitely weren¡¯t the same height.

    He also remembered them having expressions when he had gotten here originally¡­

    You have broken the ¡®moving illusion¡¯!

    There was a cracking sound, and suddenly Atlas found himself standing perfectly still, watching red skin run away from him. They had tricked him! Now he was in the back!

    He went from a stand still to a full out sprint in no time at all, looking on as the gap between him and the demonkin started to close. Atlas pumped his legs harder, and closed the distance quickly.

    Once he reached the demonkin in the back, he grabbed onto its shirt, using it to throw him forward while also leaving the demonkin in the dust.

    Atlas began to pass demonkin quickly, using them to make himself go ever faster, or just shove them out of the way. If they were going to play dirty, so was he.

    He reached the front relatively quickly, but found that the demonkin in the front was harder to pass, slamming into him with their shoulders to deter him.

    Atlas narrowed his eyes, getting directly behind one of the humanoids before using them as a springboard, hurling himself into the front of the group. He stumbled before regaining his footing, glancing backwards to make sure that the strange humanoids weren¡¯t pulling another trick on him.

    It went on like that, Atlas narrowly keeping his lead, looking behind himself to get rid of any illusions they might be putting on him. Step after step, Atlas maintained distance between him and the demonkin.

    After a few more minutes of running, Atlas finally saw a large banner heralding the end of the race. Atlas stepped into high gear, using all of his strength to blast forwards.

    Processing¡­ Difficulty does not seem high enough. Allowing extra magic to flow through the [Demonkin]

    Atlas didn¡¯t slow, knowing that the message would only make his life harder. He broke through multiple illusions just by focusing on the feel of his legs, and not just his physical senses. He sure missed his skills. Blitz sure would be helpful right about now, he would just cruise through this whole race in a blur of motion.

    Demon¡¯s are summoning -eRr0R-

    A powerful presence appears behind you.

    Atlas felt a wave of almost physical power rush past him, and his spine tingled in fear. What¡¯s happening? He thought to himself, burning up his last few ounces of power to go as fast as he could, practically ripping apart his body in the process.

    His muscles were straining against bonds that a mortal such as him shouldn¡¯t be able to break. He risked a glance back, and almost immediately regretted it.

    Behind him, running only a few feet behind him, was the devil himself. Or at least, that was Atlas¡¯s first impression. It had red skin, glossy onyx horns, a spiked tail, and glittering red eyes with no pupils. It also stood a meager 10 feet tall.

    -eRr0R-

    T?? level ????

    With those simple yet very confusing words, Atlas knew he was screwed. He wasn¡¯t going to just give up though, he was going out with a bang.

    He noticed that the demonkin were all lagging behind, seeming to have reached their limit. Whatever they had done to summon this thing had taken a lot out of them it seemed.

    Atlas knew without a doubt that eRr0R was playing with him. There was no way it was slower than he was, it was simply impossible. It was easily the most powerful thing he had ever seen, but yet, it was behind him.

    So the question was, what was it planning?

    As Atlas inched ever closer to the finish line, he noticed that for every step he took, the aberration got ever so closer, it was though it was matching him, and then going just a little bit farther.

    In other words, it was going to beat him by just a hair. It wanted not to beat him, but to give him the final thought of losing by a mere inch, or maybe even less.

    Atlas would just have to go faster.

    His legs became a streak of light as he sped up. Faster. Faster! FASTER! FASTER!

    The air seemed to thrum with his final thought, and he blasted forward, easily matching the speed of Blitz, and maybe even a little faster. He felt himself straining against the sound barrier, trying to break it.

    He didn¡¯t break it.

    He did, however, cross the finish line centimeters before the devilish creature had.

    A portal appeared directly in front of him, and without slowing down, he dove through it.

    Trial of Dexterity has been completed.

    You may advance to the next challenge.

    Your wounds have been healed.

    Atlas collapsed to the ground, not exhausted physically anymore, apparently that counted as a wound, but mentally. He had almost died because the system didn¡¯t think the difficulty was hard enough. That thought terrified him more than anything else.

    An entity stronger than anything he had ever seen before was taking notice of him.

    He snorted, standing and walking down the hallway that had opened in the nearest wall. The torches turned orange.

    What challenge lay ahead? Only the system knew for sure.

 Chapter 21: Trial of Constitution

    Atlas walked through the seemingly endless hallway.

    I wonder what the next trial will be. Atlas mused to himself thinking over the options. So far it has been related to stats so maybe intelligence? Or endurance. Or maybe it''s going to be one of the other two stats, I honestly have no clue.

    Atlas continued to walk, deep in thought.

    He soon came to a closed door that stretched across the entire hallway. It looked old, made of dark colored wood with a rusty metal rung as a door knob.

    Atlas stopped, and as he watched, bold letters began to form on the oddly shaped door. Only one challenger may enter a room at a time. Please wait for the challenger to either die or move to the next trial.

    Atlas stared at the text, trying to grasp their meaning. Someone else both entered this dungeon and made it this far? I shouldn¡¯t be surprised, considering I made it here too, but I have a lot going for me. What difficulty are they in? If so, have I met them? Are they another Player?

    As questions swarmed Atlas¡¯s brain, the door caught fire. Atlas stumbled backwards, watching as the door turned to ash. The ash sank into the ground, vanishing right before his eyes.

    He dusted himself off, standing up and pretending he hadn¡¯t almost soiled his fancy Soulbound suit. ¡°Okay, watch for things to randomly burst into flame, got it.¡± He snorted, beginning to watch forward cautiously. ¡°And now I¡¯m talking to myself, just great.¡±

    After a couple more steps he found himself staring down a dark staircase. ¡°Fun.¡± Was all he said before he started his descent into the inky darkness.

    After a few more steps, he realized something. ¡°Wait¡­ how am I seeing shadows? I haven¡¯t seen darkness ever since I got the Moonwalker title. Did the system take my titles?¡± He wondered aloud, thinking back to the beginning of the trials. ¡°I think it did. Well, that''s annoying, no more nightvision for me.¡±

    He stopped. ¡°I just realized, has my skin been turning black every time I enter a dark area? Or was it just during the night?¡± He mused to himself, already getting quite comfortable with talking to himself even just after a few minutes, he had been in dire need of a coping mechanism, keeping everything bottled up in his head hadn¡¯t been good for his mental health.

    He started to walk, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs and looking into a room filled to the brim with fire. For a couple seconds he stared, slack jawed at the sizzling coals on the ground, the burning wood on the walls, and the fire that seemed to be just floating in the middle of the room.

    ¡°I have to go through¡­ that?¡±

    Trial of Constitution starts in 10¡­ 9¡­ 8¡­

    ¡°Wait wait. I¡¯m supposed to go through that hot mess of a room?¡± Atlas grumbled at the empty air.

    !Important system message!: Yes

    Atlas wanted to grumble more, but the countdown reached 0 before he could work up a good argument.

    The Trial begins!

    He grumbled a bit more before just manning up and crouching down, looking for where he was supposed to go. This was the trial of constitution, so it was testing his body, so it should be¡­ There! Atlas spotted a gap all the way across the room that had nothing on fire.

    He leaped forward, soles clacking against the scorching hot coals that were scattered everywhere. There was no way to avoid them, they were like a blanket of heat on the ground, suffusing everything with their violent power.

    Atlas scoffed before casually walking to the gap in the fire. ¡°Is that all? Pathetic.¡± Atlas¡¯s feet were slightly singed but other than that he was completely fine.

    Trial of Constitution completed.

    1/2 challenges completed.

    Next challenge begins¡­ now.

    The room seemed to melt, all of the fire snuffing itself and all of the still red coals tumbling to the center of the room, seeming to meld into each other.

    Out of the floor rose thick golden beams, wrapping around Atlas and holding him in place. Atlas grit his teeth, trying to rip himself out of the golden bands, but it was no use, they showed no sign of breaking or even bending.

    The stones finally gathered into a hulking golem, towering over Atlas and standing almost 15 feet tall. Atlas felt a chill run through him. Was this turning into a beating?

    His answer came soon enough.

    Survive 3 of the [Golemlord]¡¯s strikes.

    Atlas¡¯s eyes widened as the golem lumbered towards him, fist glowing in a deadly grey light.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Atlas closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, preparing to meet the golems punch with all he could muster.

    The seconds ticked by, and nothing happened.

    Atlas creaked open one of his eyes, only to be met with the terrifying view of the golems all encompassing fist taking over the entirety of his vision.

    Atlas screamed turned into a gurgle as his head was whipped back and he heard a *crunch* on his face before he lost his vision because of a spurt of blood that drenched his face and shoulders.

    Atlas immediately felt his high stats start to mend his face, but not nearly quickly enough.

    The golems fist descended once again, this time coming crunching down at his chest. There was another meaty crunching sound and Atlas felt his ribs creak, but luckily did not break. He could barely see anything because of the blood clinging onto his face and falling across his eyes, but he definitely looked worse for the wear.

    Just one more strike. All you have to do is survive one more strike and this will all be over. Atlas reminded himself and stared defiantly at the golem as it raised its fist for one final strike.

    Atlas could immediately tell that something was wrong. Before, the golem had covered its fists in grey energy before slamming into Atlas, but this time it was different.

    The golems fist was still covered in that dense grey energy, but it''s fist started to throb, as though it was about to unleash a terrifyingly powerful blow.

    The world seemed to slow down as the golem lord punched down at Atlas¡¯s chest once more. The feeling was similar to whenever he used Reaper¡¯s Senses but distinctly different. Instead of a skill, this was the heightened perception of someone who was staring death in the face. All of Atlas¡¯s memories flashed before his eyes and he was suddenly somewhere else.

    ***

    Atlas had always been a quiet child, never willing to interrupt or distract others unless they explicitly asked him. Or, at least, he used to. It had all changed when his father had died and his mother got remarried to Him.

    If there was one word to describe Atlas¡¯s mother, it was beautiful. She was the most beautiful being he had ever seen, and that included the people on tv. He may have been a bit biased because of her raising him, but others all seemed to agree with his assessment of her. ¡°Your mother is so beautiful, is she a model?¡± they would ask him, and he would get all shy and only be able to simply shake his head at their questions.

    He didn¡¯t remember his father very well, having only been 5 when he died. He had some small memories of his smiling bearded face and his slate grey eyes that looked so much like Atlas¡¯s. His father had been the happiest and most loving person on the planet- at least according to his mother. He had died a hero¡¯s death, saving a small group of children who were about to be killed by a runaway truck with a driver who had later been found out to be drunk.

    Atlas was sad to not have a father, but at least he could live knowing that his father had been brave enough to save people who couldn¡¯t save themselves. That was a memory worth keeping.

    His mother, after 3 years of not being a widow, had eventually decided to get married to a thriving businessman named Reiden Jackman. At first, all had been perfect, and Atlas had found his stepfather a decent man, though he would never call him ¡°dad¡±, only ever calling him Rei, even after the insistence from his mother that he should accept his new father. Atlas had refused, saying that no one could replace his real father.

    Reiden said it didn¡¯t matter to him, so eventually his mother had dropped the matter.

    On one seemingly normal day, Atlas came back from home jubilated, he had gotten a perfect score on his spelling bee and wanted to tell his mother all about it, as was usually on a test day.

    He remembered thinking that the house had been unusually quiet, but thought nothing of it at the time.

    Right up until he walked into his parents room and found Rei standing over the corpse of his mother, holding a bloodied knife in his hands. Atlas had screamed in shock and ran from the room, glancing back and finding his stepfather rushing after him with a maniac look in his eye. Atlas had burst outside and fled to his neighbors house, screaming at them to open the door.

    They had opened the door in the nick of time, and Atlas slammed the door and locked it behind him, he broke down sobbing instantly after that, and the neighbors had tried to get him to talk but he was a blubbering mess. Rei pounded on the door and yelled to be let in but before the neighbors could unlock and open the door Atlas blocked their path, yelling at them to call the police.

    Confused and frightened at the serious manner in which Atlas, the normally soft spoken boy was acting, they quickly dialed 911 and Atlas told the police everything that had happened. Both the police and the neighbors were horrified. How could something like this have happened?

    The police arrived shortly after, and had to shoot Rei down after he tried to stab them to death, with one police officer getting a nasty stab in his leg and another barely avoiding being stabbed in the head.

    Atlas hadn¡¯t seen what happened, but the yelling and gunshots had been enough to tell him what had happened.

    The police never found out why Reiden Jackson had killed his wife, and they never found any illegal substances that could have provoked such a reaction, and the general conclusion became that he had just snapped.

    Rei had been through a lot and specialists believed that the pressure had eventually become too much for him to bear and broke him mentally.

    As for Atlas, he had gone to live with his only aunt and had become scarred by what had happened. Newspapers had wanted to question him but his aunt had adamantly refused, and had sent them all on their way. It had taken years before Atlas was back to normal, but he had become a lot more outspoken, and had developed a deep hatred for anyone who picked on the weak or bullied others.

    The years had passed peacefully, but his aunt died of a heart attack at the age of 54, and Atlas had been left all alone again at the age of 14. He spent 4 years with a foster family before going to college and getting a bachelor''s degree. He had gotten a decent job that made him just enough money to get by, and he found a girl he fell in love with. They had never taken that last step though and stayed perpetually as boyfriend and girlfriend, too scared to break the balance and get married.

    Just when Atlas was starting to work up the courage to propose, he had been whisked away by the system.

    ***

    Atlas felt his life flash before his eyes as the punch slammed down into him, but he grit his teeth, not letting himself back down, he would never give up until he was truly dead, and he fought with everything he had and fought against the crushing pressure of the blow before it was finally over.

    His body was battered all over, and his body was screaming at him in pain, but he was alive.

    The golem collapsed into rocks as euphoria filled Atlas¡¯s body, knitting him back together and healing all of his broken bones and bloody face.

    Trial of Constitution has been completed.

    You may advance to the next challenge.

    Your wounds have been healed.

    Atlas collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

 Chapter 22: Trial of Endurance

    Atlas roused himself from the ground, groaning and pushing himself off of the ground. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. He glanced around and tried to get a sense of where he was. What had he been doing again?

    He saw the hallway and remembered. Ah right, I am still in the dungeon. He walked to the hallway and entered it, watching as the torches shifted from orange to green. Green? Maybe Endurance? I feel like Wisdom and Intelligence are going to be more blueish because of their connection to mana. He mused to himself.

    He continued walking until he reached the end of the hallway, and found himself looking at a large room with a portal in the middle, looking identical to the one that he had gone through in the Trial of Dexterity.

    The Trial of Endurance starts as soon as you enter the portal. Your goal will be revealed after you walk through.

    Atlas smirked to himself. He had been right after all, it was endurance. He cracked his knuckles before striding to the portal and finally entering. His world twisted rapidly before he found himself standing in the middle of what looked like endless plains.

    Run without stopping for 24 hours. Start whenever you move.

    Atlas groaned and started to jog before picking up speed to a casual run. A timer appeared in front of him, hovering in his peripheral vision.

    23:59:56

    Atlas sighed. This was going to be a slog.

    He ran and ran, never letting even the thought of stopping enter his mind. As he ran he started to realize that he could use this time somewhat productively. He brought up his stat sheet to try and see what he could do while still running.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 20

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Titles (Disabled): Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser

    Skills (Disabled): Ultimate Debuff (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Demonic Claw (S), Fade Away (A), Weapon Mastery (A), Damage Resistance (A), Toughen (B), Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D)

    Spells (Disabled): None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 373

    Constitution: 373

    Strength: 452

    Dexterity: 452

    Wisdom: 402

    Intelligence: 402

    Free points: 0

    Temporary Skills (Disabled)-

    <ol>

    <li> Ruinous Mist -In use</li>

    <li> Debuffed Weaponry -In use</li>

    <li> Elemental Debuffs -In use</li>

    <li> Ultimate Consume -Add?</li>

    <li> Sense of Death -Add?</li>

    <li> Demonic Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li> Armor of Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li> Debuffing Beam -Add?</li>

    </ol>

    It was very depressing to see all those (Disabled)¡¯s but there was nothing he could really do about it. He started to review all of his skills to see if he couldn¡¯t come up with a way to level all of them up. As the minutes ticked by, Atlas continued to focus on the task he had made for himself, not caring about the endless pumping of his legs.

    ***

    After hours of running and planning, Atlas had come up with a training regime for all of his skills except Battle Trance, Consume, Ultimate Debuff, as they could only really be upgraded through battle.

    He checked his timer to see how much longer he would have to keep running for.

    13:46:27

    He had used almost half his time, but he still had a huge chunk of time left. Atlas desperately needed a new task to focus on so that he didn''t lose his mind, and after a couple minutes of frantic searching he came upon a task he had been neglecting.

    Building his town.

    Atlas, elated about a new task to focus his mind on, brought up his town screen.

    Town Center: Rank: Village. Owner: Atlas Channing. Resources: None. Residents: One. See list?

    Town Core: Rank: Village. Upgrade? Core/Town/Buildings. Create? Defense/Production/Residences/Other

    Magic Storage: Rank: Village. When you harvest a resource, it is atomically sent here unless there is not enough room. All resources will be cleanly organized and easy to find. Resources: Lumber: 129, Stone: 306, Iron: 147, Tin: 462, Copper: 232, Gems: 24, Grain: 20

    Atlas first clicked on upgrade, as he really wanted to get more options and stronger fortifications.

    Upgrade Town Center from Rank: Village -> Town? Cost: 1000 Lumber, 500 Stone, 100 Iron, 200 Bronze, 10 gems. Upgrade?

    Atlas sighed, he didn¡¯t have nearly enough resources, though he had some of the requirements met. He needed 900 more lumber, 200 more stone, and 200 bronze, which he could only get by smelting tin and copper together. If he remembered right it was something like 90% copper to 10% tin.

    Or maybe that was only modern bronze? Bronze here could be a little different, but it wouldn¡¯t change by too much, still having similar requirements for building.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    After some brief searching, he found the smelter, which actually seemed to be an add on to the blacksmith by the looks of it.

    Smelter- Lumber 20, Stone 20, Iron 100, Blacksmith.

    He planned on getting this as soon as he got back, and he started to search for anything that would give him passive resources, such as his Grain and Lumber Mill¡¯s.

    After some more searching he found a couple of convenient options he could use.

    Automated Mineshaft- Mineshaft, Lumber 50, Stone 100, Iron 50, Gems 5

    It looked like a very expensive upgrade, but one that would also be insanely useful in gathering materials, as it looked like it would be able to gather all resources in the mine, so it would be able to, in theory, gather all types of ores and minerals that were found in the mine.

    Atlas continued to browse the different types of buildings available to him, but nothing really caught his attention.

    After finally exhausting all of his options, he checked the time again.

    6:33:12

    At this point, Atlas¡¯s legs were starting to burn, and he decided to fully devote himself to running. He ran and ran and then ran some more, never stopping, always in motion. He passed by the same endless grass and dirt than spanned everywhere in every direction, not even a speck that looked out of place in the eternal plains.

    He continued to run, and the time slowly ticked down.

    6:05:47

    Atlas pushed all thoughts out of his mind, focusing only on the task in front of him

    5:42:43

    The time slowly ticked by but Atlas refused to give in, running at the same, steady pace that he had been running at for hours.

    5:13:01

    Doubts started to plague his mind as the time continued to drag on. But Atlas fought them back, clearing his mind of all thoughts but one. Forward.

    4:30:10

    Atlas tripped, barely keeping himself up, his body was just too tired.

    4:00:59

    The doubts returned in full force, preying on Atlas¡¯s mind and whispering for him to just give up, but Atlas just grinded his teeth together and continued onward.

    3:23:51

    The time continued to endlessly drag on.

    2:59:27

    Atlas started to trip more and more often as his legs refused to listen to his helpless pleadings that they continue to push onward.

    2:24:22

    1:18:49

    Atas felt as though his legs were being gnawed on, but he could only push past the pain and continue to move on.

    0:57:27

    Atlas felt a burst of confidence build inside him as he reached under an hour left, he could make this.

    12:12

    Atlas cheered mentally knowing that the end was near.

    11:11

    His legs started to crumble beneath him, but Atlas forced them to keep running with only his willpower.

    10:10

    Time slowed.

    09:09

    Atlas watched in torment as the time continued to slow to a crawl.

    08:08

    He pushed on, forcing his body to respond to his thoughts.

    07:07

    The doubts returned, but Atlas refused to listen to them, focused only on the next step.

    06:06

    His legs gave out, but he didn¡¯t pause and continued to run even as his legs grew numb.

    05:05

    Time passed, and Atlas felt like an observer of his own body, as things started to get worse and worse.

    04:04

    03:03

    Atlas screamed in rage and pain pushing onwards and refusing to give into the doubts that continued to attack him over and over. He was going to make it, even if the very world tried to stop him.

    02:02

    Two more minutes until he would finally be able to stop.

    01:01

    Just one more minute.

    0:12

    Atlas yelled, pumping his legs and sprinting for all he was worth as the time seemed to stop, and his numb legs started to buckle.

    0:04

    0:03

    0:02

    0:01

    Atlas gasped in relief, legs giving out and collapsing to the ground. That had taken a lot out of him. He had severely underestimated this trial, and the time seemed to slow the closer he got to the finish, as he body got more and more exhausted.

    You have completed the challenge!

    1/2 challenges completed.

    Your legs have been slightly restored.

    Climb to the top of the mountain within a day.

    Atlas¡¯s legs felt like they had been filled with power once more, but Atlas was focused on something else. ¡°Mountain? What mountain-¡± Atlas started to ask the empty air before a massive mountain appeared right in front of him. ¡°Ah!¡±

    Ready? Begin.

    Atlas grit his teeth and started to scale the mountain, stifling a scream as his legs cried out in pain. He continued to push on however, not giving in to his legs that wanted to do nothing more than stop and give out.

    Atlas ran up the mountain, gritting his teeth against the pain and going higher and higher, over the next few hours of tortuous climbing, the mountain slowly started to get stepper and stepper, until Atlas was not running up the mountain, but climbing it at an almost 90 degree angle. He steadily climbed on, finding footholds and handholds in the mountain as he continued to climb continuously onward.

    An hour later, his legs gave out, and refused to listen to any of his commands, so he was forced to drag himself upwards with only his hands.

    As hours started to pass, Atlas¡¯s arms grew more and more tired, until every time he moved his arms even slightly, they would scream out in pain and spikes of exhaustion would assault his brain.

    But Atlas refused to give up, and he continued to climb continually onwards using just sheer willpower.

    After another hour of endless climbing, he could finally use his legs again, and he started to tear up the mountain, using all of the strength and power his body could muster.

    He reached over a ledge and hoisted himself up, ready to continue climbing until he could no longer move.

    Only to find himself standing at the very top of the mountain.

    Atlas blinked blearily, hardly believing it. He was thousands of feet above the ground, and he could see the endlessly vast plains stretching in all directions, until they curved into the distance, completely out of sight.

    You have completed the challenge!

    2/2 challenges completed.

    Trial of Endurance has been completed.

    You may advance to the next challenge.

    Your wounds have been healed. Your exhaustion has been purged.

    That blessed, beautiful euphoria filled him once again, and his mind and body were cleansed of all traces of exhaustion, and he felt better than he could ever remember feeling. It was glorious, pure and simple.

    A portal appeared in front of him, and he stepped through it, appearing back at the room he had started in. He took in a breath of fresh air, and started towards the next room.

 Chapter 23: Trial of Wisdom

    Chapter 23: Trial of Wisdom

    Atlas walked through yet another hallway, and watched the torch''s colors change color for the fourth time, this time going from green to blue. Atlas nodded to himself, it was just as he had expected, the next color was blue, which could mean either wisdom or intelligence.

    He kept walking until he found himself in another generic room with yet another portal in the middle.

    The Trial of Wisdom starts as soon as you enter the portal. Your goal will be revealed after you walk through.

    Atlas nodded, having expected as much. So it was wisdom after all. What exactly would it be testing? His gut instinct? He strode over to the portal and hopped in.

    After another bout of confusion and disorientation he found himself standing at the entrance of a large labyrinth.

    Reach the center of the labyrinth within 24 hours. Evade or disable all traps in the maze, getting ¡°killed¡± will send you back to the start of the labyrinth. If you die 3 times, on the fourth time you will not come back to life. If you get through the labyrinth with less than 2 deaths then a second challenge will not be assigned.

    So pretty straightforward then. Atlas thought to himself. He stepped through the labyrinth gate and found himself standing at a crossroads almost instantly. Left, forward, or right? He had no idea what direction would lead him to the center of the labyrinth, and for a couple seconds he just stood there thinking.

    After a couple more seconds of thought, he remembered a tip that one of his school teachers had said randomly. ¡°In a maze, you can pick the left side and put your left hand on it and you will get out eventually, or you can do the opposite with your right hand and the right wall of the maze. Take your pick, as either will lead you to the same exit, though one might take more time.¡±

    Atlas nodded to himself. Yes, that was it. He needed to pick either left or right and follow that wall until he reached the middle, it would take a while, but he would eventually get there. He had a day after all.

    Atlas stretched out his left hand and rested it on the leftmost wall. Taking a deep breath, he started to walk. He scanned the walls as he walked, trying to catch any hint of a trap before it could be sprung on him. He wanted to get through this trial and not have to take a second challenge, as that would make his life a lot harder than he cared for.

    Atlas reached a dead end, but he continued to keep his hand on the wall, not even letting himself skip parts of the maze and just chugging on. He soon came upon his first trap, the classic trip-wire trap. Atlas didn¡¯t know what would happen if he tripped on it, but he wasn¡¯t ready to find out just yet, or ever for that matter.

    He would rather keep his insides inside of him, as they were meant to be.

    He scanned the path briefly to check for any other traps before lightly hopping over the string and making sure not to accidentally activate it.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    He continued to walk with his hand placed firmly on the wall. Time dragged on and more and more traps started to appear in Atlas¡¯s path. He barely avoided a pit trap that looked like it had no end, jumped back as spikes shot from little holes in the floor, and narrowly escaped a boulder smashing into him by jumping off of the wall and landing on the other side of the massive rock.

    Atlas continued to ceaselessly press on, avoiding more and more traps. There were poisonous snakes, vats of very suspicious fluids that fell down from above, more spikes, arrow traps, and a couple more trip-wires, each more hard to see than the last. It was getting to the point where Atlas would find a trap every time he turned a corner, so he had to be on constant vigil.

    As time passed, the traps continued to get denser and deadlier, and Atlas¡¯s speed was slowed to a crawl. At one point, he was bitten by a snake and had to spend almost an hour recovering so that he could devote all of his attention to the traps that barred his way.

    Atlas found himself having to stop every few steps to avoid traps that were scattered every so feet. Atlas slowly walked through the minefield of traps, until he heard a *snap!*

    He looked down and saw a thin transparent wire that lay broken at his feet. ¡°Oh-¡±

    There was a loud bang, and Atlas¡¯s vision was filled with deep red fire and pain, lots and lots of pain..

    Atlas found himself standing once more at the beginning of the labyrinth. Atlas shivered and felt cold sweat drip down his back, that had been terrifying, and he had been certain he was dead. Atlas cursed softly to himself, he had been doing so well, but he had missed the transparent wire that had lay at his feet. If only he had been even slightly more observant.

    Atlas started again, dragging his hand along the wall, but this time he went faster, covering a distance that took him almost an hour to travel in just under twenty minutes. He found out a very nice tidbit after travelling the same path.

    All of the traps that had been expended were still out of use, meaning that only the traps he had left alone, such as the trip-wire traps, were still there.

    That didn¡¯t mean he shouldn¡¯t be careful though, and Atlas took great pains to keep an eye out for any potential traps that still stood in his way. He arrived back at the spot where he had failed before and found scorch marks running up and down the walls. He shivered again as he saw the destruction that had ended his life, and even though he had been resurrected, it still scarred him.

    Atlas¡¯s frightening pace slowed dramatically as he once more came upon the endless traps that spanned the labyrinth. He avoided each and every one, watching for any trip-wires with extra care.

    Twice more he found thin transparent wires running across the labyrinth floor, and twice he evaded them. After an hour of slowly moving forward, he found the middle of the labyrinth, and was not pleased at what he saw.

    You have completed the first half of the labyrinth! To open the portal out, you must drink the only antidote on the table. If you die you will not be resurrected. Trust your gut instinct to find the antidote.

    Before Atlas was a long wooden table with 6 different chalices, each with a different liquid.

    Atlas slowly approached the table, looking at each chalice in turn. The first chalice was a simple wooden cup holding what looked like wine. The second cup was a fancy golden cup filled with murky grey liquid. Then a stone cup with deep purple liquid, a glass goblet filled with green liquid, a steel cup with what looked like water in it. The final cup looked as though it was carved out of a skull, and was filled with a mix of blue and grey.

    Atlas surveyed the liquids instantly discounting a couple of them. He ignored the one with water, and the one with the murky grey liquid. The reasoning was simple, he knew far too many poisons that were colorless (and/ or odorless) and the murky grey liquid seemed to glow with potent power, and he doubted that it was the antidote.

    That still left 4 out of 6 though, and that was 3 to many. After some deliberation, he also crossed out the skull goblet mentally, as it seemed to dumb to put the antidote in the skull cup, as that was easily the most suspicious cup, which made people think of it first.

    That left three cups, and that was still too many, he needed to get rid of at least one more. After scanning the three final cups, he picked up the one with the purple liquid, as it was the least likely to be the antidote in his mind.

    That left just two more cups, the wooden cup with the wine, and the glass goblet with green liquid. After some deliberation, Atlas picked up the glass goblet and gulped it down. A dreadful feeling spread throughout his body and he instantly picked up the wine cup before draining it. A calming surge spread throughout his body and he felt relief, so it had been the wooden cup after all. Atlas had wondered if the system counted alcohol as poison, but that was obviously not the case.

    A portal appeared in front of Atlas and he unhesitatingly stepped through, once more appearing in a drab blank room.

    You have completed the Trial of Wisdom!

    Atlas watched as the hallway to the next room opened, and he strode through confidently.

 Chapter 24: Trial of Intelligence

    Atlas passed through the hallway, and the torches glowed a bright purple. This was the second to last trial, if what the system said had been correct. One trial for each stat and then a final trial that mushed them all together somehow. He had already gone through all of the stats but one, Intelligence.

    He continued on until he found himself in a different room than all of the previous rooms. It had similar white stone walls, but it was multiple times smaller than any of the other rooms, and there were two wooden chairs in the middle, facing each other. On one side of the room hung a blackboard with a floating piece of chalk.

    The Trial of Intelligence starts as soon as you enter the portal. Your goal will be revealed after you walk through.

    Atlas hesitantly walked over to one of the chairs and sat down, and the system spoke again.

    You will be shown 5 riddles, you must answer each one correctly to pass to the next challenge. You get three guesses per riddle. If you fail three times you will die, so answer with great care.

    The Trial starts now.

    There was a howl of wind, and suddenly there was a wizened old man standing by the chalkboard, holding a piece of chalk and wearing a wizard hat that almost doubled his 4 foot tall body that was covered in deep blue and purple robes. Atlas quickly scanned him.

    Archmage Zores

    T ? Level ???

    It only told him his name, but that was actually more than Atlas had hoped for. He had expected to be met with only question marks.

    ¡°Hello¡­ Atlas, is it? Please don¡¯t scan people you don¡¯t know, it''s terribly rude. I am your Trial judge for today, and will be showing you the riddles and judging if your answers are close enough to warrant a successful completion. For example, if your answer is close to the correct answer, but not spot on, I will judge if it counts or if you need to try again.¡± The Archmage said in a dry, bored voice.

    Atlas nodded.¡°Thank you¡­ sir?¡±

    The old man waved him off. ¡°Zores will do just fine, are you ready to get into the thick of it? I must say, coming up with good riddles sure is fun.¡±

    ¡°I am ready whenever you are.¡± Atlas said. He was confident that he would ace these riddles, he had loved riddles back when he was in middle school, and he and a group of friends had spent a lot of time coming up with riddles and answering them for each other.

    ¡°Mm, okay here we go. First riddle.¡± Zores flourished his piece of chalk and stepped close to the whiteboard, writing quickly and efficiently. In just a few seconds, he had finished.

    The chalkboard now held the first riddle. A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks him, "Who is in the picture?" The man replies, "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man''s father is my father''s son." Who is in the picture?

    Atlas stared at the board for a moment, thinking. No brothers or sisters¡­ The man''s father is my fathers son¡­ can¡¯t be his nephew as he doesn¡¯t have siblings¡­ ¡°The answer is The man¡¯s son!¡± Atlas realized aloud.

    ¡°Yes, that is the correct answer, very good.¡± Vores praised him, quickly erasing the board and writing down another riddle.

    I am always coming but never arrive. What am I?

    Always coming but never arriving? ¡°The future?¡± Atlas asked, not completely sure.

    ¡°Mmm, that is close but not the correct answer.¡±

    What is something more specific than the future? ¡°Hmm¡­¡± Atlas hummed aloud, thinking. ¡°Is it tomorrow?¡± It wasn¡¯t possible for tomorrow to be today, so it fit the riddle perfectly, but it might not be the right answer.

    ¡°Correct.¡± Vores said, erasing the board once more. ¡±Here is the next riddle.¡±

    With pointed fangs it sits in wait, with piercing force it doles out fate, over bloodless victims proclaiming its might, eternally joining in a single bite. What is it?

    Atlas frowned, he wanted to say vampire, but he held off, as he felt that would be wrong. He considered the riddle more deeply. Pointed fangs it sits in wait¡­ Can¡¯t move and has fangs? Piercing fate it doles out fate¡­ Affects the victim somehow? Bloodless victims proclaiming its might¡­ its victims either don¡¯t have blood or never did. Eternally joining in a single bite¡­ Takes only one bite to change.

    Atlas thought about it, breaking it into parts and then putting the parts together looking for a fit. He was now confident it wasn''t a vampire, but he didn¡¯t know what it could be. Then it hit him like lightning. He wasn¡¯t completely sure it was right, as it was something from earth, but he was going to try anyway.

    ¡°Stapler?¡± Atlas questioned hopefully.

    Vores blinked. ¡°How did you figure it out so quickly? That was one of my best ones.¡± He said, askance.

    Atlas smirked, so he was right! ¡°It was the bloodless victims that tipped me off.¡± He told Vores.

    ¡°Hrmph. Next riddle.¡± Vores said, now visibly grumpy.

    Lives without a body, hears without ears, speaks without a mouth, to which the air alone gives birth. What is it?

    Atlas glanced at the riddle before smirking. This was an easy one, practically a freebee. ¡°A echo.¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Vores nodded ¡°That one was an easy one, but the next one will not be so easy.¡±

    He started writing on the chalkboard again.

    My thunder comes before the lightning; My lightning comes before the clouds; My rain dries all the land it touches. What am I?

    Atlas hesitated. This one was definitely harder. He was sure it was a natural disaster, but he didn¡¯t know what type of natural disaster. Couldn¡¯t be a tornado or hurricane, as those would make things wet, along with floods, it couldn¡¯t be a drought or a famine either, because they didn¡¯t have anything to do with thunder or lightning. Maybe it was a ¡°Dust Storm?¡± Atlas asked, hopeful.

    Vores grinned at him.¡°No.¡±

    Atlas gritted his teeth, thinking harder. The riddle hinted at some sort of explosion that started the whole thing, but what sort of disaster? Atlas furiously scanned through anything before he came across an idea, not sure if it was right, he continued to think. Natural disasters¡­ Atlas¡¯s mind kept coming back to one idea, and he finally gave up and just said it aloud. ¡°Is it a volcano?¡± Atlas asked, hoping it was the answer, but knowing that it was most likely wrong.

    Zores¡¯s face lost all its glow. ¡°Correct.¡± He grumbled.

    Atlas let out a breath of relief. If that had been wrong, he didn¡¯t know what he would have done. There was nothing else he could have thought of that fit all of those ideas.

    You have completed the challenge!

    1/2 challenges completed.

    Next challenge starts¡­ now!

    There was a twisting portal that appeared over the other chair, and after a few seconds a form popped out. It looked like one of the demonkin from the dexterity trial, but there were some clear differences. This demonkins skin was purple and it was clothed in very fancy and lavish clothing. The scariest difference though, was that the demonkin¡¯s eyes held a glint of intelligence he hadn¡¯t seen in any of the other demonkin.

    Demonkin Duke Daryl

    Tier: 2 Level: 56

    ¡°A human? This should be fun. I haven¡¯t had the chance to do a battle of wits in quite some time, so this should be very enjoyable.¡± The demonkin said, liking his lips and flashing his razor sharp fangs at Atlas.

    Vores coughed lightly into his hand and glared at Daryl. ¡°This next challenge will be a battle of wits. I will show a riddle as before but you will now be versing the other challenger along with all previous rules. Three failures on a riddle will result in death, but if your opponent beats you three times they win, and you will be killed and turned into experience for them. Atlas, you have more to win from this battle as you are a lower level, but your intelligence is also lower than Daryl¡¯s, meaning that he will hold the advantage in this battle.¡±

    Vores looked them both in the eyes and then spun around, ¡°The challenge begins now.¡± He declared.

    Different lights do make me strange, thus into different sizes I will change. What am I?

    ¡°A flower!¡± Daryl shouted, smirking at Atlas.

    Vores was unamused. ¡°Incorrect.¡±

    Daryl was shocked, but Atlas was deep in thought. Different lights make me change¡­ change into different sizes¡­ ¡°A pupil!¡± Atlas yelled confidently.

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    Daryl snarled and glared at Atlas, fangs bared.

    Two icons appeared in the top right corner of the board.

    Daryl: 0 Atlas: 1

    ¡°Next riddle.¡± Vores erased the board and quickly wrote down another.

    You can see me in the water, but I never get wet. What am I?

    Both contenders were silent. Daryl had obviously learned from his mistake last time and was double checking his answer and not just blurting out the first thing that came to mind. Outwardly, they both looked calm and collected, but on the inside, their minds were furiously churning with different answers.

    Daryl was the first to spit out an answer. ¡°A reflection!¡±

    Vores nodded, ¡°Correct.¡±

    Daryl smirked at Atlas and Atlas glared back at him.

    The board changed to show the new scores.

    Daryl: 1 Atlas: 1

    They now both had one answer each, which meant the next person would pull away and could potentially win it the round after.

    ¡°Next riddle.¡±

    A prisoner is told: "If you tell a lie, we will hang you and if you tell the truth, we will shoot you". What did the prisoner say to save himself?

    Daryl was the first to speak up once again. ¡°You will shoot me!¡±

    ¡°Close, but incorrect.¡±

    Daryl started to speak up again but Atlas was faster. ¡°You will hang me!¡±

    Daryl glared at Atlas but it was too late.

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°Yes!¡± Atlas couldn¡¯t keep himself from celebrating. He had basically stolen that riddle from Daryl, and he was proud of it.

    The board changed to count for Atlas¡¯s new victory.

    Daryl: 1 Atlas: 2

    If Atlas won this next riddle, it meant that he won the entire challenge, but if he lost, he would have to go against Daryl one more time and the victor would win it all.

    Vores told them as much. ¡°If Atlas wins this next riddle, Daryl will lose and be killed. Conversely, if Daryl wins, we will have one more battle that will be decided by whoever wins.¡±

    Daryl grit his teeth and snarled at Atlas clearly not happy about the situation that he had been forced into.

    I can flutter and take your breath away. I can take a beating, but do not bruise. If I stopped you would be sure to lose. All day and night, I am with you. What am I?

    Daryl was the first to speak up once again. ¡°Your heart!¡±

    ¡°Correct!¡± Vores exclaimed, looking at both of them in turn. ¡°This is the final riddle, the winner will move on to the final trial, while the loser will die.¡± He told them both grimly.

    The board changed to hold the new scores.

    Daryl: 2 Atlas: 2

    Atlas gulped. It all came down to this, if he lost this, then his adventure would be cut short, but if he won, he would live to see another blessed day. And he would get rewards for it, he would take all of Daryl¡¯s experience, which was more than simply killing him would get him. When you killed a monster, you got all of their experience to the next level, multiplied by the danger level and your potential. But if he won this, he would take ALL of Daryl¡¯s experience.

    For a brief moment there was no sound except for Vores¡¯s chalk scratching against the board, and then the next riddle was revealed.

    You are trapped in a room with no windows or doors, the only things in the room are a table and a saw, how do you get out?

    Atlas wanted to laugh, but he was too busy answering. ¡°Cut the table into halves! Put the halves together to make a hole and then jump through the hole!¡± He yelled excitedly.

    Vores looked pleased.¡°That is correct! Atlas is the winner!¡±

    Multiple things then happened at once.

    The board changed to reflect the final score.

    Daryl: 2 Atlas: 3

    Daryl suddenly ceased to exist, only leaving behind a scream of terror and rage, and multiple messages popped in front of Atlas.

    You have completed the challenge!

    2/2 challenges complete!

    The Trial of Intelligence has been completed!

    You may move on to the 7th and final room. Prepare yourself.

    Level Up! X41

    Atlas let out a scream of pain as pure energy rippled throughout his body, condensing into pure power and upgrading him. His mind whited out from pain as it was boosted.

    Atlas came to and hurriedly brought up his stat sheet and eagerly looked at the changes, excited to see what his stats looked like now.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 61

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Titles (Disabled): Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser

    Skills (Disabled): Ultimate Debuff (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Demonic Claw (S), Fade Away (A), Weapon Mastery (A), Damage Resistance (A), Toughen (B), Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D)

    Spells (Disabled): None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 578

    Constitution: 578

    Strength: 657

    Dexterity: 657

    Wisdom: 607

    Intelligence: 607

    Free points: 41

    Atlas split his free points and put 20 in Endurance and 20 in Constitution, bringing them up closer to his other stats. He would prefer to be more well rounded, and not let his endurance and constitution stay behind his other stats.

    He turned to speak to Vores, only to find him already gone. Smirking and shaking his head, Atlas walked over into the last hallway, ready for the last challenge.

 Chapter 25: The Final Trial

    Atlas watched as the torches started to shift, first red, then yellow, then orange, green, blue and finally purple. His heart was thumping dangerously fast and he took deep breaths to calm himself down, wanting to be as prepared for the final challenge as he could possibly be.

    He went over the other challenges in his head, knowing that this challenge would be an amalgamation of all of the others put together.

    First the trial of strength. In it he had first been pitted against the minotaur, having to break off its horns and impale it to end its life. The second part of the challenge had been the dragon, and he had used his horns to damage its wings so that it could just fly circles around him. With his improved stats, he would be able to kill either one far faster than before.

    The next trial was the trial of dexterity. He had first been put through what basically amounted to an obstacle course or a jungle gym, or maybe a mix of both. He had gotten through quite easily and had moved on to the next part. The race. The race against the demonkin had been hard, mostly because of all the random illusions that broke his pace and forced him to slow down so as to not get caught up in too many of them. Then they had summoned the other demon, which had almost overtaken him. He would be far more effective against them than last time, but it would still be hard to verse that demon.

    The third trial had been the constitution trial, and he had first run through a flaming room. That had been easy. The second half though¡­ that was still terrifying to him. That golem had given him the beatdown of his life, and he had never felt closer to death than in that moment. He would far much better against it, but he still would rather not be pitted against it again.

    The fourth trial had been endurance, and he had smashed through that with flying colors. If anything, that trial was more of willpower than endurance. Sure, it required one to run for hours and climb an insurmountable mountain, but willpower was everything. If you stopped, you failed, if you kept going, you succeeded. He would beat whatever that trial could throw at him easily.

    The 5th trial was wisdom, and the labyrinth had been annoying, but ultimately, it had just taken time. The poison test was also pretty easy, with him having to play mind games with himself to figure it out. That challenge would have been lost if not for his high constitution fighting the poison. He felt confident about those trials, and he moved to his latest trial.

    The trial of intelligence had thrown riddles at him, and he had blasted through them, of all the challenges, it had been the easiest for him.

    He arrived at a tall brass door, and- taking a deep breath, he entered it. He found himself standing at the entrance to yet another labyrinth. Where the last one had reminded him of something out of a movie, this one had a more modernized feel to it. The walls were very dark steel, and they looked very sturdy.

    A few feet in front of Atlas was a start line, and Atlas felt like he was starting to understand what was happening. He would be racing some creatures while going through a maze. That incorporated 2 of the trials, but he didn¡¯t know how it was going to add the other 4. Were there going to be monsters scattered throughout the labyrinth? That would be half of the trials accounted for, and he could loosely see how endurance and constitution would be added, but he didn¡¯t understand how the trial of intelligence was going to be added.

    With a sigh, he stepped up to the start line, and he was suddenly battered with notifications.

    You are about to start the final trial! Prepare yourself!

    The trial starts in one minute and will incorporate some aspects of all of the other trials.

    There are three rules for the trial.

    1 - You may never stop moving, as soon as you start, you run until you finish the trial.

    2 - You are not allowed to climb over any walls or cheat the labyrinth in any way.

    3 - You are not allowed to attack any of the other runners, only the monsters that will be found in the labyrinth. The monsters will not attack the other runners.

    Whenever a runner reaches a checkpoint, they will have to solve a riddle to continue on. All contestants will get the same riddle at each checkpoint.

    Warning! You do NOT have any extra lives while competing in this labyrinth, any deaths will be PERMANENT. If you lose the race, you will die.

    (System tip: There are no traps in the labyrinth this time, so you don¡¯t need to worry about dying to them.)

    Warning! The monsters will get progressively stronger the more checkpoint you cross, so be careful when engaging them.

    There are a total of 5 checkpoints. The countdown starts now.

    00:59

    Atlas read over all of the rules, tips and warning, searing them into his brain so he wouldn¡¯t forget.

    The countdown continued to meticulously tick downwards, and at the 30 second mark something changed. 5 demonkin marched out of portals that appeared in thin air, and Atlas had to fight as to not yelp. He had not expected them to arrive until the timer reached zero. Over the next 20 seconds, more runners appeared out of thin air, until there were 10 of them in total, including Atlas.

    The timer reached 0, and Atlas and all the other runners blasted off. The demonkin clearly wasn''t trying to slow him down with illusions this time, and they were using their magic to instead propel themselves at great speeds. It was a contest between Atlas and the demonkin, all trying to pass each other.

    Atlas left them all in the dust.

    It wasn¡¯t even a challenge. Atlas ran so fast that the others were there one second and then gone the next. This labyrinth was different from the other one he had been through in the trial of wisdom. Where that one had many different branching paths that all lead in different directions and forced him to follow the left wall, This one instead curved and twisted all over the place, but only had one track to follow. It was both good and bad. It meant that he didn¡¯t have to endlessly follow the wall until he got out, but it also meant that monsters would be able to jump out at him if he turned a corner too fast and was unprepared.

    As Atlas experienced a few seconds later, running nearly headfirst into a minotaur that had stood just around the corner. Atlas didn¡¯t hesitate, pulling back his fist and driving it like a bullet into the minotaurs chest. Atlas¡¯s fist connected with a loud thud, sending the minotaur hurtling backwards before crashing into the wall. Atlas didn¡¯t let it get up, running over and stomping viciously on its face and breaking its skull before he continued running. He didn¡¯t want to stop because if he did, he might get killed on the spot.

    Or maybe not. The system had just told him that it was a rule to always run, so maybe it would just restart him at the start line. Either way, he wasn¡¯t about to test it out.

    He could hear the demonkin shouting at each other behind him, but he paid them no mind and quickly sprinted off. He ran into two more minotaurs, both finding their eternal rest just a few seconds later. After almost 5 minutes of running, Atlas came across the first checkpoint.

    It was a golden gate that had a riddle with some text above it.

    This is the first checkpoint. You may stop running if you touch the gate, but must immediately restart as soon as you complete the riddle. Conversely, you may also just jog in place while completing the riddle, as you will be able to read it easier.

    Here is the riddle-

    What goes through cities and roads, but never moves?Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Atlas barely paused to even look at the riddle before answering and running through the now open gate. ¡°A road.¡±

    Atlas found himself face to face with another minotaur. There were some differences from the other ones he had fought though. For one, it was a lot taller and bulkier than the other minotaurs, looking much more dangerous. That wasn''t what drew Atlas¡¯s eye, the flaming horns, on the other hand, did.

    Atlas blasted a punch into the minotaur, making it collapse and a spurt of blood. Atlas trampled over it, continuing to run at maximum speed. He encountered a few more minotaurs, but they all quickly encountered the same fate as the first. After about five more minotaurs and maybe 10 minutes, Atlas came across the second gate, leading him to believe that both the monsters and the distance between gates would double each time. Which meant he would face around 12 minotaurs and it would take 20 minutes if his theory proved correct.

    This is the second checkpoint. You may stop running if you touch the gate, but must immediately restart as soon as you complete the riddle. Conversely, you may also just jog in place while completing the riddle, as you will be able to read it easier.

    Here is the riddle-

    I am always hungry and will die if not fed, but whatever I touch will soon turn red. What am I?

    This one was even easier, especially with the type of monster Atlas had been fighting for the last half dozen fights, and he responded with a simple, ¡°Fire¡± before rushing onwards once more.

    He once more found a minotaur standing right behind the gate, but the differences were less pronounced. The minotaur was once again taller and bulkier than its other brethren, and its horns were covered in a denser fire than before, but other than that not much else changed.

    This time Atlas didn¡¯t kill it and instead incapacitated it with a quick punch to the head before leaving it and running onwards. The demonkin were steadily closing on him with him taking more time to kill the minotaurs, and he decided to simply hurt them enough to follow him and move on. If he could kill them that was great but if not no big deal.

    Atlas assumptions were quickly proved correct as he tore through 11 more minotaurs in roughly 19 minutes. That wasn¡¯t to say that he had been wrong about the time, but more that it had been faster with him avoiding the minotaurs. The demonkin were starting to gain on him even with his improved speed, and Atlas suspected they got faster after every checkpoint too.

    He still couldn¡¯t see them, but he could hear them a lot clearer and could even sometimes make out their feet slapping against the steel floor.

    This is the third checkpoint. You may stop running if you touch the gate, but must immediately restart as soon as you complete the riddle. Conversely, you may also just jog in place while completing the riddle, as you will be able to read it easier.

    Here is the riddle-

    What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?

    Atlas was stumped for a few seconds, and had to think about it while jogging in place, he quickly found the answer however and whispered, ¡°Silence!¡± to avoid the demonkin hearing him, and they arrived quickly after he dashed through the gate.

    Instead of the expected minotaur on the other side, he was giving an unfortunate surprise. There were now two of them, both looming over him at a ridiculous 12 or so feet. He slammed into the first minotaurs leg, snapping it and causing it to grab the other minotaur for support, causing them both to fall in an amalgamation of limbs.

    They served as an excellent roadblock, and it took the demonkin that had already answered the question a few seconds to climb over the hulking form scrambling for purchase on the ground. It only made it harder when considering that both minotaurs were struggling to stand up, thus causing the demonkin to have even more difficulty in scaling them.

    Atlas found that there were a total of a dozen of these groups, making the amount of minotaurs in total double to the previous 12, but also kept them all in the same amount of groups.

    Atlas used the same technique of shattering one of the minotaurs legs to break through and keep running. This only ever failed once, when the minotaur fell on top of him. This had caused a few seconds where Atlas struggled to life the minotaur off of him while other minotaur tried to pummel both him and the minotaur on top of him. He had finally succeeded in sliping out and continued running until he reached the fourth gate.

    This is the fourth checkpoint. You may stop running if you touch the gate, but must immediately restart as soon as you complete the riddle. Conversely, you may also just jog in place while completing the riddle, as you will be able to read it easier.

    Here is the riddle-

    What is the end of everything?

    Atlas jogged in place while he thought. He could hear the minotaurs coming crashing after him, and his mind went into overdrive to try and figure out what the riddle¡¯s answer could be. End of everything, end of everything, end of. Atlas visibly lit up. ¡°G!¡± he yelled, not caring if any of the demonkin heard him, as he was more threatened by the looming minotaurs crashing after him.

    He dashed through the gate and found four minotaurs waiting for him. Oh great. Atlas thought to himself before impacting one of the minotaurs'' shins at high speeds. He felt a snap and heard a roar of pain as the minotaur collapsed much like its brethren had just a few minutes ago. The minotaurs crashed into each other, causing a huge clog in the middle of the path, but Atlas had already rounded the next corner, not stopping to see if the minotaurs would chase him.

    Atlas almost immediately found himself standing in front of another band of minotaurs and could only grit his teeth and dash between the minotaurs legs, not wanting to be squashed by the collapse of the hulking beasts.

    He barely managed to avoid the stomping feet and he quickly outpaced their attempts to run after him. He did the same to the next groups, creating a hoard of bull men chasing after him. He ducked under another minotaur and glanced up- only to immediately regret it when he realized that the loincloths that they wore were only hanging in front and behind their legs, not stitched together in the middle.

    He wiped the disgusting memory from his mind, no, maybe scrubbed would be more correct, and sped down the path at an insane pace, leaving the minotaurs in the dust. He quickly arrived at the fifth and final checkpoint.

    This is the fifth checkpoint. You may stop running if you touch the gate, but must immediately restart as soon as you complete the riddle. Conversely, you may also just jog in place while completing the riddle, as you will be able to read it easier. When you complete this checkpoint, it will be a mad dash to the finish.

    Here is the riddle-

    What five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

    Atlas¡¯s mind was scrambled and he took a deep breath to calm himself down and think through the riddle. The answer came quickly to him after he got his thoughts in order. ¡°Short.¡± He said confidently before running through the gate-

    -only to be smashed backwards as a golem smashed his face with its giant fist. Atlas slammed into the gate before picking himself and dashing past the golem, barely evading another punch. Welp, guess now I don¡¯t have to wonder what the trial of constitution is going to affect. He thought dryly to himself.

    He encountered three more golems, each managing to land at least one punch on him, and the last one managing to hit him three times. He was bloody and bruised, and his fists were covered in minotaur blood and looked worse for the wear.

    But when he turned the corner, he knew it was all worth it. He could see the finish line only about a thousand feet in front of him. He shot towards his target, invigorated, when a chill suddenly ran down his spine. When he glanced back, he saw something from his nightmares.

    -eRr0R-

    T?? level ????

    Atlas¡¯s face went pale, and he pumped his legs to keep ahead of the demonic entity. It was useless though, as -eRr0R- clearly wasn¡¯t playing with him anymore and went almost supersonic speeds and reached him in the blink of an eye. Struck by inspiration, Atlas reached out and snagged onto one of the devil''s horns, using it to throw himself forward. In that brief moment when he had pushed off from the devil though, it had crossed almost the entire distance between the finish line, and Atlas crossed it by rolling over.

    The devil screamed incoherently at him as it faded into motes of white light, and Atlas was left alone.

    He had won.

    Atlas''s stats currently (To compare with next chapter)

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 20

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Titles (Disabled): Moonwalker, Skiller, Lucky, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser

    Skills (Disabled): Ultimate Debuff (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Blitz (S), Demonic Claw (S), Fade Away (A), Weapon Mastery (A), Damage Resistance (A), Toughen (B), Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D)

    Spells (Disabled): None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 373

    Constitution: 373

    Strength: 452

    Dexterity: 452

    Wisdom: 402

    Intelligence: 402

    Free points: 0

    Temporary Skills (Disabled)-

    <ol>

    <li>Ruinous Mist -In use</li>

    <li>Debuffed Weaponry -In use</li>

    <li>Elemental Debuffs -In use</li>

    <li>Ultimate Consume -Add?</li>

    <li>Sense of Death -Add?</li>

    <li>Demonic Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li>Armor of Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li>Debuffing Beam -Add?</li>

    </ol>

 Chapter 26: Dungeonéˆ¥æªš Rewards

    Atlas was instantly bombarded with messages, but he ignored them and just lay on the ground for a few minutes, basking in the joy of what he accomplished. Parts of it had been easy, other parts had been hard, but ultimately, it was just plain fun. Sure, he had been risking his life, but who said you couldn¡¯t still have fun while risking your life?

    He slowly dragged himself off of the ground and hopped through the portal, appearing right outside of the dungeon in the grove. Whistling pleasantly to himself, he started to crack open the many, many notifications waiting for him.

    You have completed the final trial!

    You have completed the dungeon!

    A portal has appeared, you may leave the dungeon whenever you want, but you will not be able to re-enter the dungeon.

    You are the first person to complete a dungeon at Impossible difficulty! Bonus dungeon rewards and title!

    You are the second person to complete any dungeon! Bonus dungeon rewards!

    You have completed one of the seven trials at broken challenge level, two of the seven trials at peak challenge level, three of the seven trials at high challenge level, and one at middle challenge level! Your rewards have been adjusted depending on the combined difficulties. +1 Broken, +2 Peak, +3 High, +1 Middle.

    Standard challenge level is Low, extra rewards given for completing all of the trials at above average challenge level.

    You have completed a trial at Broken challenge level! This challenge level can only be achieved if you have either severely interested or severely angered the system. Bonus rewards gained!

    You have gained resources for completing a dungeon with a difficulty at or above Nightmare Difficulty!

    Resources have been doubled for being at or above Hell Difficulty.

    Resources have been quadrupled for being at or above Impossible Difficulty.

    Original Resources gained¡­

    Lumber: 400, Coal: 200, Stone: 200, Iron: 100, Steel: 50, Tin: 300, Copper: 400, Bronze: 100, Zinc: 300, Brass: 100, Aluminum: 50, Lead: 300, Gems: 5, Grain: 100, Meat: 100

    Doubling¡­

    Lumber: 800, Coal: 400, Stone: 400, Iron: 200, Steel: 100, Tin: 600, Copper: 800, Bronze: 200, Zinc: 600, Brass: 200, Aluminum: 100, Lead: 600, Gems: 10, Grain: 200, Meat: 200

    Quadrupling¡­

    Lumber: 3200, Coal: 1600, Stone: 1600, Iron: 800, Steel: 400, Tin: 2400, Copper: 3200, Bronze: 800, Zinc: 2400, Brass: 800, Aluminum: 400, Lead: 2400, Gems: 40, Grain: 800, Meat: 800

    Processing Dungeon rewards¡­

    Level x50, +50 to all Stats, +50 Stat points, Upgrade title of your choosing (Cannot be upgraded above Epic Tier), Upgrade one skill to SS grade.

    Applying bonuses¡­

    Level x100, +200 to all Stats, +200 Stat points, New Title based on experiences, Upgrade up to three titles of your choosing (Cannot be upgraded above Legendary Tier), Upgrade 3 skill to SS grade, Upgrade all buildings but town hall for free (Works for all new buildings, making them start as a tier two building(does not apply to buildings above Legendary))

    Atlas screamed in both pain and euphoria, as pure, unbridled power suffused his every drop of blood, every nanometer of skin, hair, bone and covered him from head to toe in white blinding light. He felt mana rushed through him, creating pathways throughout his body, the mana looped through him before stabbing into his heart, causing him to cough up blood.

    But the mana wasn¡¯t done just yet.

    It went through his heart and then proceeded to impact all of his major organs at high speed, causing Atlas to cough up blood and black impurities. First his lungs, then his kidneys, liver, large and small intestines, stomach and many others that Atlas didn¡¯t know the name for. He felt like he was spectating his body from the inside, following the stream of pure mana. His mana was cleaning him. It finally shot upwards, splitting in two before ramming into his eyes. He wailed in pain as blood and black fluid dripped from his eyes.

    Atlas rapidly blinked his eyes as feeling returned to his body. Everything appeared as a blurry smear before Atlas was able to focus on his surroundings. He felt powerful, and if he would be able to go through the dungeon again, he would crush it like a bug. Before he was able to open his stats however, he was hit with two other notifications. One that was completely unexpected. And one that was¡­ interesting

    Soulbound Item, Reapers Suit has been upgraded after experiencing a dungeon with you and absorbing the blood of minotaurs. Reapers Suit (A), is now Potent Reapers Suit (S).

    Reapers suit: S grade. This suit cannot be destroyed, but it only blocks a small amount of damage received. All reaper abilities are four times as effective while wearing this suit. When blood is absorbed by the suit, the user''s health and mana will be restored depending on the quality of blood absorbed.

    Atlas was pleasantly surprised. He had been wearing the suit notstop, as he had absolutely nothing else to wear in its stead. It was good that it cleaned itself, otherwise it would be a problem by now. But it was the second notification that interested him more.

    Mana pathways created! Rarity - Common

    LUCKY BONUS!This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    Mana pathways upgraded! Rarity - Common -> Rare

    Mana pathways: Rarity - Rare: Your body has become much more powerful at harnessing the chaotic powers of mana. Each rarity of pathways unlocks a new benefit. With each higher rarity possessing all the benefits of the rarities below it.

    Trash: Your control over mana is affected by your Intelligence and Wisdom stats combined and divided by four. (Current is 303% control, where 100% is the norm for beings without mana pathways)

    Basic: You can choose a different aspect of your mana to upgrade. Potency, Quantity, Quality, Regeneration Speed, and Control. (When upgraded by another rarity, the upgrade is better.)

    Common: Your mana regeneration is doubled. (You regenerate the same amount of mana in 30 minutes as when it was 1 hour. You could also take it to mean that your Intelligence now gives you 20 mana per stat point in Intellegence.)

    Uncommon: You now get one point of mana for every one point in your other stats. (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Constitution and Wisdom)

    Rare: Choose one of the three options. 1: Your mana is purified when it enters your body, halving your regeneration speed, but quadrupling the efficiency of your mana. 2: Your total mana pool is halved but it is now 10 times as potent. 3: You regenerate mana four times as fast but at the cost of having half as potent mana.

    Atlas stared in shock as the notification. Why exactly had he gotten this? It hadn¡¯t been shown on the rewards, and he hadn¡¯t done whatever had happened to his mana on purpose¡­

    Luckily, the system could now answer some of his questions.

    Whenever you gain more than 1000 points in all of your stats, your body fuses with mana more intimately, causing mana pathways to form in your body. You also gain some other benefits for reaching this many stat points.

    Atlas nodded to himself. So that was the reason. Then he paused in shock. 1000 in all stats? He quickly opened his status sheet, not wanting to wait any more.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 161

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Mana Pathways: Rare

    Mana: 32,757

    Life force: 12,980

    Stamina: 12,980

    Titles: Moonwalker, Skiller, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Synthesizer, Fate breaker. Upgrade?

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Battle Trance (SS), Blitz (S), Demonic Claw (S), Fade Away (A), Damage Resistance (A), Toughen (B), Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D). Upgrade?

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1298

    Constitution: 1298

    Strength: 1357

    Dexterity: 1357

    Wisdom: 1307

    Intelligence: 1307

    Free points: 201

    Temporary Skills-

    <ol>

    <li> Ruinous Mist -In use</li>

    <li> Debuffed Weaponry -In use</li>

    <li> Elemental Debuffs -In use</li>

    <li> Ultimate Consume -Add?</li>

    <li> Sense of Death -Add?</li>

    <li> Demonic Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li> Armor of Debuffs -Add?</li>

    <li> Debuffing Beam -Add?</li>

    </ol>

    Atlas was absolutely flabbergasted. The first thing he noticed was his absolutely monstrous stats. They were all around 1,300 and he still had 200 stat points to spend. The next thing he noticed was his status screen now showed his mana and mana pathways, along with two other resources.

    ¡°System, what are life force and stamina?¡± Atlas asked, already having an idea but wanting to double check.

    Life force is your Constitution times 10, and stamina is your Endurance times 10. You have always had these, but they did not show up on your status as they were too low, they appeared when both of those stats passed 1,000. Life force is now ¡°Health¡± in classic video games, if life force reaches 0, that does not necessarily mean you are dead, just that you have expended all of it.

    Life force is similar to healing. If you were to get a scratch on your arm, a certain amount of life force would be used to help heal it more quickly than your body can usually handle, but now can through using life force. However, it is not instant or very powerful. It takes something like 50 life force just to heal a simple cut at about 4 cm long and ? cm deep. The higher your total life force is however, the more miraculous things it can pull off. If it becomes high enough, it is possible to regrow a major organ such as your heart.

    Stamina is much the same, but instead of healing you, it refreshes you. Higher endurance does not mean you can run forever without getting tired, but instead that you are constantly being relieved of that tiredness and so your energy stays high. The more strenuous tasks you do, the more stamina is drained. Like life force, it is not very powerful with low amounts of it, it is only when you reach the 10¡¯s of billions and higher that it becomes awesome to watch.

    All three resources are recharged differently. Mana is fully charged within an hour, but it is also seen as perhaps the weakest resource. That is not to say that it is weak, just that Life Force and Stamina are better. Both life force and stamina take far longer to charge however, making all of them about equal in value if adding things such as regeneration.

    It takes 8 hours of rest to fully refresh Stamina, and it takes 16 hours of rest to fully regenerate Life force. The hours do not have to be all at once, as 1 hour of sleep restores one eighth of your Stamina and one sixteenth of your health.

    The system went quiet, apparently done with its rant about the different resources. Honestly¡­ That had been a lot of information, and all of it very useful. It had changed how he understood the stats in a good way, making it easier to know what each stat did. He still didn¡¯t fully understand Wisdom, but knew that it had something to do with both potency and control of mana.

    He had used all of his free points while waiting, adding 50 to all his stats except for his two highest, Strength and Dexterity.

    He had also noticed a new addition to his status page, a new title that he didn¡¯t know what it did.

    Fate Breaker: You have defied fate in a multitude of ways. Getting lucky and evolving skills and abilities at very fortunate times, doing things that were meant to be impossible, and breaking your limits again and again. You have broken Fate¡¯s hold on you and strove to become something more, something better, and from that endless pursuit, you have gained power beyond what your level implies. +50% chance of lucky bonus, +10% chance for Insane lucky bonus, and +.001% chance for Worldshaking lucky bonus. Slightly improves the chance of Lucky bonus. (Absorbs Title [Lucky])

    Atlas gaped at the ridiculous title. He had been getting lucky bonuses quite frequently, and that was with his really nice title Lucky and a bit of actual luck, getting that 1% chance quite a few times. But now¡­ Now he would get a lucky bonus nearly every time he did something that gave him a bonus. Was that why he had gotten that good lucky bonus on his pathways? It had jumped a grade, skipping over uncommon. Was that the result of the improvement to his lucky bonus?

    And then¡­ There was that tiny chance added to the worldshaking bonus. What exactly did that mean? After a few more moments of studying it, he decided to shrug it off and turned to his other dungeon rewards. Namely, the title upgrades. Those had just got a lot more worth in his eyes¡­

 Chapter 27: Townfoolery

    Atlas pulled up all of his titles, looking at all of the different bonuses that each one granted him.

    Moonwalker: you are stealthier than most people will hopefully ever know, and you can hide when there isn¡¯t anything to hide in. +10 to DEX when trying to hide or evade something. Your skin turns solid black during night, and your eyes grow dim and become far less reflective. You can see even without any light source.

    Skiller: You are a master at creating skills, and it is now 1000% easier to create said skills. You can understand the workings of a skill and break down its effects just by witnessing it once, but you will no longer be given skills by the system. (This does not apply to the tutorial reward or skills gifted from achievements)

    Boss Slayer: You deal 100% extra damage to bosses (Minibosses, Bosses, and Hidden Bosses) You instinctively know when a boss is within a mile of you.

    Strong soul: You can now own up to four soulbound items, and they can never be taken from you.

    Legend of the Tutorial: All stats raised by 10. You can ask the system questions and they are obligated to answer. This is a perk usually reserved for those in a tutorial though slightly stronger.

    Synthesiser: Once per week you can ask which of your skills have perfect synergy.

    And finally, his newest title.

    Fate Breaker: You have defied fate in a multitude of ways. Getting lucky and evolving skills and abilities at very fortunate times, doing things that were meant to be impossible, and breaking your limits again and again. You have broken Fate¡¯s hold on you and strove to become something more, something better, and from that endless pursuit, you have gained power beyond what your level implies. +50% chance of lucky bonus, +10% chance for Insane lucky bonus, and +.001% chance for Worldshaking lucky bonus. Slightly improves the chance of Lucky bonus. (Absorbs Title [Lucky])

    The first thing he did was try and upgrade Fate Breaker. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, nothing happened and the skill stayed the same. It seemed like it was a legendary skill, and he certainly agreed with that, even if it was very disappointing. ¡°Hey system? What makes a title legendary?¡± Atlas asked the omniscient being.

    A Legendary title is one that gives a bonus that far surpasses what a title should normally give. You currently have two legendary titles.

    ¡°Oh? What is the other one?¡± Atlas asked, curiously scanning his titles for the answer. Maybe skiller?

    Legend of the Tutorial. You are literally being given guidance by one of the most powerful beings, the only reason it isn¡¯t mythical is we can only respond to your questions, which means that you only ask us questions that you have at least enough knowledge to know about. We can¡¯t just spew the secrets of the cosmos to you.

    Atlas nodded, it made sense. He would be really lost if not for the system basically being a guide and helping him understand some of the finer points of the workings of the system.

    With the subtraction of his two legendary titles, he had 5 total options to choose from. Moonwalker, Skiller, Boss Slayer, Strong Soul and Synthesiser.

    He immediately disqualified Boss Slayer, it was very situational and his other titles were all better.

    He kept both Skiller and Strong Soul, Skiller because of its insane help in creating new skills, though it had been used less when he got Consume, and Strong Soul because Soulbound items were powerful and he wanted to see if it would give him any other upgrades.

    It came down to Moonwalker and Synthesiser. He was leaning more towards Moonwalker because he had never used Synthesiser yet, so he didn¡¯t really want to risk betting on it when he didn¡¯t even fully understand what it did.

    Decisions made, he upgraded Skiller, Strong Soul and Moonwalker, eagerly awaiting the bonuses that would be given to him from each title. Conveniently, all of the changes were italicised.

    Shadestrider: you are stealthier than most people will hopefully ever know, and you can hide when there isn¡¯t anything to hide in. +10% to DEX when trying to hide or evade something. When in darkness, your form becomes an incorporeal shadow, and only magic can harm you. You can only be detected by creatures with an affinity for darkness, a powerful perception skill, or watched you become a shadow. You can see even without any light source, even when being affected by magical darkness.

    Skill Master: You are a master at creating skills, and it is now 1500% easier to create and level said skills. Whenever someone uses a skill in your presence, you know the name of the skill and its basic abilities. (Does not work on any skills at or higher than your highest leveled skill). You will no longer be given skills by the system. (This does not apply to skills gifted from achievements)

    Powerful Soul: You can now own up to five soulbound items, and they can never be taken from you. Your soul has become a beacon of power, and you have very high resistance to any form of soul damage. Your soul cannot be scanned by others if you do not trust them.

    Atlas let out a long, low whistle. Those were some good upgrades. Moonwalker had upgraded into Shadestrider, something that fit Atlas far better than its predecessor. Instead of what had been a measly 10 points to Atlas, who had long passed the point of even being affected much by the increase in stats, it now gave a percentage bonus, which was infinitely better. It had also changed what happened when he entered the shadow, and he had to say, it was a far better change than he had expected. He would become incorporeal? What kind of cheat ability was that?A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Moving on, Skiller had become Skill Master, and the benefits were immense. While the 600% upgrade had skyrocketed to 1000% increase - 10 times greater than the norm, it had also increased his skill leveling speed, while also giving him a short description of his enemies skills. The title''s ability to give him a skill was impacted by his highest skill, but for him, it wasn¡¯t a problem. This was still a massive boon though, as his highest skill was Z-grade.

    His last skill was also tremendously increased, if not very beneficial in the short term. In the long term however, it would be an amazing upgrade. He hadn¡¯t encountered soul damage so far, but any resistance to damage was a good thing in his eyes.

    He then turned to his skill upgrades, immediately upgrading his three lowest level skills that still impacted his combat abilities. Damage Resistance, Fade Away, and Toughen. They in turn became Supreme Damage Resistance, Misty Step, and Runic Armor.

    Supreme Damage Resistance (SS): You have an incredibly high resistance to all sources of damage.

    Misty Step (SS): You take a step, turning into mist and teleporting up to 1000 feet away. Uses a moderate amount of mana.

    Runic Armor: You create powerful runes covering magical armor that appears on you. You can choose one rune (Rune of Speed, Rune of Strength, Rune of Defence, Rune of Offence, Rune of Blight, Rune of Life and Rune of Magic) to go on any of the five pieces of armor (Helmet, Breastplate, Gauntlets, Greaves, and Boots). You can put one rune on multiple pieces of armor, but each piece of armor can only hold one rune at a time.

    The only problem with upgrading skills in this way, was that you could only upgrade skills to be two grades under your highest grade skill, and you couldn¡¯t control the way that they upgraded in. It might follow the normal upgrade path like his Damage Resistance had done. Merely becoming a better version of what it had been in an earlier grade. There was also a chance of it diverging slightly, as seen with Misty Step. While it was almost a direct upgrade, it was slightly different. Which could bring both benefits and detriments. There was also an even smaller chance of it going down a completely different road than intended, as seen with Runic Armor.

    It was a complete overhaul. Toughen had slightly increased the durability of his skin, where Runic Armor used runes and armor to defend himself. They were worlds apart, but they were still connected.

    Honestly, Atlas was more than pleased with all of the skill upgrades. He got higher passive damage resistance, a teleporting skill that could take him far further than before, and a far more powerful version of defending himself. If one could even call it that, it could also use runes to increase its offensive power.

    With the new skills, Atlas moved on to his next reward. His town.

    He rushed back to the grove only to be met with an impressive sight.

    All of the buildings had received a huge overhaul, the Armory and Blacksmith had upgraded and become the Advance Armory and the Forge. Palisade had become Wooden wall, which honestly wasn¡¯t too much of an upgrade, Lumber and Water Mill had upgraded effects, but their names stayed the same. Lumber Mill gave him 200 lumber every day and Water Mill gave him 50 grain. His Watchtower¡¯s became Guard Towers, and now had a far larger detection range, and would shoot mana bolts at anything within range. They weren¡¯t strong, but they would do decent damage to any T2 that tried to attack his town.

    Atlas brought up his resources to buy a couple of things, especially since he knew that they would all start upgraded.

    When he saw them he choked.

    Lumber: 3429, Coal: 1600, Stone: 1906, Iron: 947, Steel: 400, Tin: 2862, Copper: 3432, Bronze: 800, Zinc: 2400, Brass: 800, Aluminum: 400, Lead: 2400, Gems: 64, Grain: 850, Meat: 800

    He had known that he had gotten a lot of resources before his mana pathways had been made, but this many? It was just insane. Not like Atlas was going to complain though, as he instantly upgraded his town hall and then started going on a spending spree.

    After the town hall had upgraded, he then bought Automated Mineshaft and Smelter, as he had already planned on doing that in the trial of endurance. He then got Expanding Town Walls, which would automatically upgrade themselves every time his town hall was upgraded, and perfectly encircled his town, and with each new thing he made, it would expand to keep them within itself. Sadly, it was on the same level as his town wall, which meant that it didn¡¯t get upgraded instantly, but since it scaled with his town hall, it was upgraded anyway, so nothing was lost.

    It was insanely expensive though.

    Expanding Town Walls: Lumber: 1500, Stone: 750, Iron: 500, Steel: 100, Tin: 1000, Copper: 1000, Bronze: 100, Gems: 10.

    The lumber cost was originally 3000, but since he had the palisade already in place, it absorbed that to cost less. He choked down the cost however, and bought a couple more things he thought would be nice to have.

    He then bought a Fish Spot, which would create a spot where fish naturally spawned, which would give him meat if he killed them. When it upgraded, it became Fishing Pond, and it would passively kill fish everyday, netting him 50 meat a day.

    He perused some more options that he could buy, but ultimately stopped there. His resources were getting low.

    Lumber: 2849, Coal: 1600, Stone: 1036, Iron: 297, Steel: 300, Tin: 1862, Copper: 1432, Bronze: 700, Zinc: 2400, Brass: 800, Aluminum: 400, Lead: 2400, Gems: 49, Grain: 750, Meat: 750

    They weren¡¯t really low, but Atlas also felt like he shouldn¡¯t get too many random upgrades without knowing what he was doing. He didn¡¯t want to make his town too haphazard, so he decided to just hoard his resources until he found someone who could help him develop his town further.

    On that note. Atlas eyed his skills. He had upgraded 3 of them and was raring to test them. He also wanted to test his new mana pathways, stats and titles. Glancing at the timer until the next wave began, he grinned. Only one more hour until all of the enemies of the town¡­ would be utterly destroyed.

    He would make sure to thoroughly test his new abilities. He wouldn¡¯t want his opponents to feel as if he was not taking them seriously, would he?

 Chapter 28: Testing

    Chapter 28: Testing

    Atlas stood on top of his new town wall. It was constructed from an amalgamation of metals, but it simply looked like some common steel wall. Besides it''s incredible height, of course. It towered over the rest of his town at a ridiculous 50 feet high, the next tallest building being his town hall, which stood at somewhere between 30 and 40 feet high.

    He had chosen quantity in his mana pathway options, doubling his mana, so he was feeling very powerful at the moment with 40,000 mana running through him.

    He had looked at all of the weapons in the newly upgraded armory¡­ but he would rather just use his new skills and titles. He also wanted to mainly focus on his new skills to help them level up quickly, with the effect being amplified heavily by Skill Master.

    He checked the timer for the next wave to begin. It had two minutes left to go. If Atlas was being honest, he was nervous about this wave. If it was only a little stronger than the wave before, he might have a little bit of trouble, but it would be relatively easy. If the difficulty spiked after fighting the mini-boss? Yeah, he just might be screwed. He severely doubted this would be the case, but it never hurt to be overly cautious.

    Atlas brought up the levels of all of his skills, wondering if any of them were close to upgrading.

    Ultimate Debuff (Z) to level 2!

    Elemental Affinity (SSS) to level 2!

    Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS) to level 6!

    Death Mist (SS) to level 4!

    Consume (SS) to level 5!

    Endless Strength (SS) to level 6!

    Battle Trance (SS) to level 1!

    Runic Armor (SS) to level 1!

    Supreme Damage Resistance (SS) to level 1!

    Misty Step (SS) to level 1!

    Blitz (S) to level 7!

    Demonic Claw (S) to level 2!

    Lightning Beam (B) to level 4!

    Crafting (B) to level 3!

    Herbalism (D) to level 4!

    Blitz was the closest, with Reaper¡¯s Senses and Endless Strength being the next closest. He probably wasn¡¯t going to get any of them up a rank anytime soon, but in a few days maybe. His leveling of skills had dramatically decreased, and it was really bugging him. All of his newest skill upgrades had been as a reward from the system.

    That being said, Skill Master was going to make that a lot less of a problem. He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he could power level Crafting to S grade if he actually knew what the skill did, besides, you know, letting you craft stuff. He was going to wait to explore that skill until he got out of the grove, which was basically another tutorial but at another level, as it involved both fighting waves of monsters and defending and upgrading your town.

    The timer finally went off, and Atlas watched as 3 massive creatures were summoned from who knows where and appeared about a mile away from his wall. He could still scan them from this distance though, and what he saw made him both very interested and more than a little relieved.

    Deepwell Titan

    Tier: 2 Level 75

    Atlas was relieved because they were less than half his level, and interested because of the dramatic increase in strength from the miniboss. They were all 25 levels higher than the snake had been, and there were more of them. Was it because the system had expected players to go through the dungeon before facing the next wave? While it did make sense, he wasn¡¯t sure that a 25 level increase was enough for it to really make much of a difference. He could kill these things with a simple combo of Endless Strength and Blitz, if his instincts were right.

    Nevertheless, he summoned Runic Armor, and covered himself with Runes of Defence. They were a basic rune, but he really wanted to get a sense for the maximum defensive capabilities of the armor, so he was going fully into defence, even if that wasn¡¯t the most optimal use of the runes. He would test them all out on a later date, for now, he wanted durability.

    He Blitz-ed over to the titans, and they noticed him immediately, slamming down their fists in an attempt to smush him. While normally this attack would never even get close to touching Atlas, he stood still and took the blow, trying to get a feel for his new magical armor.

    The fists came down like the hand of god, pure unbridled killing intent flooding in all directions from their fists¡­ and rebounding off of Atlas¡¯s armor with a hollow *clang*! Atlas barely felt the blow, but his armor was warped a little now. He suspected it could only take a few more blows before he would have to unsummon it. He could resummon it immediately in peak condition, but it took a couple seconds of circulating his mana to summon, so it was tricky to do in battle.

    Atlas just stood there and let the creatures slam their fists into his armor over and over, trying to infuse mana into his armor to make it more resistant to the attacks slamming into it.

    There was no doubt in Atlas¡¯s mind that he wouldn¡¯t have been able to this before gaining his mana pathways, but with them, it was relatively easy. He felt like he was wasting a lot of mana with each subsequent hit, but he was definitely getting better as time went on.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Another neat thing he remembered about Skill Master was the ability to understand other¡¯s skills. As evidenced now.

    Fist of Suppression (A-S Tier): Infuse your fist with a tremendous power, slightly scaling with your strength and available mana. It does more damage the weaker your opponent is, but doesn¡¯t get weaker when used on stronger opponents. Strength of opponents is not an opponent''s level, but that is taken into account.

    It was a neat skill, but he did wonder why he got the full details of the skill, but he wasn¡¯t complaining about it at all. It was very nice to know. He did think that it had something to do with how he was far stronger than the titans, or it could have something to do with the rank of the skill in comparison to the average rank of his skills, or even his highest skill. He did wonder why it showed up as both A and S tier, but thought that it had something to do with how it scaled with strength and available mana. Making it stronger when at full mana and when strength was your main stat.

    Overall, Atlas was very happy with Runic Armor. After he started using his mana to empower it, it started taking less and less damage as he got better at using his pathways.

    He even got a few very interesting and welcome notifications as the titans continued to futilely smack him.

    You have leveled up your skill Runic Armor (SS) to level 1!

    You have leveled up your skill Runic Armor (SS) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Runic Armor (SS) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Runic Armor (SS) to level 4!

    You have gained the skill Mana Manipulation (B)!

    You have leveled up your skill Runic Armor (SS) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 1!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (B) to level 10!

    Mana Manipulation (B) -> Mana Manipulation (A)

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (A) to level 1!

    ¡­

    You have leveled up your skill Mana Manipulation (A) to level 10!

    Mana Manipulation (A) -> Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S)

    You have leveled up your skill Runic Armor (SS) to level 6!

    Atlas was shocked. His skills had upgraded at a ridiculous pace. A skill he had just gotten at B grade was already S grade. Maybe it was going so high because he already had really good mana pathways? It took a second to realize why Runic Armor had grown so much even though it was a high grade skill. Skill Master. The skill made him train his skills 10 times faster, which was huge. What would usually be one level became something like 6, as the needed experience grew with each level, which meant that it didn¡¯t just make one level 10, but it was still insane.

    He stayed in the middle of the titans, focusing fully on making sure that less and less damage could get through. His Enhanced Mana Manipulation gained 8 more levels before slowing down, while runic armor got 3 more, which had it hanging on the edge of ranking up, but before either could upgrade, the titans collapsed, completely exhausted. It was actually quite impressive that they had kept at it for as long as they did.

    They clearly weren¡¯t the smartest either, as they had just kept smashing their fists into his armor, even though it had been absolutely meaningless. Well, meaningless for them. It had been very beneficial for him.

    He killed them all by impaling them with earthen spikes that erupted from the ground. Atlas was surprised, apparently his Enhanced Mana Manipulation also increased the effectiveness of Elemental Affinity, which was very nice and more than a little broken, as it was already a ridiculously powerful skill on its own, adding in the control of his newest skill and the power and control from his mana pathways. It was almost effortless to create large spikes made out of earth that were about half as tall as the titans and slightly smaller than their skulls, which had been brutally impaled.

    Surprisingly, he gained a level for killing all of them, even though they were almost 100 levels weaker than him. He also gained a level in Elemental Affinity, which was not too surprising when adding in the insane power of Skill Master.

    And just like that, the wave was over. He only had 4 more waves to go, which was both exciting and upsetting for Atlas. Exciting because he was getting close to finally being able to leave this place, and though he wouldn¡¯t call his town boring, it definitely wasn¡¯t very exciting seeing as he was literally the only person in the entire town.

    It was also upsetting because he doubted that the final boss would be too much trouble to beat. He brought up his status to check out the new updates.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 162

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Mana Pathways: Rare

    Mana: 40,824

    Life force: 13,530

    Stamina: 13,530

    Titles: Shadestrider, Skill Master, Boss Slayer, Powerful Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser, Fate breaker.

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Death Mist (SS), Consume (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Battle Trance (SS), Misty Step (SS), Enhanced Damage Resistance (SS), Runic Armor (SS), Blitz (S), Demonic Claw (S), Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S),Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D).

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1353

    Constitution: 1353

    Strength: 1362

    Dexterity: 1362

    Wisdom: 1362

    Intelligence: 1362

    Free points: 2

    Unknown to Atlas, the thought of finding his challenges weak had interesting consequences and the systems were shown a rather frightening message. Not frightening in that they were scared, but in that they had no idea that Atlas had made such a grave mistake. He had challenged impossible difficulty, and all who had before him had died. Unlike the other difficulties, the impossible difficulty was different.

    It had a Keeper.

    Impossible Difficulty Player [Atlas Channing] has challenged the Keeper by finding the difficulty weak. Necessary actions are being taken. Death is a high probability.

    All who challenge the Keeper will only find death and despair.

 Chapter 29: The Other Difficulties II

    James¡¯s knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground. He had finally beaten the final 5th wave, but it had been hard. Ridiculously so. The monster had been a level 50 troll that had almost killed him. James had managed to stab it through the heart right before it would have crushed him, and had thus beaten the second phase of the tutorial. He could finally go on to the real world and experience all it had to offer.

    James had been naive, he could see it now. He had thought himself superior to others simply because he had been at the top of his tutorial. Oh how wrong he had been. He now realized that almost every other player that hadn¡¯t taken the weakest tutorial would be able to soundly whoop him. He probably couldn¡¯t even scratch the stronger ones even if they stood still, and that was with his decently high stats for his level.

    James Buzzler

    Level: 49

    Class: Warrior

    Subclass: Builder

    Titles: None

    Skills: Power Strike (C), Calm mind (D), Parry, (D), Slash (F), Crafting (F)

    Spells: None

    Talent: F

    Potential: F

    Stats:

    Endurance: 5

    Constitution: 26

    Strength: 84

    Dexterity: 44

    Wisdom: 3

    Intelligence: 3

    Free points: 0

    James wouldn¡¯t let this stop him though, and he would forge a new place for himself in what was now his new reality. It may not be as a warrior or a leader, or even a follower, but he would find some way to carve a path for himself. Even if that meant giving up all his skills and fighting power as a fighter and becoming a crafter that could actually affect the world, he would do it.

    All in the name of power.

    James felt something click inside of him, and a notification appeared in front of him, a notification that was very interesting.

    You have been given a unique opportunity! You can give up your class and receive a legendary class of Divine Crafter. In doing so, you will lose your current class and all combat related skills, including your skill given from the tutorial. All passive and non combat related skills will be kept and upgraded. Your stats and level will restart, and you can try and rebuild a path for yourself. All in the name of power.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ***

    Lars found himself in the middle of a mound of corpses. He despised killing, but he killed all the same, he told himself he was fighting for self defence, but was he really? He was just doing what the system was telling him to do, and he hated that.

    He hated feeling weak, feeling hopeless and knowing that no matter what he did, he was becoming a different person. At the beginning of the tutorial killing had been easy, and he had only found pleasure in the increase in stats and skills. But now, finding himself in the middle of a field of desecrated bodies, he could only mourn what he had lost.

    He wished he could be a better person, a better human. But no matter how hard he tried, he just saw himself as a monster that couldn¡¯t be redeemed. He had killed and killed and killed, with no thought or sadness until now. Did that mean he was becoming a better person? Maybe, but it was doubtful. He was already a sinner.

    As Lars contemplated all he had lost, he found a source of pride from one thing. He was strong. Lars had fought tooth and nail for everything he had, and he was now finally tier two, something that only the player who had entered impossible difficulty and maybe a couple others had achieved.

    He still wished it hadn¡¯t come at such a great cost, but what was everything but not a different kind of cost? No matter what you did in life, no one was perfect, everyone made bad choices that they may or may not regret. But people kept pushing, kept trying, no matter how futile it was. He wished he could help others and not fight only for his own gain at the expense of others, he wished he could do something.

    Wished he could protect.

    Lars turned to upgrade his class, only to find a new notification waiting for him.

    You have struggled on your path to power, always trying to improve yourself and secure a better future for yourself and others. But no matter how hard you try it seems as though you are always lacking. You long to protect others, but find it difficult to protect yourself. You have the opportunity to switch your class [Hunter] to [Paladin of Protection]. In doing so, you give up all your skills that can bring others harm, directly or indirectly, and gain buff and support skills in their place. All skills are equal to or stronger than the replaced skill. All in the name of protection.

    ***

    Lesli collapsed on her bed. Two more waves, and then it was over. She was getting stronger and stronger with every day, delving deeper into the mysteries of magic and its origin, and each day she found herself aching to prove herself. She knew she was strong, but could she be the strongest? Could she push herself and do things that were simply impossible for others?

    She had finally created her first triple S grade spell. It had taken a lot of work, frustration and tears, but she had done it. She was now powerful enough to steamroll the rest of the grove, before being able to exit into the real world.

    She couldn¡¯t wait to meet the other players. She wanted to see how much they had grown, how much more powerful they were then when they had all entered. They had all entered the tutorial as normal humans, but how strong were they now? She believed that no one on earth would be able to kill the majority of them without resorting to nuclear weapons, and for some of them, even that much wouldn¡¯t be able to kill them.

    But it had come at a cost.

    No one who had entered the tutorial was the same person. They had been hardened and become stronger. Not all of them had made it either, and quite a few of them were still in the grove, such as Lesli herself.

    Most of this was speculation, but Lesli doubted she was wrong by much, if at all.

    Afterall, people would do anything for the sake of becoming stronger.

    ***

    Malcolm waited. He had completed the tutorial and subsequent grove easily, and was now waiting to be released on the world. He had become so powerful in the brief time of the tutorial, and he relished every second of it.

    It had come at the cost of retaining his humanity, but who needed that anyway? In return, he was now a tier 3 Fiend, a being that caused mortals and beasts alike to quake and shake in dismay.

    For they knew the end was coming.

 Chapter 30: Impossible Difficulty in Full

    Atlas stood on the massive city walls, blinking slowly and yawning as he watched the timer till the next wave tick down. Just three more minutes until the 7th wave started, and Atlas was planning how best to train his skills. He doubted that anything in this wave would give him too much trouble, so he might as well get the most out of it.

    He was going to get Blitz upgraded at the very minimum, but he was also eying some of his less used skills, such as Lightning Beam and Demonic Claw. He didn¡¯t expect too much out of Lightning Beam, seeing as he already had a skill that could use lightning far more effectively, Elemental Affinity. It also had the added benefit of being better in almost every way conceivable. The only downside was it was more mana intensive than Lightning Beam.

    On the other hand, he had high expectations for Demonic Claw. If his thoughts were correct, he should be able to upgrade it into something more like a demonic form, letting him become fully covered in the powerful red energy that flowed in his skill. If he couldn¡¯t do that, then he should at least be able to make the hand bigger and maybe apply it to his weapons, creating a variant of the skill that allowed him to enhance his strikes with the same power.

    Either way, it would prove beneficial to upgrade the skill.

    As Atlas stood waiting for the timer to reach zero, a weird chill went through him, raising the hair on his neck and making goosebumps run along his arms. Atlas shivered, brushing off the feeling and ignoring it, he must just be cold, that was probably the reason for the unexpected chill.

    There was just one problem¡­ it wasn¡¯t cold at all, in fact, the grove had very warm temperatures, not to the point of being hot, but it definitely wasn¡¯t cold.

    But no, it was probably just a cold wind that had blown through the grove unexpectedly.

    But there was no wind blowing at all, it was perfectly calm.

    As Atlas tried to convince himself that nothing was amiss, the timer reached zero, and the landscape began to roil and crack.

    Atlas watched in both horror and fascination as 10 giant golems rose from the earth, splitting the earth above them and creating a landscape of broken earth and turned up stumps.

    Each of the 10 golems were different, and -with his heart dropping with each word- Atlas inspected their properties.

    Golem of Iron

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Rock

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Coal

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Tin

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Copper

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Zinc

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Lead

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Aluminum

    Tier: 2 Level: 200

    Golem of Weak Mithril

    Tier: 3 Level: 0

    Golem of Weak Adamantine

    Tier: 3 Level: 0

    To sum it up in as few words as possible¡­ Atlas was screwed. He was facing eight peak tier two golems and two low tier three golems. Which, if going by what Atlas knew, meant they were substantially stronger than their brethren.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    At each subsequent tier up, the gap between it and the tier before widened. In the lower tiers, it didn¡¯t matter too much, as far as he was aware, but the system had told him that the higher tier you were, the greater the jump between tiers became. This was especially true for tier 5¡¯s and up, as they were required to do more than simply kill things or craft items for experience, they had to ¡°solidify their path¡± or something, the system hadn¡¯t been forthcoming on how.

    All of this rushed through Atlas¡¯s head in brief moments, and he furiously tried to find out why the jump between the last tier and this one was so abrupt. Nothing before had hinted at this even being a possibility, let alone actually happening. They were all one hundred and twenty five levels higher than the Deepwell Titans had been, and he had honestly been at little surprise to even face them, compared to the ¡®small¡¯ twenty five level jump between them and the miniboss, Atlas was deeply concerned with this new event.

    Atlas steeled himself, teleported off of the wall and appeared only a hundred feet from the golems. Atlas channeled some magic and sculpted a large pickaxe out of rock with Elemental Affinity. He wasn¡¯t sure how well it would work, but he didn¡¯t want to go into this fight with just his fists, he was sure that it would hurt a lot to constantly be punching the golems, and he wanted to take every precaution in this fight.

    As the pick flew into Atlas¡¯s hand, he looked up, only to find all ten of the golems charging him, shining with deep brown light.

    Earthen Stronghold (S-SSS): Your body is a fortress in itself. You are tougher when touching earth. You can channel mana into this skill for added benefits.

    Atlas was slightly disappointed that he learned so little from their skill, but then again, they were all significantly more powerful than him, so it made sense. Atlas turned on his heel and faced away from them, raising his pick and bringing it down on the empty air. As he did so, he activated Misty Step and appeared right behind the iron golem, smashing his pick into its back.

    He had learned through a couple of uses of the skill that he could teleport anywhere within 1000 feet of himself, but he would always face the same direction as when he activated his skill as when he appeared. The easiest exploit of this detriment was to simply face the right direction before using the skill, as Atlas¡¯s had just done.

    There was a loud thud as Atlas¡¯s pick impacted the golem, and a large dent was made in its back, which only made sense, as both Endless Might and Blitz were running, making him far faster and stronger than he should be.

    Atlas pulled back for another strike, but the golem spun around insanely quickly and smashed its fist into Atlas¡¯s face. He was sent careening in the air before he was able to stabilize himself by creating a cushion of air to catch himself.

    Atlas spat out blood and glanced down at his chest, which was already beginning to heal itself by using his life force. That punch had shaved off a good 4,000 of his life force, and that was with his high resistance skill!

    Atlas felt far more wary now, seeing that even the ¡®weakest¡¯ golem had been able to drastically damage him, between him and it, it was apparent that the golem was superior to him. So Atlas did what any panicked human would do, and pulled out all the stops.

    Dark mist flooded from his body, coating all of the golems and beginning to slowly inflict debuffs on them. Atlas had already inflicted one debuff on the iron golem, thanks to his passive debuffed weapons, and this mist only added more, and to all of them.

    Atlas then began to create large amounts of fire and earth, smashing them together to create lava. This was the first time he had done this, but he was no longer holding anything back. Up till now, he had never been at such a large advantage, the t-rex in the tutorial hadn¡¯t fought him, so that didn¡¯t count. But now, there were 10 beings who not only had him at a severe disadvantage, but they also held a large threat to his life.

    Up till now, Atlas¡¯s life had been threatened over and over, but never to this extent, and never had he been this scared, even with all of his powers in comparison to what the golems probably had. He was passed caring, and only wanted to see the golems dead to save himself.

    Lava began to pour down on the golems, slowing them and melting at them, and they began to try and fend of the lava with pillars of earth and metal, but Atlas wasn¡¯t done yet, he used the second property of Ultimate Consume, waiting for a few brief seconds before unleashing all the built up power at the mithril golem. Its body creaked and groaned as no less than 70 debuffs filled its body, breaking it front the inside out.

    Atlas started to channel it again, and after a few more seconds unleashed it again on the adamantine golem- for a total of 4 debuffs. Atlas once again remembered why he had thought of this as a risky maneuver, it had the potential to do barely anything, heedless of the exorbitant mana cost. Or rather, it used to be exorbitant, but now he had reserves of over 40,000 mana, which let him use this skill pretty much as much as he wanted.

    On the third powering up of Ultimate Consume, a large pillar of earth shot up at him, and Atlas barely managed to teleport out of the way, only for the adamantine golems fist to appear right in front of him. He was once again sent flying, but this time all of his life force was consumed to heal him from the damage that had been inflicted upon him.

    He managed to recover quickly enough, but before he could regain his footing, 4 of the 10 golems were in front of him, and he barely managed to evade them, this time teleporting the full 1000 feet that he could to get the most distance from the golems.

    So far he had managed to kill 3 of the golems, but the mithril golem was on its last legs, so it would soon be 4 dead golems. Atlas sent a quick Ultimate Consume at the three dead golems, receiving 20 points in Constitution, Strength and Wisdom.

    He activated all of his skills, only belatedly remembering to activate Runic Armor. He instantly set all of the runes to defense, only leaving his boots with a different rune- the rune of speed. He had a feeling he would need any advantage he could get.

    He once more face off against the golems, swinging his fully powered pick into the closest golems chest and leaving a giant dent in its arm, practically ripping it off and sending it spinning away.

    He turned to face the rest of the golems and grit his teeth, this was going to be rough.

 Chapter 31: Avatar of Death

    As Atlas faced off against the golems, his mind was whirling with possibilities of how to take them all out. With almost half of them dead, it was far easier to fight against them, and Atlas bent his mind to the task, Reaper¡¯s Senses whirled into overdrive, slowing down time and giving him some much needed space to think.

    Then Atlas closed off his mind, entering a state of perfect awareness. His senses expanded, and he didn¡¯t see the golems, but he could smell the hint of earth, metal and rust enveloping their beings, he could hear their footsteps thud against the dirt, and the clanging of their swinging arms. He could taste the hint of dust and death carried on the wind, delivering him understanding.

    Understanding that bled throughout his entire being, and his skills activated. The glowing armor hovering over his skin glowed brighter before shifting into a deep black and strength and speed filled his body, almost to the point of bursting. Dark mist seeped out of his pores, and he became obscured in a wall of wispy darkness, hiding him from view. His eyes snapped open, red floodlights erupting from the night, sending shivers down even the unfeeling golems.

    Atlas felt something click and power roared inside him as everything snapped into place, just as it should be. He felt all the skills working together, giving him more power than the sum of their parts.

    He felt a notification attempt to block his vision, but he banished it, fusing all of his being with one desire, one thought of perfect clarity. To bring death upon those who had done him harm.

    The golems began to hastily erect defences, practically feeling the impending doom in the air, but Atlas was on them in a flash.

    Atlas¡¯s pick flashed through the golems, shattering hastily erected golden barriers that attempted to shield their owners, but it was in vain, and Atlas started to pummel the golems to death with his pick.

    The golems were still not easy foes however, and they started to weave complex earth magic that sent Atlas stumbling backwards, walls of earth and rock shattering against his face. Atlas used his own magic to smash apart the defences with a single wave of his pick and an explosion of molten fire that melted through the stone and gave Atlas a clear flight path to the golems.

    As Atlas struggled against the six golems working perfectly together, the strong golem from earlier died, and Atlas quickly used Ultimate Consume on it, and felt 30 points of Dexterity get added to his ever growing pool of stats. It was a minimal increase, but even minor boosts were helpful in this struggle of life.

    Atlas shot away from the golems taking in a deep breath and then summoning a giant pick out of earth behind himself. It dwarfed him, towering over everything at a ridiculously tall 100 feet tall and about 30 feet wide. Atlas¡¯s mana began to rapidly deplete, falling by almost a thousand every second that the pick remained. With a grunt of effort, Atlas brought the monstrosity of rock down on the golems'' heads.

    There was an explosion of rock and stone and Atlas was flung backwards, limbs askew as he hurtled through the air. He landed hard, tumbling head over heels backwards. He finally came to rest a couple dozen feet away from the city walls. He groaned in pain, holding his head.

    It throbbed painfully, and Atlas could instantly tell that he was completely out of mana. His head felt like it had been put through a grinder, his mana pathways felt strained, and he was just overall exhausted.

    He picked himself up, dragging himself to lean against the wall and surveyed his stats. His health was at zero, as was his mana, and his stamina wasn¡¯t far behind. He now understood what the system had said when it had mentioned that at the lower tiers, health and stamina were all but useless, and it only became prudent to even show them when they reached 10,000.

    Atlas looked out at the devastation he had wrought on the golems, and felt a chill go up his spine.

    Where he had forced his pick to impact the ground, there was a gigantic crater hundreds of feet wide and dozens of feet deep, in the center were three broken remains of golems. Atlas frowned. Where were the other two golems? Atlas took the time to activate Reaper¡¯s Senses, but found that the skill wouldn¡¯t work. Now Atlas was really confused. Why won¡¯t the skill work? He wondered, opening up his status sheet and notifications in confusion.

    Skills have been forcibly fused together: Death Mist (SS), Reaper¡¯s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Battle Trance (SS), Runic Armor (SS), Blitz (S). Combining skills¡­ Large amount of skills at SS tier, raising tier by one. SSS -> Z.

    You have lost the temporary skills: Sense of Death, Ruinous Mist, Armor of Debuffs

    Skill created: Avatar of Death (Z).

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 2

    Level: 162Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Mana Pathways: Rare

    Mana: 40,820

    Life force: 13,530

    Stamina: 13,530

    Titles: Shadestrider, Skill Master, Boss Slayer, Powerful Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser, Fate breaker.

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Avatar of Death (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Consume (SS), Misty Step(SS), Supreme Damage Resistance (SS), Demonic Claw (S), Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S),Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D).

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1353

    Constitution: 1373

    Strength: 1382

    Dexterity: 1392

    Wisdom: 1382

    Intelligence: 1362

    Free points: 2

    Atlas blinked in equal parts awe and confusion. He had created a skill? Without the help from the system? And not only that, but it was his second Z grade skill? Sure, it had taken a good chunk of his skills to create it, but didn¡¯t that just mean that it was a higher tier skill?

    As Atlas spun questions through his brain to the point of overloading his head with (mostly) useless thoughts about this new skill, he pulled open the description for Avatar of Death. He had a vague sense of what it did just by having the skill, but he wanted to know for sure what it did.

    Avatar of Death (Z): Summons dark black armor that gives multiple benefits depending on each piece of armor. Different effects work only as long as a certain number of armor pieces are intact. Pieces CAN be broken, but how durable the armor is depends on the wearers endurance. Armor pieces and their effects:

    Helmet: Grim Reaper¡¯s Senses: Your perception increases considerably, to the point where everything seems far slower than it actually is. You are slightly slower to your own senses. Your hearing is also vastly improved, to the point where you can hear frequencies that other humans cannot, such as a bats screech. Your taste does not change. Your sense of touch can feel the slightest shift of even the air (only works on non-harmful items). Your sense of smell becomes greater than that of a bloodhound.. Your eyes glow red while wearing  this helmet, and the helmet will show you all of the weak points and best places to be while in combat.

    Breastplate: Armor of Runes: Gives all the runes (Speed, Strength, Durability, Magic, Resistance, Defence, and Shield) to the Breastplate.

    Gauntlets: Infinite Strength: You have a bottomless well of strength while wearing these gauntlets, and that strength can be used in different ways. 1: You can use the base amount of strength given passively (10%). This doesn¡¯t put any strain on the user and boosts your strength by 2x. 2: You can draw on 50% of the gauntlet''s strength. This puts minor strain on the user''s body and boosts your strength by 10x. 3: You can draw on 100% of the gauntlet¡¯s strength. This puts major strain on the user''s body and boosts your strength by 20x.

    Greaves: Reaper¡¯s Mist: These greaves emit mist darker than the deepest black, and the mist eats away at any enemy within it and lingers indefinitely. This effect can only be reversed by the user ending it, by killing the user, or by breaking the greaves. The mist can also add debuffs by pushing mana into the greaves. The debuffs can be ANY debuff and are not related to the skill (Ultimate Debuffs).

    Boots: Infinite Speed: You have a deep connection to the concept of speed, and you draw upon it with every step you take. Your first step after being immobile, (not moving for more than 3 seconds) increases your speed by 20%. Each step afterwards increases your speed by 2%. There is no maximum speed, but once you reach 10,000% your body will take slight damage from going too fast. The next milestone is 100,000%, at which point your body will start to take increasing amounts of damage. At 1,000,000% every step will do large amounts of damage, to the point where every step has the potential to kill you. This effect will lessen with his endurance, but it will never be completely gone.

    When all 5 pieces are in effect you take 50% less damage from ALL sources.

    When at least 4 pieces are in effect, debuffs you inflict have a 20% chance of being a higher tier of debuffs (Normal -> Rare -> Very Rare -> Epic) and so on.

    When at least 3 pieces are in effect, heath, mana, and stamina are regenerated twice as fast.

    When at least 2 pieces are in effect, your soulbound items are 100% more effective.

    When at least 1 piece is in effect, Skill: Battle Trance (SSS) activates.

    When no pieces are in effect, the skill (Avatar of Death) fails and cannot be reactivated for 6 hours per armor piece.

    Atlas almost choked at the wall of text in front of him. This was only one skill? It kept almost all of his skills while not only making them stronger but also giving additional effects depending on the amount of pieces that he was wearing. It was easily a far stronger skill than Ultimate Debuff, which didn¡¯t completely make sense, seeing as they were both the same tier.

    If he had to guess, he would say that the skill was a higher tier because of the sheer amount of high level skills that had been shoved into it. As Atlas stood their reading up on his newest skill. He heard an ominous creaking sound.

    He glanced up and found two battered golems climbing up out of the ground. His eyes went wide. Is this why he hadn¡¯t been able to find the last two golems or gotten level up notifications? Because the golems had hidden beneath the earth to escape his strike?

    Atlas hoisted himself up with a grunt, activating his newest skill, Avatar of Death. His body was flooded with power and it suddenly became far easier to remain standing. With a roar and a blast of power, Atlas¡¯s fist collided mightily with the golem on the left, breaking down its decemated body in a single strike.

    He twisted quickly, leaping at the other golem before ripping it apart in a whirlwind of motion. Atlas used Ultimate Consume on the two piles of rock, absorbing their essence and gaining 30 intelligence and 20 constitution for his efforts. His body suddenly felt as though it was being ripped apart and notifications scrolled through his mind.

 Chapter 32: Gaining a Path

    Atlas was greeted with a rush of notifications, some of which were notices of the exact amount of stats he had gained, which he had already instinctively known after using Ultimate Consume anyway, but the vast majority of notifications were new, and very welcome.

    You have defended the town from a wave that was boosted to be far stronger than it should have been. As such, your town has gained a large boost as a reward for defending the town.

    Reward 1: For the next 24 hours, the town will produce at 10x the normal production speed.

    Reward 2: You may upgrade one building of your choice. (Cannot be your town center)

    Reward 3: Your town will be turned into a marble upon leaving the grove, you can place down this marble in any place of your choice and your town will automatically be constructed there. This does not cost you any resources, and the river will be brought with you.

    You have leveled up! X38

    You have reached the maximum level of tier 2!

    Checking¡­

    You have the achievement level required to advance to tier 3! Would you like to advance? (You may always advance your tier later, but until then, you can not advance any of your skills or your level.) Y/N

    Atlas selected yes, and he was filled with a euphoria unlike any other. White light condensed into ribbons all around him, wrapping him up like some sort of mummy before sinking into his flesh and becoming absorbed. Everytime a ribbon of light would enter him, Atlas felt his power grow, until he felt as though he was bursting at the seams.

    A notification hovered in front of him.

    At Tier 3, your subclass upgrades and you may choose one of up to 5 paths of power (Quality and quantity of the paths of power depends on prior achievements, with 2 being the minimum possible for someone who is tiering up.) You will not gain a subclass upgrade because you have already received one before now.

    Choose a path to power. (You must choose )

    Path of the Hungry Void.

    Path of the Endless Curse.

    Path of the Destroyer.

    Path of the Nightmare Fiend.

    Path of the Skill Sage.

    The five options hovered in front of him, and Atlas frowned, trying to think. He was given no information about any of the paths, so it seemed he would have to simply choose based on context clues.

    He first ruled out the path of the Nightmare Fiend, he didn¡¯t want to take a path that so obviously pushed Atlas to do what he would most likely consider unethical, and he didn¡¯t want to take a path that clashed with his morals. Atlas also didn¡¯t want to take the path because it just seemed evil. Atlas knew that most of his skills and classes would probably be viewed as evil to anybody else, but as long as he was using them for good, they couldn¡¯t truly be evil, right?

    He next decided against the path of the Hungry Void. It sounded powerful, but it sounded like a skill that would revolve around Consume. Atlas knew that Consume was a great power, but it wasn¡¯t his main skill, far from it. As such he was left with the last three paths, which all suited him in some way or another.

    Path of the Endless Curse obviously referred to his debuffs, which had become a large - if not massive- part of his combat style, so even though the name left something to be desired, he was sure the effects would be great.

    That brought him to the next path. Path of the Destroyer. This was close to the concept of Atlas being a reaper, and Atlas had actually been surprised with the lack of any path directly mentioning a reaper, but this was the next best thing. The only thing that Atlas disliked about this path was how vague it was. He didn¡¯t know exactly what benefits he would gain from this path, but they were sure to be centered around combat, which was definitely not a bad thing.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The final option was the path of the Skill Sage, and it was most likely Atlas¡¯s favorite path. He loved the feeling of making new skills and raising them to become stronger, and most of his skills had come from scratch, or at least, they had, until he had shoved them all into Avatar of Death, but this was still a very desirable option for Atlas, and he knew that he would gain an all around boost from this skill.

    As Atlas contemplated all three of the options, he became more annoyed with the fact that he didn¡¯t really know what paths even were. He knew that they would benefit him in a great way, but even that was a little fuzzy. How exactly would they be able to benefit him? It was annoying not knowing what would happen.

    In the end, Atlas decided on the path of the Skill Sage. It sounded like it would synergize well with his Skill Master title, and it was the last option, which might mean that it was the strongest. He had no clue of knowing if this was true, but he was willing to chance it seeing as this skill would benefit him even if it was just as strong as all of the other paths.

    Path Chosen!

    Path of the Skill Sage: You have proven yourself to be a master of skills, both stealing and creating them. You have endlessly persevered, getting skills made from scratch well into the S-ranks, even managing to create a Z-ranked skill without the help of the system. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed and you have been recognized by the system as one worthy enough to hold the title of Skill Sage. You gain 3 benefits of your choosing, from a list of 6.

    Option one: Upgrades Title (Skill Master[Legendary]) Into Title (Skill Grandmaster [Mythic])

    Short but sweet. It was very brief, but it was a major jump. Skill Master was already a very powerful title in his arsenal, and this option would only make it stronger.

    Option two: Any time you create a new skill, it will automatically jump to the next rank (Example: S -> SS)

    This one was also very powerful, but Atlas wasn¡¯t sure if it was good enough. Sure it was great, but the majority of his skills started at A or B rank, so this option would only save him a little time, and not really help too much overall.

    Option three: All skills will start at a minimum of S rank (Cannot have this and option two at the same time.)

    This option was far more enticing for Atlas. This option was on paper slightly worse than option two, but that was until you read it a little closer. It didn¡¯t say all created skills, it said ALL skills. This option would work beautifully with Consume and would only make him stronger overall. Skills didn¡¯t get very useful until around S or SS rank, in Atlas¡¯s opinion. The only exceptions were higher tiered skills, but he didn¡¯t have very many of those, and they would still benefit from this.

    Option four: Anytime a skill would gain a rank, you can instead choose for it to become a higher tiered skill. (Higher tiered skills gain experience to the next level at the same speed as lower tiered skills, but are far more powerful than their rank would suggest.)

    Now this was a tempting option, this option would make it so that he could power level lower rank skills while keeping them in the same rank and having them gain experience at the same speed. If anything, this was the exact opposite of option 3. While that option made all skills start higher, this skill made skills lower rank, but higher tier. If higher tiered skills were the difference between Ultimate Debuff and Avatar of Death, then this option would definitely be worth it. The only side effect would be the effect on his ego. He loved seeing his skills steadily grow in rank, and this skill would only slow that process, sure, it would make his skills have more bang for their buck, but it would still hurt.

    Option five: You no longer need achievements to gain and upgrade skills.

    That was¡­ underwhelming. But it also intrigued Atlas a lot. You needed achievements to be able to gain skills and upgrade them? Why hadn¡¯t he run into this problem before? He had been able to get all of his skills without much trouble, so it didn¡¯t make sense for this to be a thing. He moved on to the final option.

    Option six: You can combine skills as much as you desire. (Be aware that with this option, you can combine any skills, but they might not have much synergy, resulting in a failed skill*)

    Atlas mentally pressed on the asterisk.

    Failed skills are skills that are no longer usable, and they must be uncombined to become usable again (uncombining skills is a long and tedious process.)

    Atlas hummed to himself, thinking. This option was great, but the idea of failed skills was more than a little concerning. He didn¡¯t want to combine skills only for them to not work. After some thinking he realized that he had a way to circumvent this. Synthesiser. It allowed him to find skills that had synergy with each other, resulting in great skills.

    With a thought, he accepted the options he wanted.

    Are you sure you want option one, option four, and option six to be your three benefits? Once you choose, it will be permanent.

    Atlas agreed, and just like that, he had gained a path.

 Chapter 33: Rare Mana

    Atlas felt power flow into him, much less than when he ranked up but still very noticeable, a notification appeared in front of him, congratulating him on beginning the path of the skill sage. After a few more moments, another notification popped up. It showed him his upgraded title, and all the changes were italicized.

    Skill Grandmaster: You are a top tier master at creating skills, and it is now 2000% easier to create and level said skills. Skill experience gain is no longer increased by 20% at each level and 200% at each tier, and instead becomes 10% and 100% increase respectively. (This effect is not retroactive)  Whenever someone uses a skill in your presence, you can focus to know the name of the skill and all of its abilities. (Does work on any skills at or higher than your highest leveled skill). You will no longer be given skills by the system. (This does not apply to skills gifted from achievements)

    Atlas was very pleased with this upgrade. It was basically just doubled effects from Skill Master, with the scanning part of the title now being an active effect and now affecting skill experience increase per level and tier being halved. It was disappointing that it wasn¡¯t retroactive, so his lower rank skills would gain experience far faster than his higher rank skills even when they were the same rank.

    Atlas was struck by a thought. Now that he was able to up the tier of his skills instead of ranking them up, the halved experience needed for the next level would be very beneficial, especially because of the massive 2000% increase to learning and leveling skills that he got from the same title. Really, this title was very powerful.

    Atlas stood up from where he had been leaning against the wall. He made his way over to the town center and walked up to his room. Ever since he had upgraded the town from a village to a town, his room had expanded dramatically, along with the rest of the building. His room had gone from a simple bed with a nightstand with a journal lying on top, to a massive room that was about 20 by 20 feet.

    His nightstand had remained mostly the same, simply gaining another drawer, but the rest of the room had changed a lot. He now had a large dresser that was mostly useless for Atlas with his Soulbound suit, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was filled with clean and plush robes, most likely for sleep or lounging, so Atlas was still happy with it.

    The other two changes though, were far more exciting.

    He now had a large bookshelf opposite his bed, filled with countless books of all different kinds of subjects, the outside world, different tiers, basic skills, adventurers, basic classes and subclasses, and all other sorts of basic knowledge that was very useful to Atlas, seeing how he was utterly uninformed when it came to almost anything, with all of his knowledge coming from deductions he had made himself and knowledge given to him from the system.

    The final change was by far the best, it was such a beautiful change that it had brought Atlas, who had been pretty poor back on earth, though not to the point of poverty, to tears. The change was perfect and amazing it was¡­

    The bed.

    The bed had gone from a comfortable bed slightly bigger than a twin with a single blanket and pillow, to a massive king sized bed with multiple layers and over a dozen pillows. Atlas went over to the dresser and changed into one of the plush robes before hopping into the bed face first and promptly falling asleep after pulling the top two layers over him.

    ***

    Atlas woke up to a feeling of pure bliss. He couldn¡¯t remember the last time that he had felt this comfortable and peaceful. He groaned as he sat up in bed, dragging himself over to the dresser and changing back into his suit.

    As he adjusted his tie, he brought up his skills and his time limit until the next wave, after all that he had gone through during the last wave, he was going to power level the crap out of his skills, he would not be taken by surprise again.

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Avatar of Death (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Consume (SS), Misty Step(SS), Supreme Damage Resistance (SS), Demonic Claw (S), Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S), Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D).

    Your Guardtowers have found an enemy presence! Wave starts in 11:46:12

    He wanted to get a couple more skills and increase them all up to around A rank at least, with the exception of crafting and herbalism, as he had no idea how to upgrade those currently, and there weren¡¯t any benefits to be had from upgrading them anyway, so he might as well just focus on all his other skills.

    Atlas grabbed an empty notebook from the bookshelf and glanced at it, trying to see if it had any useful or special properties. He stared at it for a minute, trying to circulate mana to his eyes to see if that would help him to find any properties hidden in the notebook. Just as he was about to give up, he got a notification and black words appeared above the notebook.

    Magic Notebook: This notebook appears to have 100 blank pages, but it has an infinite number of pages. All the pages will automatically be sorted and if you push mana into the notebook and think about what you are trying to find, the notebook will sort itself to show a maximum of 100 pages that are in its pages, and a minimum of 0 if you have nothing written about the subject.

    Atlas¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, what had appeared to be a simple notebook was actually a very helpful notebook that had no limit of pages and would act like a search engine for whatever he was trying to find, as long as he had written something about the subject he was searching for. He immediately wrote down all of the temporary skills he had written down, transferring them from his journal to his notebook by hand.

    As he was doing so, he brought up the notification that he had received from scanning the notebook.

    Skill gained! Scan (B): You can pull up the basic information of any item or person that is a thats highest trait/skill is equal to or less than this skills tier. How much information that you receive is based on the gap between the tier and trait/skill. (Ex: B -> B gives you very little information while B -> F gives you a lot of information because of the larger gap.)

    Atlas was surprised, he had not been expecting anything like this to happen, and while it was unexpected for him, it probably shouldn¡¯t have with all of the skill related benefits he had gotten recently, allowing him to both gain and level skills at a speed incomparable to before.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Atlas started to jot down anything that he thought might be important and didn¡¯t want to forget, before closing the notebook and walking out of his room. He then went downstairs and walked over to the door and exited the building.

    Atlas glanced back over his shoulder at the town center and realized that the building was taller than what the inside had suggested. Is there a third floor? Atlas wondered to himself. He shrugged and activated Avatar of Death before leaping onto the wall.

    He cracked his knuckles and sat in the lotus position. He breathed in deeply, turning his eyes inward and focusing on the mana sluggishly circulating throughout his body. Atlas pulled up his mana pathways to finally select the two upgrades he wanted. He had held off because he didn¡¯t want to do anything that would mess up his future development, but now he needed every advantage that he could get.

    Mana pathways: Rarity - Rare: Your body has become much more powerful at harnessing the chaotic powers of mana. Each rarity of pathways unlocks a new benefit. With each higher rarity possessing all the benefits of the rarities below it.

    Trash: Your control over mana is affected by your Intelligence and Wisdom stats combined and divided by four. (Current is 781% control, where 100% is the norm for beings without mana pathways

    Basic: You can choose a different aspect of your mana to upgrade. Potency, Quantity, Quality, Regeneration Speed, and Control. (When upgraded by another rarity, the upgrade is better.)

    Common: Your mana regeneration is doubled. (You regenerate the same amount of mana in 30 minutes as when it was 1 hour. You could also take it to mean that your Intelligence now gives you 20 mana per stat point in Intelligence.)

    Uncommon: You now get one point of mana for every one point in your other stats. (Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Constitution and Wisdom)

    Rare: Choose one of the three options. 1: Your mana is purified when it enters your body, halving your regeneration speed, but quadrupling the efficiency of your mana. 2: Your total mana pool is halved but it is now 10 times as potent. 3: You regenerate mana four times as fast but at the cost of having half as potent mana.

    Atlas first selected the basic option, after some consideration, he had decided to upgrade quality, he didn¡¯t know how much it would affect him, but it seemed like the most important upgrade to have. He got more mana total and mana regeneration from stats anyway, so it was useless to upgrade those in his opinion.

    Quality upgrade has been chosen, upgrading mana. Please hold during this process. Please remember that the system is not responsible for any accidental deaths because of the user¡¯s choices.

    ¡°Hold on, what?!¡±

    Pain filled Atlas¡¯s very soul and he let out a tortured scream as the mana inside of him was forcibly merged together by brute force as the system controlled his mana and purifying and directly upgrading his mana.

    Atlas screamed as the ambient mana in the air surged towards him, filling him up with pure and dense mana that felt alive. It shot like lightning through his veins filling him with both pure power and bliss, and pure pain and anguish at the same time.

    Atlas struggled to maintain the lotus position, even as his body tried to kill him from the inside out. He now knew that the lotus position was the most effective way to harness your mana after skimming over some of the books in his room. So he knew that if he stopped staying in the lotus position the mana overload might kill him.

    The mana whirled like a tornado inside of him for a few moments more, before starting to wane and eventually stop, Atlas was left sweating and gasping for air. He coughed a couple times and was surprised when black blood spurted out of his mouth in an arc before landing with a splattering sound in front of him.

    He gagged, throwing up even more of the vile liquid before wiping his mouth and standing up.

    He immediately thought better of it as his legs gave out on him and he was forced to take a seat again. He lay back in lotus position before selecting his next option, though with far more trepidation this time.

    Atlas chose option 2 as his rare level option. He was going all in on potency/quality of mana, and option 2 also seemed to give the most total benefits. It was annoying that it would halve his mana, but he had enough mana for it to be manageable.

    He selected the option and tensed, waiting for the pain to appear.

    Option 2 upgrade (Potency) has been chosen, upgrading mana. Please hold during this process. Please remember that the system is not responsible for any accidental deaths because of the user¡¯s choices.

    The pain rushed over Atlas tearing into him. He screamed as his mana seemed to tighten and weave itself together inside of him, causing black ichor to rush out of pores. Atlas realized midway through the process that the motions of the mana were forcing out all of the impurities inside of him, turning him into the best mana conductor possible.

    He watched in fascination as it stitched together his mana pathways to create a sort of spinning motion, similar to the grooves on a rifle, that constantly spun the mana, purifying it at the cost of halving it.

    He was suddenly struck by a notification as the tearing feeling started to wane.

    INSANE LUCKY BONUS!

    X10 increase in potency -> x30 increase in potency

    The rending feeling faded, and Atlas brought up his status sheet hurriedly to check the changes.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 3

    Level: 0

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Mana Pathways: Rare

    Mana: 11,677

    Life force: 15,630

    Stamina: 15,430

    Titles: Shadestrider, Skill Grandmaster, Boss Slayer, Powerful Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser, Fate breaker.

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Avatar of Death (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Consume (SS), Misty Step(SS), Supreme Damage Resistance (SS), Demonic Claw (S), Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S), Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D).

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1,543

    Constitution: 1,563

    Strength: 1,573

    Dexterity: 1,583

    Wisdom: 1,572

    Intelligence: 1,552

    Free points: 0

    Atlas was surprised at his sudden lack of mana, why did he have so little?

    That is because the 20 point intelligence buff was being shown on your sheet instead of the rapid mana regeneration. We have fixed it so it now shows your ACTUAL mana pool, sorry for the inconvenience. -System of Stats

    Atlas nodded to himself, that made a lot more sense. He turned abruptly, bringing up his hands. Now it was time to test out his new mana.

 Chapter 34: Back on the Grind I

    Chapter 34: Back on the Grind I

    Atlas sat next to the river, holding a lotus position and circulating his mana carefully. He widened the pathways in his hand and leaked mana out, manipulating the mana subtly until he was holding a clear sword that was tinged slightly blue, or in other words, a mana sword. His mana was dropping by 1 point per second so he couldn¡¯t hold it forever, but he could still hold it for quite a while.

    Atlas focused on the sword, engraving the sword''s form in his mind, before slowly altering it, sharpening the edge, smoothing out the hilt and reinforcing the sword with even more mana. A half hour later, he held the finished product.

    The sword had morphed from a rather crude basic sword, to a glimmering wonder of mana. The mana cost of the sword had risen to 50 mana per second, so his regeneration could no longer negate the majority of the mana cost, but it was okay, as the quality of the weapon had risen far higher than Atlas had originally hoped.

    Atlas then glanced at the notifications that had been waiting for him while he worked.

    You have leveled up your skill Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S) to level 2!

    ¡­

    You have leveled up your skill Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S) to level 8!

    Atlas was expecting nothing less so he just nodded his head, he had gotten slightly more levels than estimated, but only by one or two. Atlas unsummoned his mana sword and stood up. Atlas wanted to see how his upgraded mana affected his skills, so he waltzed on over to the clearing where he had been almost killed just a day previously. What a joy it was to live.

    He started first with the skill that would show the most change with his mana, Elemental Affinity, Atlas felt sheepish about this skill, because whenever he got into the thick of things, he more often than not forgot he even had this skill, so its level had stagnated.

    He stretched out his hand, conjuring fire and blasting it forward. Atlas marveled at the smoothness and efficiency of the effort, and as the fireball scorched a path in front of him Atlas started to create different elements and test what he could do with them. A couple minutes later he collapsed to the ground, mana all gone. He groaned, and raised himself up, rubbing dirt out of his eyes.

    Elemental Affinity had drastically risen in firepower and control, but it was a mana hog, stealing every last drop of his mana in just a few minutes of use. Those few minutes had still been helpful though, and the notifications showed him exactly how beneficial.

    You have leveled up your skill Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S) to level 9!

    You have leveled up your skill Elemental Affinity (SSS) to level 3!

    He had surprisingly got another level in mana manipulation, but it made sense, seeing as he had been controlling his mana to transform it into elements, which used mana manipulation.

    As Atlas waited for his mana to regenerate he began to cycle through all of his skills, activating all of them and using them to see if he could get any levels in them before the timer ran out.

    You have leveled up your skill Misty Step (SS) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Demonic Claw (S) to level 6!

    You have leveled up your skill Lightning Beam (B) to level 10!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Lightning Beam (B)?

    Atlas selected tier up, seeing as it was a lower ranked skill, he could tier it up multiple times until it was legendary, at which point it would finally be useful.

    Tiering up¡­

    Lightning Beam (B) -> Zap Cannon (B)

    Atlas started focusing his entire mana pool into the skill before releasing it in a giant blast. The world turned white and when he blinked the spots out of his eyes, he found a giant crater.

    You have leveled up your skill Zap Cannon (B) to level 10!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Zap Cannon (B)?

    Atlas blinked in shock, how had it jumped 10 levels from one cast? Was it because of the sheer amount of mana he had pumped into the skill? He once again selected tier up and got a very welcome notification.

    Tiering up¡­

    Zap Cannon (B) -> Sun Ray (B)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Sun Ray (B) -> Lights Decent (B)You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    Atlas smiled to himself, lucky bonuses were always more than welcome, especially when they gave him such a good bonus, it had basically saved him time of leveling up the skill further. Atlas opened up the skill description to see what it did.

    Lights Descent (B): Summon forth a pillar of light to smite your enemies, damage, size and brightness of the pillar depend on the amount of mana used to activate this skill.

    Atlas activated it, summoning a giant pillar from the sky with all of his mana that created light so bright that it was as though the sun had descended from the sky. It was an apt description, considering the skills name.

    You have leveled up your skill Lights Descent (B) to level 4!

    Atlas glanced at the timer. He had a little more than 8 hours left. It was time to see how far he could push his skills in that time.

    ***

    You have leveled up your skill Avatar of Death (Z) to level 3!

    You have leveled up your skill Elemental Affinity (SSS) to level 4!

    You have leveled up your skill Misty Step (SS) to level 5!

    You have leveled up your skill Demonic Claw (S) to level 10!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Demonic Claw (S)

    Tiering up¡­

    Demonic Claw (S) -> Demonic Energy (S)

    You have leveled up your skill Demonic Energy (S) to level 7!

    You have leveled up your skill Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S) to level 10!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S)?

    Tiering up¡­

    Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S) -> Advanced Mana Manipulation (S)

    You have leveled up your skill Advanced Mana Manipulation (S) to level 10!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Advanced Mana Manipulation?

    Tiering up¡­

    Advanced Mana Manipulation (S) -> Supreme Mana Manipulation (S)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Supreme Mana Manipulation (S) -> Weak Mana Monarchy (S)

    You have leveled Weak Mana Monarchy (S) to level 2!

    You have leveled up your skill Lights Decent (B) to level 10!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Lights Decent (B)

    Tiering up¡­

    Max tier of current rank¡­

    Ranking up instead¡­

    Lights Decent (B) -> Holy Light Descent (A)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Holy Light Descent (A) -> Consuming Light (S)

    You have leveled up Consuming Light (S) to level 4!

    Atlas wiped his forehead, grinning maniacally. He was feeling very accomplished right about now, especially after looking over all of his new skills, with all of the changes conveniently italicized.

    Demonic Energy (S): You coat your body in a demonic energy, creating weapons out of the energy, but being limited to natural weapons (Claws, Fangs, Tail, Hooves, Etc.) This energy steals magic from your victim, but this skill also passively requires magic to work.

    Weak Mana Monarchy (S): You are a ruler of mana, and it responds to your call. You can control mana far more efficiently, and mana activally gathers around you, enhancing your regeneration, wanting to be closer to royalty. This effect is dependent on your Intelligence and Wisdom. (Intelligence = Efficiency of mana, Wisdom = Mana Regeneration)

    Consuming Light (S): Summon forth a pillar of consuming light to smite your enemies, damage, size and brightness of the pillar depend on the amount of mana used to activate this skill, power scales exponentially. If you kill an enemy with this skill, you gain one experience in a random skill per each point in your enemy''s highest stat.

    All three of them were amazing, but Consuming Light was the best, it would help him develop his skills even faster, and it had a lot of synergy with Consume, and it might be smart to combine them in the future, when Consuming Light was at the same rank.

    Weak Mana Monarchy was also a very interesting skill, the higher his stats, the better the skill would be. It was already a great skill, and it would only get better. The ¡°Weak¡± in its name probably just meant that each rank would be a direct upgrade, which meant it would probably end at Strong Mana Monarchy or something similar.

    Demonic Energy was the least beneficial upgrade for him, but at least it was close to being upgraded again. If Atlas was going to guess the next tier up would make it so that he could make any weapon, or a skill that was similar, such as making only swords or something.

    Atlas checked the timer. Just under an hour left, there wasn¡¯t much he could do now, it was time to see if all that time training up his skills had been enough to close the gap between him and whatever the 8th wave would bring. He was hoping the jump wouldn¡¯t be as drastic as it had been last time, but he believed that it would.

    He didn¡¯t know why the difficulty had randomly spiked, but it was becoming dangerous for him now, he had out paced all of the ¡°normal¡± trials and had found himself standing on the peak, but with the increase of difficulty, he was back on the bottom rung, fighting tooth and nail to live even just a little longer. The trials were still possible, just harder.

    Atlas breathed deeply, sitting down and leaning against the wall. He had grabbed a longsword from the Armory, not wanting to be caught unprepared like he had with the golems.

    The timer ticked slowly downwards as Atlas waited. He might have been able to get a couple more skill increases within the allotted hour left, but he would rather face off against the next wave at full strength.

    The time ticked onward.

    9

    8

    7

    6

    5

    4

    3

    2

    1

    0

    Wave start.

 Chapter 35: Urgent!

    Bloody pillars of light began to appear all around the town, stretching up the sky and glowing ominously. There were about 6 of them in total, all evenly spaced around the town walls in a hexagon shape. A bloody moon rose into the sky and the night was drenched red.

    Atlas activated Avatar of Death, kicking off of the wall and charging the nearest pillar at max speed. He was going to put down this wave as fast as he could. With a wave of his hand, a highly condensed mist wrapped around the tower of light, crackles of power floating within.

    He channeled it further, pumping half of his mana pool into the mist before dashing off to the next pillar. Upon reaching the pillar he activated the second mode of his gauntlets, putting a little bit of strain on himself but multiplying his strength by 10. With a bestial roar Atlas¡¯s upper body collided with the bloody tower, shattering it into multiple fragments.

    Atlas didn¡¯t even pause, speeding forward to the third tower. There was finally a change as demons started to flood out of the tower, each T3.

    Atlas bowled through them, leaving a trail of misty death in his wake. He wasn¡¯t able to kill the demons in one shot each, but he wasn¡¯t trying to kill them right now, just destroy the tower.

    This entire time, Atlas¡¯s boots steadily gained more and more speed, until he was rocketing so fast that everything seemed to blur together. The only good thing was that his helmet¡¯s senses were doing all that it could to keep him aware of his surroundings.

    There was a crash as Atlas ripped through the tower, not even hesitating before zipping over to the next tower and crashing through it as well. He slammed into the 5th tower¡­ only to bounce off and tumble backwards. Atlas managed to keep the effect of his boots running by quickly rising to his feet mid tumble and quickly backpedaling to survey the situation.

    There were demons alight with red power, creating a bloody energy shield all around the tower to protect it.

    Atlas leapt forward, stabbing one of the demons before quickly turning to the next one and lopping off his head, all while moving, so as to not lose the bonus on his boots. He quickly ran up the demon¡¯s that were casting the blood shield, cutting through three of them in quick succession.

    Spinning around, he thrust his blade forward, skewering a demon and using its body as a makeshift shield as the demons sliced at him and shot bolts of bloody light. Atlas used Elemental Affinity to create an explosion of fire that charred all of the demons at the cost of half of his remaining mana.

    The barrier around the tower flickered before vanishing, and Atlas rushed up to it and slammed his shoulder through the building, wrecking it and taking down his 5th tower, at least, assuming that he had ended the first one with his Ruinous Mist. He shot off after the hopefully final tower, leaving behind the half dead dregs of the demons to his guard towers spaced around his town.

    When he reached the final tower he found a sight that made his blood run cold. This tower, after being up for so long, had demons in a large ring around the tower, with the normal grunts at the outer reaches of the ring, with the mages and shieldbearers surrounding the tower in the inner part of the ring.

    Atlas turned his run to a walk, needing to assess the situation, but still not wanting to stop the speed buff on his boots that had a great deal of stacks on it after all the running he had done.

    As he observed, the demons all glared at him, eyes full of bloodlust. Atlas brandished his sword, trying to egg them on and get them to fall out of formation. Unfortunately, they seemed to be very disciplined and the best he could do was get a snarl from a handful of the outer demons.

    One of the mages began to glow violently before exploding into a pool of viscera with a crimson orb occupying the space where the demon had previously been. The orb began to grow and flatten, transforming into a mirror like form, albeit out of blood.

    As Atlas watched in horror, a system message appeared in front of him. One that he hadn¡¯t seen before.

    Hidden Event Unlocked!

    Urgent Quest Unlocked!

    Urgent Quest: Summoning The Avatar of Wrath

    Details: The High Priest of the 4th tower has sacrificed himself to summon one of the avatars of the lords of sin, the Avatar of Wrath. The Avatar of Wrath can be summoned for three reasons, two of which have been met. 1: 3 or more towers have been destroyed before the high priest sacrifices himself. 2: Another Avatar is nearby when the high priest sacrifices himself. 3: The high priest is killed before he can sacrifice himself.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Requirement: Destroy the tower before the Avatar of Wrath can be summoned or kill the Avatar of Wrath after summoning. Time left until summoning: 2:59

    Reward: Rare Rank Weapon

    Failure: Death

    A quest? Hidden event? Why hadn¡¯t he seen any of these before? He had thought that he had used most of the basic abilities of the system so far, but this seems like something new. Or had he gotten a quest before? Maybe at the start of the tutorial? What even were quests?

    As all these questions bounced around inside of his head, Atlas continued to keep moving around, when a system tip appeared.

    (System tip: Quests can be given and received at any time [ability to give quests unlocked after completing wave 10] and have benefits and detriments, quests are optional however, and you do not have to take them. Urgent Quests are different. They are not optional, and are in reaction to the events around you. They are generated by the system, and usually give better rewards, but if you fail the penalty is almost always death.)

    Atlas nodded, thinking about it. He didn¡¯t think he had ever gotten an urgent quest before, and it wasn¡¯t possible for him to get a normal quest, seeing as the function wasn¡¯t even unlocked yet. Atlas¡¯s blood ran cold as he realized that he was wasting precious time thinking over the quest.

    Checking the time, he saw he had a little over two minutes remaining and he shot forwards, burning up mana as he activated Elemental Affinity, sending a wave of fire in front of him smashing into the ranks of the demons. Not giving them time to recover from the destruction wrought by the fire, he dashed in, swinging from side to side in long, sweeping motions, decapitating demons like an instant guillotine.

    He rushed towards the mages protecting the tower, practically hearing every second tick slowly down. The mages created a barrier in front of him and he rammed face first into it, halting all of his gained momentum in a blast of air. Atlas groaned at realizing that all of his constant moving had been a waste of time, seeing as he had ended up losing all the speed stacks anyway.

    The mages pounced on his obvious opening with lighting speed, summoning demonic energy and blasting it towards him in the form of fangs, claws and horns. Atlas responded by creating his own demonic energy to block it, only to find that it was an inferior version compared to theirs.

    Their energy battered him backwards and he grunted in pain before leaping at them, stabbing his sword into two mages in quick succession before they could respond. He grinned cruelly at the eight remaining mages. He would kill them with time to spare. The mages panicked as he rushed them, killing another three mages before the mages could hastily erect a barrier for him to slam into. Atlas was ready this time however, and he pushed off of the barrier before sprinting around it and cutting into the mages ranks. With a couple quick slashes, all four of them lay dead on the ground.

    Atlas turned and slammed his shoulder into the tower, expecting it to shatter just like all of the other towers. To his surprise, his shoulder instead rammed into a barrier. Atlas¡¯s eyebrows rose. Hadn¡¯t he killed all nine of the mages? Then why..?

    Atlas realized what was wrong instantly. Nine? Weren¡¯t there originally ten of those things? Atlas frantically looked around for the final mage, glancing at the timer as he did. He had just over one minute, so he should be fine, but he was still panicking. Atlas¡¯s eyes went into overdrive as he looked all around for the final mage, but it was either lost in the crowd of demons that were all around the tower, or it was¡­ Up!

    Atlas looked at the top of the tower, and, sure enough, there was the final mage. The mage noticed Atlas looking at him and waved cockily. Atlas ground his teeth. The mage was almost 200 feet above him, and there was no way that he could make that in one jump, if it were a quarter of that distance, he might be able to make it, but as it was, it was simply impossible.

    Or was it? Atlas smirked at the demon as he activated one of his least used skills. Misty step. He appeared right next to the demon and casually kicked it, sending it tumbling downwards towards its death. It landed with a splat, and Atlas grinned, checking the timer.

    0:04

    What! How had he wasted so much time!? Atlas wasted no time and smashed his fist into the tower with everything he had, splitting it in half with an explosion of crimson shards.

    Atlas entered freefall, and he realized there was a flaw in his plan. He could only teleport if he took a step! Atlas used the last remaining dregs of his mana to create a platform of air underneath him, stopping his momentum for a brief second, in that brief moment, Atlas stepped forward, appearing near the remains of the tower and checking the quest.

    Urgent Quest: Summoning The Avatar of Wrath

    Details: The High Priest of the 4th tower has sacrificed himself to summon one of the avatars of the lords of sin, the Avatar of Wrath. The Avatar of Wrath can be summoned for three reasons, two of which have been met. 1: 3 or more towers have been destroyed before the high priest sacrifices himself. 2: Another Avatar is nearby when the high priest sacrifices himself. 3: The high priest is killed before he can sacrifice himself.

    Requirement: Kill the Avatar of Wrath.

    Reward: Rare Rank Weapon

    Failure: Death

    Atlas¡¯s blood froze. He hadn¡¯t destroyed the tower in time! He looked at the portal and a bloody figure emerged. Its form slowly changed into a behemoth. It was a giant lion, about the size of a barn. The lion looked around and noticed all of the corpses of the demons and the destroyed tower. Atlas gulped as the lion roared in fury before turning to him.

 Chapter 36: Perfect Awareness

    The lion stared down at Atlas an/d opened its jaws and pounced at him. Atlas did the smartest thing to do when facing a multiple ton lion.

    He teleported away.

    The lion spun around and snarled at him, toothy maw opened wide as it charged at Atlas. As the lion approached, Atlas powered up his armor to the maximum possible and fully activated Ultimate Debuff before leaping towards the lion with sword at the ready.

    They clashed in midair, the lion''s claws colliding with Atlas¡¯s sword in a shower of sparks, sending Atlas flying back but not before he could inflict a multitude of debuffs on the lion. The lion charged forward again as soon as it had regained its footing, teeth once more descending on Atlas.

    Because of all the fights against the multiple towers, Atlas¡¯s mana was hovering around rock bottom, slowly but steadily rising. All of his big attacks required a large amount of mana, so he was going to have to hold on for a while before he would be able to retaliate properly. Until then, he had enough mana to inflict a decent amount of damage to the avatar by stacking more and more debuffs onto it.

    Atlas and the lion clashed a few more times, each time resulting in the lion gaining debuffs and Atlas being launched away, before Atlas got an interesting message.

    You have inflicted the first Rare debuff on an enemy! Title gained: Debuffer (Rare)

    Debuffer: Every common or uncommon debuff inflicted on an enemy gives you an additional 0.5% or 1% chance to inflict a rare debuff. This effect resets every time you inflict a rare debuff on anyone.

    Short, simple, sweet. Atlas had just gotten a considerable boost to his attack power, he could inflict a ridiculous amount of debuffs on an enemy, but common and uncommon debuffs did a very small amount of damage, meaning that he needed a lot of debuffs to kill an enemy superior to him, this title would allow him to easily gain rare debuffs.

    Atlas had only gotten this title because of his armor, which had a very powerful effect.

    When at least 4 pieces are in effect, debuffs you inflict have a 20% chance of being a higher tier of debuffs (Common -> Uncommon -> Rare -> Very Rare -> Epic) and so on.

    Now every 80 debuffs he was guaranteed to inflict a rare debuff, but he would likely inflict a rare debuff a lot sooner than that.

    The debuff that Atlas had inflicted on the lion was one of the best rare debuffs Curse.

    The curse debuff made it so that all debuffs effects were double what they normally were, and not only that, but there was now a 5% chance that a debuff could duplicate, creating even more debuffs stacked onto the enemy which did more damage because of the standard effect of curse.

    The best thing about the curse debuff though, was that it could be stacked.

    Atlas and the lion clashed again, with the lion once again winning the exchange, but something was slightly different this time, Atlas was thrown as far, or hurt as bad, as he usually was. They clashed against each other again, and once more Atlas felt as though he was not being pushed as far back as he should have been.

    After a few more exchanges, Atlas inflicted another debuff, this one also being a curse debuff.

    Curse debuffs, as mentioned, double the effects of all other debuffs and add a duplicating chance. So now instead of all the debuffs being twice as strong, they were now 6 times stronger than they were originally. This is because the curse debuff affects other curse debuffs. They only worked on curse debuffs once though, as they used to just endlessly scale off of each other which resulted in them being not able to work on each other multiple times, only once, and only on the one that was inflicted first.

    The lion staggered, the many debuffs that were stacked onto it suddenly tripling in power.

    The lion started to feel afraid as its body was weakened considerably and a multitude of different effects ran rampant throughout its body. Atlas attacked it while it was recovering from their most recent clash, slashing it on the leg and almost completely cutting through its leg, stopping only when it slammed into its bone.

    Atlas leaped backwards, only to be replaced with a gout of fire that leapt from the beast''s terrible maw. The avatar roared at him and tried to claw at Atlas, only for him to teleport away.

    Atlas¡¯s mana was just under half, but he no longer wanted to waste it on the creature, realizing that he was beating this monster very soundly and would need to save his mana for the last tower, seeing as he still didn¡¯t know if he had defeated that tower or not.

    As though summoned by his thoughts, another message appeared in front of him.

    Urgent Quest: Summoning The Avatar of Sloth

    Details: The High Priest of the 6th tower has sacrificed himself to summon one of the avatars of the lords of sin, the Avatar of Sloth. The Avatar of Sloth can be summoned for three reasons, one of which has been met. 1: 3 or more towers have been destroyed before the high priest sacrifices himself. 2: Another Avatar is nearby when the high priest sacrifices himself. 3: The high priest is killed before he can sacrifice himself.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Requirement: Destroy the tower before the Avatar of Sloth can be summoned or kill the Avatar of Sloth after summoning. Time left until summoning: 4:59

    Reward: Rare Rank Weapon

    Failure: Death

    The avatar of sloth?! There is another one of them? Atlas leapt forward, swinging his sword and relieving the avatar of wrath of its head by briefly raising his strength buff to the max before returning it to its passive state. His body crackled with pain, but it was worth it, seeing as he was able to kill the lion before quickly jumping into the sky and creating a platform of air for him to stand on. Where was that other avatar?

    He quickly spotted the final tower, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He could definitely destroy it within the time, especially considering the time had been almost doubled. And while it was more than a little odd that the time had increased by so much, Atlas could only shrug it off and carry on. When he arrived at the tower, all of the demons turned as one to face him, only for a bright light to appear in the sky and fall at lightning speed towards them, suffocating them and turning the world white.

    Atlas had poured all of his mana into that one attack, and it showed. More than half of the demons were killed in a single attack, with the rest barely hanging on. He reveled in the feel of power that his attack had given him, and then the effect of the skill triggered.

    A vast amount of skill experience is coming your way, would you prefer for each skill to affect a skill randomly, or put them all into one massive pool then have it affect one skill randomly? (This question will only be asked once, and every time a similar event to this happens, whatever you choose now will be taken into priority [can also be changed in the skill description])

    Atlas chose for one skill to receive all the experience. While it was more of a gamble, it would give him better results, at least in the short run, he might have to change it at a later date, but for now, this choice felt like the best.

    Acknowledged, Absorbing Skill Exp¡­

    Absorbed into skill [Herbalism(D)]

    Atlas¡¯s heart dropped. Really? Of all the skills that could have gotten the massive amount of skill experience? Herbalism?

    Atlas was broken out of his musing by a wall of text.

    You have leveled up your skill Herbalism (D) to level 2!

    ***

    You have leveled up your skill Herbalism (D) to level 78!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Herbalism (D)?

    Tiering up¡­

    Herbalism (D) -> Herbology (D)

    Tiering up¡­

    Herbology (D) -> Plant Knowledge (D)

    Tiering up¡­

    Plant Knowledge (D) -> World Knowledge ()

    LUCKY BONUS!

    World Knowledge (D) -> Understanding(D)

    Tiering up¡­

    Max tier of current rank¡­

    Ranking up instead¡­

    Understanding (D) -> Great Understanding (C)

    Tiering up¡­

    Max tier of current rank¡­

    Ranking up instead¡­

    Great Understanding (C) -> Large Understanding (B)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Large Understanding (B) -> Perfect Understanding (A)

    Tiering up¡­

    Perfect Understanding (A) -> Perfect Understanding of All Things (A)

    INSANE LUCKY BONUS!!!

    Perfect Understanding of All Things cannot be tiered up anymore!

    Insane lucky bonuses can break through limits as weak as these, so it tiers up anyway.

    Perfect Understanding of All Things (A) -> Perfect Comprehension (A)

    Tiering up¡­

    Max tier of current rank¡­

    Ranking up¡­

    Perfect Comprehension (A) -> Godly Comprehension (S)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Godly Comprehension (S) -> Perfect Awareness (SS)

    Atlas stood, absolutely flabbergasted, as he found himself staring at a skill that not long ago had been an insignificant skill, one that he hadn¡¯t even used before. Now? He didn¡¯t know what power he had just obtained.

    Perfect Awareness (SS): You see, and you understand everything around you. For 1 second for every thousand points of intelligence you possess, you become a being who can understand everything around you with perfect accuracy and ability. This ability can only be used once every 12 hours.

    Atlas felt a little worse about the skill. One second? What was he supposed to do in one second? He turned around and got ready to face the tower, when another notification appeared.

    Urgent Quest: Summoning The Avatar of Sloth

    Details: The High Priest of the 6th tower has sacrificed himself to summon one of the avatars of the lords of sin, the Avatar of Sloth. The Avatar of Sloth can be summoned for three reasons, two of which have been met. 1: 3 or more towers have been destroyed before the high priest sacrifices himself. 2: Another Avatar is nearby when the high priest sacrifices himself. 3: The high priest is killed before he can sacrifice himself.

    Requirement: Kill the Avatar of Sloth.

    Reward: Rare Rank Weapon

    Failure: Death

    It had already been 5 minutes.

 Chapter 37: Avatar of Slow Death

    Atlas spun around, longsword held at the ready, this was the second time he had messed up the quest, and now he would have to fight another avatar. He wasn¡¯t worried, because the first avatar had been pretty weak, and he had killed it in around a dozen minutes, give or take a couple minutes.

    A large sloth, around the same size as the avatar of wrath, if materialized in between Atlas and the tower. How fitting, Atlas thought wryly to himself, a sloth representing the avatar of sloth?

    Atlas decided to scan it this time. He hadn¡¯t scanned the avatar of wrath and was interested to see the stats of an avatar.

    Avatar of Sloth: Weakest form

    Tier: 3 Level: 100

    It was only a hundred levels above him, which helped him understand why he had beaten the avatar of wrath as easily as he did, a hundred level gap was not enough to suppress Atlas, his stats and skills were just too high level for a such a small amount of levels to hold superior power against him, the avatar would need closer to two hundred levels or more to best him.

    That didn¡¯t mean that the avatar couldn¡¯t kill him, just that with his debuffs, and his newest title, his attacks would slowly do more and more damage.

    The sloth spread out on the ground with a lazy expression on its face, smiling goofily at him. Atlas began to notice a faint red glow radiating from the sloth, and used Skill Grandmaster to know what it did. Unexpectedly, when he did so, he created the skill for himself as well, most likely because of his 20x increase in skill creating. Just viewing it at work was usually enough to create it.

    Skill created: Avatar of Sloth(Z)!

    Avatar of Sloth(Z): You are the definition of slothful, and you never want to do anything. Procrastination and laziness increase by 1,000,000%, if you are not moving all defence increases by 99% and you gain high regeneration. All of your powers are 1000% more powerful and cost ? of the normal resource cost.

    Atlas felt intense drowsiness wash over him and he collapsed to the ground, the same goofy smile that the sloth sported on his own face. Atlas struggled to think, and he felt like he was being dragged downward. His thoughts were slowly slipping away and he knew he only had a few seconds of consciousness before he wouldn¡¯t be able to think at all. He used the ability of Synthesiser for the first time and found that both his avatar skills had max affinity with each other, he hurriedly combined them, hoping to get the result he wanted.

    Combining¡­

    Skill created: Avatar of Slow Death

    Avatar of Slow Death(Z): You are the incarnation of a slow and painful death. Procrastination and laziness increase by 10,000% and you have a slight chance to forget what you are doing at any point. You require at least 8 hours of sleep a day, and if you do not get it, your body falls into a coma for 12 hours. You can summon dark black armor at will that gives multiple benefits depending on each piece of armor. Different effects work only as long as a certain number of armor pieces are intact. Pieces CAN be broken, but how durable the armor is depends on the wearers endurance. Armor pieces and their effects:

    Helmet: Grim Reaper¡¯s Senses: Your perception increases considerably, to the point where everything seems far slower than it actually is. You are slightly slower to your own senses. Your hearing is also vastly improved, to the point where you can hear frequencies that other humans cannot, such as a bats screech. Your taste does not change. Your sense of touch can feel the slightest shift of even the air (only works on non-harmful items). Your sense of smell becomes greater than that of a bloodhound. If you are not moving while using this skill, all senses are doubled from what they are when moving. Your eyes glow red while wearing  this helmet, and the helmet will show you all of the weak points and best places to be while in combat.

    Breastplate: Armor of Runes: Gives all the runes (Speed, Strength, Durability, Magic, Health Regeneration, Mana Regeneration, Stamina Regeneration Resistance, Defence, and Shield) to the Breastplate. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Gauntlets: Infinite Strength: You have a bottomless well of strength while wearing these gauntlets, and that strength can be used in different ways. 1: You can use the base amount of strength given passively (10%). This doesn¡¯t put any strain on the user and boosts your strength by 2x. 2: You can draw on 50% of the gauntlet''s strength. This puts minor strain on the user''s body and boosts your strength by 10x. 3: You can draw on 100% of the gauntlet¡¯s strength. This puts major strain on the user''s body and boosts your strength by 20x.

    Greaves: Reaper¡¯s Mist: These greaves emit mist darker than the deepest black, and the mist eats away at any enemy within it and lingers indefinitely. This effect can only be reversed by the user ending it, by killing the user, or by breaking the greaves. The mist can also add debuffs by pushing mana into the greaves. The debuffs can be ANY debuff and are not related to the skill (Ultimate Debuffs). Debuffs from the mist are 200% more effective if the user is not moving.

    Boots: Infinite Speed: You have a deep connection to the concept of speed, and you draw upon it with every step you take. Your first step after being immobile, (not moving for more than 3 seconds) increases your speed by 20%. Each step afterwards increases your speed by 2%. There is no maximum speed, but once you reach 10,000% your body will take slight damage from going too fast. The next milestone is 100,000%, at which point your body will start to take increasing amounts of damage. At 1,000,000% every step will do large amounts of damage, to the point where every step has the potential to kill you. This effect will lessen with his endurance, but it will never be completely gone. If you stop after reaching one of the milestones, all your speed will be converted into healing and you will fall asleep for 1 minute and Battle Trance will be deactivated, but you become 99% resistant to physical and magical damage.

    When all 5 pieces are in effect you take 50% less damage from ALL sources. Not moving while taking damage increases this effect to 90% less damage.

    When at least 4 pieces are in effect, debuffs you inflict have a 30% chance of being a higher tier of debuffs (Common -> Uncommon -> Rare -> Very Rare -> Epic), there is a 10% chance of jumping two debuff tiers.

    When at least 3 pieces are in effect, heath, mana, and stamina are regenerated twice as fast. If not moving, the effect is doubled.

    When at least 2 pieces are in effect, your soulbound items are 100% more effective. All skills are 500% more powerful when wearing a soulbound item. (Does not stack)

    When at least 1 piece is in effect, Skill: Battle Trance (SSS) activates. When Battle Trance is in effect, there is a 10% chance to fall asleep and continue fighting as you are sleeping.

    When no pieces are in effect, the skill (Avatar of Death) fails and cannot be reactivated for 24 hours per armor piece.

    Atlas¡¯s mind cleared up, as though he was bruising aside the cobwebs in his brain. He could still definitely notice that his thoughts were slower, but it was no longer as profound, and he felt in control. He was ecstatic at all of the amazing things that had been upgraded by combining both avatar titles, though a little distraught that so much of the skills required him to not move to get the maximum effect out of it.

    It was time to deal with the avatar of sloth. Now that he knew exactly what the avatars skill was, killing it should be quite possible, if not easy. The only problem was its inane defence and regeneration. It would be a battle of attrition, if even that. He didn¡¯t know if the sloth could even hurt him or not, but he was going to stay on the safe side and just stay where he was for now. He used Elemental Affinity to create dozens of tiny needles and proceeded to inject all of them with Ultimate Debuff. After he had about two dozen of them, he shot them all at the sloth, instantly giving it 60 debuffs, ranging from common to a couple rares, though sadly none of them were Curse.

    He did so again and again, doing minimal damage to the sloth but building up an army of debuffs, even getting three stacks of curse running, increasing the effect of all of the other debuffs by 14 times. The sloth still seemed to be mostly fine, just looking a little greyer than it had before. Atlas sighed and walked over to it, raising his sword, activating maximum strength, and swinging down, slicing through the sloth in one fell swoop.

    He then walked over to the tower and shattered it with a punch, turning around to find the sloth perfectly healed, the only indication that it had been hurt was blood on its fur and on the ground. He raised his longsword and walked over to the sloth.

    He proceeded to chop up the sloth even as it tried to regenerate itself as it died. There were a couple moments where its heart stopped before restarting, even after he had cut out its heart it created a new one. After Atlas had finally killed it, he slumped on the ground laying down and smiling softly to himself as euphoria filled him up and he gained a ton of  levels from killing all the demons, avatars and towers.

    Level Up! x54

    Atlas glanced at the notification before falling asleep on the blood streaked grass with a peaceful smile on his face.

 Chapter 38: The Other Difficulties III

    Chapter 38: The Other Difficulties III

    James held a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other, holding it to the anvil and pounding it slowly but powerfully. Beads of sweat rolled down his face and he wiped it off with his arm before resuming his constant pounding. An hour later as the sun started to rise over the city walls of Dominatum, the capital city of the Solic Empire, otherwise known as the empire of the sun, James finished the sword.

    James shrugged away a yawn from pulling another all nighter and used Eye¡¯s of the Craftsman to inspect the sword''s functions and quality.

    Slightly Enhanced Iron Sword

    Quality: Decent

    Tier: 2

    Rank: Ridiculously Low

    Aspects: None

    Skills: None

    Enhancements: +200 Strength

    Enchantments: None

    Runes: None

    Required Tier: 2

    Required Stats: 200 Strength, 100 Dexterity

    It was the best sword he had made so far, and it showed. It finally added to a user''s stats, something that was slightly above the rest of the world¡¯s basic weapons. It was easy to make a slightly enhanced weapon, provided one had decent education and had a year or two of experience, and that was for the average person.

    James was not average. He had no to little experience in the creation field, and had only a couple days of experience. He was further up the curve to greatness than even he knew. The benefits he got were not the sword he made, there were millions of swords just like it, or even better than it. The benefit he got was from Art of the Craftsman.

    Art of the Craftsman activated! Analyzing¡­

    Analyzed! +2 Knowledge, +2 Strength.

    He gained stats for every item he created, depending on the level of the item, the more benefits he received. He had originally despaired when he saw all of the horrible side effects of his class, such as not receiving stats for leveling and not having a subclass or certain stats. But he soon realized that the pros vastly outweighed the cons. After just a few days, he had gone from a tier 1 nobody to being more powerful than he had been at his peak previously.

    Original(

    James Buzzler

    Level: 49

    Class: Warrior

    Subclass: Builder

    Titles: None

    Skills: Power Strike (C), Calm mind (D), Parry, (D), Slash (F), Crafting (F)

    Spells: None

    Talent: F

    Potential: F

    Stats:

    Endurance: 5

    Constitution: 26

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Strength: 84

    Dexterity: 44

    Wisdom: 3

    Intelligence: 3

    Free points: 0

    )

    James Buzzler

    Level: 1

    Class: Legendary Craftsman

    Subclass: N/A

    Titles: Legendary, Creative Being, First Blacksmith, First Artisan

    Skills: Eye of the Craftsman(SSS), Art of the Craftsman (SSS), Knowledge of the Craftsman(SSS), Body of the Craftsman(SS)

    Spells: None

    Talent: S

    Potential: S

    Stats:

    Endurance: 84

    Constitution: 12

    Strength: 102

    Dexterity: 44

    Willpower: 82

    Knowledge: 107

    Free points: 0

    His stats and skills were monstrous when compared to before, he would win everytime if he were to fight his past self, simply because of stats and skills, seeing as level was useless for him, as it only gave him the 1 free point and no class benefits.

    All said, he was happy. He loved crafting and exploring everything his class had to offer, and he especially loved being able to watch his growth real time. His life felt like it was solely his to control again.

    ***

    Lars held up his shield and bellowed at the orc, diverting its attention away from his teammates and placing its fiery rage solely on him. It screamed its fury at him and hacked down at him with its axe, failing to penetrate the seemingly average shield. Its fury only grew at this fact and it slashed again at him, its blows ringing like a gong with every clash. Lars used one of his skills to buff his teammates, ¡°Light of Vindication!¡± He cried, increasing his teammates and his highest stat by 20%, which for him was constitution, before using another skill -Light of Protection- to add a divine shield over his teammates to protect them from the orc.

    The orc was quickly attacked and killed at the hands of his teammates, and they celebrated before looting the body as it turned to ash and bones. They got a couple mana crystals and an axe, which was about average from these monsters. They took a break for a few minutes to recharge mana and go over anything they needed to.

    Lars turned on his notifications and checked to see if anything interesting had happened.

    Level Up!

    Another level? Quite good for a fight that split the experience between him and 5 others. Lar opened up his status sheet to soak in the beautiful numbers that had quickly grown since becoming a paladin of protection.

    Lars Robin

    Tier: 2

    Level: 112

    Class: Paladin of Light

    Subclass: Tank

    Faith Pathways: Uncommon

    Faith: 27,443

    Life force: 23,920

    Stamina: 11,800

    Titles: First Paladin, Sophras Champion, First Champion

    Skills: Holy Shield (Z), Light of Protection (SSS), Light of Vindication (SS), Light of Healing (SS), Grand Hunt (S), Holy Sphere(S), Quick Steps (B)

    Spells: None

    Talent: S

    Potential: S

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1,180

    Constitution: 2,392

    Strength: 1,135

    Dexterity: 126

    Wisdom: 120

    Faith: 2,249

    Free points: 1

    He had lost a large chunk of his skills, the only skills he kept were Grand Hunt and Quick Steps, both of which were passive skills. Grand Hunt made him gain a lot exp if the opponent was half a tier or more higher than him, with it capping at level 0 of the next tier, while Quick Steps merely made him faster, which was sorely needed because of his lacking dexterity.

    His team started to rise and stretch and he joined them, preparing to fight once again, but this time, with friends.

    ***

    Malcolm stood alone in a bloody field, surrounded by corpses of those who had mistakenly thought of him as a friend. They had been foolish, he had led them on the entire time, acting like a weak tier 2, when in actuality, he was halfway to tier four. Needless to say he had destroyed them while they had set up camp while travelling from one city to another in a large caravan.

    400 people had left the city, only one returned, bearing the sad news of a wyvern attack that came out of nowhere and killed off the entire group.

 Chapter 39: Wave 9

    Chapter 39: Wave 9

    Atlas awoke with a loud yawn, smacking his lips and stretching. Glancing around blearily, he struggled to remember what he had been doing. After a few seconds of drousy silence, Atlas remembered, springing to his feet. He had completed the eighth wave!

    He quickly pulled up his notifications and skimmed passed all of the level up notifications before finally finding what he was looking for.

    Quest completed! Rare item pending¡­

    Quest completed! Rare item pending¡­

    Hidden Bonus Unlocked: Complete two or more quests and gain two or more rare weapons, benefits vary depending on achievements earned during the wave.

    Checking actions during the 8th wave¡­

    Achievements gained.

    1: Killed Avatar of Wrath

    2: Ranked up a skill 5+ levels

    3: Tiered up a skill 5+ tiers

    4: Killed Avatar of Sloth

    5: Town Residents took little to no damage

    6: Town took no damage

    7: Successfully killed all demons before they could reach 100 feet of city walls.

    8: Health bar never dropped below 80%

    8 total achievements gained.

    1st threshold (3 achievements) passed: the items are now chosen with the user in mind, not randomly.

    2nd threshold (5 achievements) passed: Items upgraded to Epic tier.

    3rd threshold (8 achievements) passed: Items fuse and become Soulbound item (F rank)

    4th threshold (10 achievements) not passed.

    5th threshold (15 achievements) not passed.

    Item being created¡­

    Item made!

    Death Scythe (F): A weapon with extreme potential but low abilities. All debuffs are 1% more effective when wielding the scythe. Levels up in one kill.

    It was not the best, but its potential was high, just like Reapers Suit, speaking of Reapers Suit, he hadn¡¯t checked it in a while, and didn¡¯t even really remember what it did. Maybe added defence? Deciding to just check for himself he brought up its stat screen.

    Reapers suit: S grade. This suit cannot be destroyed, but it only blocks a small amount of damage received. All reaper abilities are four times as effective while wearing this suit. When blood is absorbed by the suit, the user''s health and mana will be restored depending on the quality of blood absorbed. Level up by ???

    It was actually really powerful, but did he even have any ¡°Reaper skills?¡± Deciding to turn to his main source of information, he asked the system.

    Avatar of Death, Ultimate Debuff, and technically Demonic energy, though currently only Demonic energy is being enhanced, because the suit can only enhance skills one level above it and downward currently, putting skills at SS rank and below as viable skills that are boosted.

    Atlas¡¯s eyebrows rose, that meant in either one or two level ups of this item, it would enhance his two most powerful skills, with Elemental Affinity being the only possible exception to this. The only problem with this was that he didn¡¯t know how to level it up and it could take a while, at which point his skill levels may have increased.

    Atlas pulled up the timer until the next wave.

    00:21:56

    He only had 20 minutes to prepare? What was this garbage? Just how long had he slept for this to happen to him?

    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    23 hours and 34 minutes. The system''s response came quickly, scaring him slightly.

    Then he processed what the system said. ¡°23 freaking hours!¡± Atlas repeated, at a loss for words. How had his body even been able to sleep for that long?

    He leapt to his feet, grabbing the scythe and running over to the city walls. He quickly reached the walls and donned Avatar of Slow Death before jumping straight up, clearing the wall in a single leap. His stats were simply ridiculous, especially when adding the effects of Avatar of Slow Death to the mix.

    At the top, he opened his status sheet and allocated the 54 free stats he had gotten. When he was done, he checked out his stats.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 3

    Level: 54

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Mana Pathways: Rare

    Mana: 13,774

    Life force: 18,420

    Stamina: 18,320

    Titles: Shadestrider, Skill Master, Boss Slayer, Powerful Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser, Fate breaker, Debuffer

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Avatar of Slow Death (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Consume (SS), Misty Step(SS), Supreme Damage Resistance (SS), Perfect Awareness (SS), Demonic Energy (S), Weak Mana Monarchy (S), Consuming Light (S), Scan (B) Crafting (B).

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 1,832

    Constitution: 1,842

    Strength: 1,852

    Dexterity: 1,862

    Wisdom: 1,851

    Intelligence: 1,831

    Free points: 0

    His skills were all B rank or higher,  with the majority of them being SS rank. He sat down and started to create spikes of earth coated with debuffs. For the next 10 minutes that was all he did, amassing a large number of spikes with debuffs on them. He didn¡¯t know what debuffs were on them, as they only manifested themself whenever they hit an enemy, but it was enough for now. With just 5 minutes on the clock left, he had over 300 spikes with debuffs on them.

    He stopped creating them to preserve his mana, getting ready for the wave to start.

    With two minutes left, he got a notification. Curious, he hurriedly opened it.

    Guardtowers have sensed a condensing of energy, allowing them to know where the wave is coming from. Enemies coming from: East Wall

    Atlas glanced around. He was currently on the west wall, so he activated a misty step 3 times to appear on the opposite wall preparing to face the wave.

    Wave start.

    Huge forms rose from the ground, giant mana turrets mounted on their backs, with a giant shell supporting them, and powerful legs lifting their bodies up. Each of them stood at a massive 20 feet tall and around twice as wide. Atlas scanned them in disbelief.

    Turret Tortoise

    Tier 3 Level 150

    There were 10 of them advancing towards him, each advancing slowly but powerfully.

    Atlas unleashed his barrage, hitting each tortoise with 30 or so spikes. For reference, each spike held 5 debuffs, so each tortoise was inflicted with 150 debuffs each, which was a ridiculous amount, considering there were ten of them.

    The turrets mounted on the tortoises started to spin rapidly, charging up mana in preparation to attack. Atlas jumped off of the wall and started to run at the tortoises scythe held out behind him, ready to strike.

    He reached the first tortoise before they could unleash their turrets'' wrath at him, and he enhanced his strength to the max, slashing into the tortoise in a ridiculous display of power. Or at least, it would have been.

    Turret Tortoise receives 1% damage dealt, 99% damage reflected.

    Atlas¡¯s health skyrocketed downwards and he gasped in pain as he received a ridiculous amount of damage. The tortoise stood in front of him, seemingly unharmed besides the spikes sticking out of its back.

    Atlas used Skill Grandmaster and viewed its skill.

    Ultimate Mirror Defence (Z): Everytime you would take melee damage, instead reflect 99% of damage back and take 1% damage. Your Defence rises by 5% on every activation of this skill, further reducing all damage taken. Defence buff resets at midnight.

    Atlas gawked in disbelief. This was a cheat level skill! How was he even supposed to do damage to the tortoises like this? Atlas watched for a second more before figuring out how to evade this problem. He simply needed to use ranged attacks. He used Elemental Affinity to create a whirlpool of fire around the tortoise, watching as its health rapidly fell, right before the tortoise was going to die, he used Consuming Light.

    Absorbing Skill Exp¡­

    You have leveled up your skill Demonic Energy (S) to level 8!

    You have leveled up your skill Demonic Energy (S) to level 9!

    Atlas dealt with the tortoise before turning to the rest of them, Elemental Affinity at full blast.

    He found himself facing 9 fully charged turrets.

    ¡°Crap¡­¡±

    They started to open fire at him.

 Chapter 40: Glimpse of Transcendence

    The Turret Tortoises unleashed their guns at him, and the air quickly became thick with mana bullets. Atlas grit his teeth tightly and created a wall out of stone, trying to block the bullets on its thick frame. The bullets were far more powerful than he had expected, however, and the wall was ripped to shreds in less than a second after he created it. He let out an undignified squawk and fell on his back, scrambling to get away from the barrage of attacks and throwing up a few more walls, each thicker than the last.

    The bullets were relentless however, and Atlas quickly found himself in the risk zone once again. Atlas quickly backtracked, feeling bullets begin to slam into him, dent appearing on his armor with every shot. He panicked, teleporting away and breathing heavily, glancing at the tortoises. They slowly turned towards him in ground shaking, sluggish steps, turrets firing the entire time.

    Atlas hastily teleporting again, appearing directly behind the tortoises and swinging his scythe in an arc at the nearest tortoise, cutting into its shell before teleporting away as the turrets once more sent a flood of bullets at him. He coughed up blood as a large chunk of the damage he dealt was reflected back at him. He had been prepared for this but it hurt so much worse than he had expected, truly showing off the power of a Z-grade skill. He waited for the tortoises to turn again before teleporting to the same tortoise and swinging once more, only to find not a single wound on the tortoise in front of him.

    Looking at the tortoise''s other skills quickly, he realized that it had a skill called Regeneration which meant that not only did it take almost no damage from melee attacks, it also regenerated its health quickly. It was a cheat type set up, with the only weakness being powerful ranged or magical attacks. Atlas realized that he would have to win this fight solely relying on the power of Elemental Affinity.

    He teleported away once more and started to create spikes with debuffs loaded onto them and managed to make 18 of them before the tortoise''s bullets reached him, causing him to teleport away and attack the nearest tortoise with all of them inflicting 90 debuffs onto it.

    He teleported away and did this three more times, barely evading the bullets and filling the tortoises with spikes of earth with debuffs on them.

    On the fourth repetition, something changed. Atlas once again began to teleport away, only to get an unexpected message.

    Out of Mana.

    Atlas checked his mana bar, finding the notification to be true. His mana had reached rock bottom from all of the constant teleporting and magic use. Bullets slammed into him, tearing into his chest and ripping into his chestplate, destroying it and dealing a lot of damage to him, bringing his health reserves dangerously low. Gritting his teeth he managed to teleport out of the bullets, appearing on the other side of the tortoises to recover as much mana as he could. The tortoises turned far faster than he had expected, sending more bullets flying his way.

    In the split second before the veritable wave of bullets hit him again, he activated his most recently gained skill, Perfect Awareness.

    Time instantly stopped, and Atlas¡¯s head was filled with knowledge and understanding that he had never even glimpsed before. Just the mere presence of the skill evoked mind power that felt transcendent and omnipotent. Atlas¡¯s eyes sharpened and multiple things happened at once, all in the span of a second.

    Atlas perfectly understood and copied all of the skills that the tortoises had, adding three new skills to his repertoire. Ultimate Mirror Defence, Mana Turret, and Regeneration. All three of these skills filled him with more power and it was instantly utilized. Both Ultimate Mirror Defence and Regeneration were passive, so there was nothing that he needed to do there, and the charge up time for Mana Turret was too long to justify using it.

    Atlas took control of his mana control skill, Weak Mana Monarchy, fixing its flaws in a mere instant and activating it, absorbing more mana in one second than was ever possible for Atlas before, but with the brain in a state of perfect concentration, it wasn¡¯t even a passing thought, his entire being was devoted to saving himself. He aimed at a random patch of earth in between the tortoises and softened it with magic.

    He then used Misty Step to appear in the air above the tortoises, using pure mana to hold himself up and combining various elements in an instant using Elemental Affinity, creating Hellfire and raining it down upon the tortoises from above. With .001 seconds remaining, he used all his mana to power Consuming Light for the maximum effect.

    The tortoises groaned in pain as the hellfire burned their very being before they were silenced with a pillar of light so large it hit all of the tortoises in the same instant, erasing their bodies from existence itself. Atlas¡¯s mind went blank, without Perfect Awareness activated, his brain wasn¡¯t able to understand anything that had just happened, forcing it to shut off to prevent damage.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Atlas slammed into the ground, landing on the softened earth he had prepared for himself just a few seconds before and falling into blissful unconsciousness.

    ***

    Atlas awoke with the most terrible headache of his life. It was agony to even think and he felt as though his brain was both frozen solid and on fire at the same time. As he blearily held his head in his hands, he tried to process what had just happened. He remembered activating Perfect Awareness then¡­ He remembered everything he had done, just not how he had done it. He knew he had perfectly copied all of the tortoises skills as effortlessly as breathing, then jacked up  Weak Mana Monarchy to instantly fill up on mana, then raining down hellfire upon the tortoises before ending them with Consuming Light.

    He felt as though he wasn¡¯t remembering a memory, but rather remembering a movie that he watched. He just had absolutely no clue how he had done it.

    As he sat there stunned, he saw a blinking notification in the corner of his vision and held his breath as he clicked it.

    A wall of text showed itself to him. Atlas hurriedly tried to sort the notifications, managing to put them in a comprehensible order before reading the information the system had laid out.

    Level Up! x86

    Skill Created: Ultimate Mirror Defence (Z): Everytime you would take melee damage, instead reflect 99% of damage back and take 1% damage. Your Defence rises by 5% on every activation of this skill, further reducing all damage taken. Defence buff resets at midnight.

    Skill Created: Mana Turret (Z): Create and Charge up a turret made out of mana, it takes 10 seconds to charge up the turret but after it is charged, it can sustain itself off of the ambient mana in the air, allowing you to shoot endlessly.

    Skill Created: Regeneration (S): Your natural rate of absorbing mana, lifeforce, and stamina is strengthened, allowing you to use skills and abilities far more often. Increases regeneration by 150%

    Your understanding of Weak Mana Monarchy has drastically improved, leveling up the skill by 36 levels.

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Weak Mana Monarchy (S)?

    Tiering up¡­

    Weak Mana Monarchy (S) -> Mana Monarchy (S)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up any further¡­

    LUCKY BONUS!

    With both your perfect understanding of Mana Monarchy and Lucky Bonus, the skill is tiered up anyway.

    Mana Monarchy (S) -> High Mana Monarchy

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot be tiered up any further¡­

    Ranking up¡­

    High Mana Monarchy (SS) -> High Mana Monarchy (SS)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    High Mana Monarchy (SS) -> True Mana Monarchy (SSS)

    Your understanding of Elemental Affinity has drastically risen, causing it to level up by 13 levels.

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Elemental Affinity (SSS)?

    Tiering up¡­

    Elemental Affinity (SSS) -> Elemental Connection (SSS)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Elemental Connection (SSS) -> Elemental Union (SSS)

    Absorbing Skill Exp¡­

    Scan has gained 89 levels.

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Scan (B)?

    Tiering up¡­

    Scan (B) -> Intensive Scan (B)

    Tiering up¡­

    Intensive Scan (B) -> Focus Scan (B)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Focus Scan (B) -> Deep Scan (B)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up¡­

    Ranking up¡­

    Deep Scan (B) -> Deep Scan (A)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up¡­

    Ranking up¡­

    Deep Scan (A) -> High Scan (S)

    Tiering up¡­

    High Scan (S) -> Great Scan (SS)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up¡­

    Ranking up¡­

    Great Scan (SS) -> Grand Scan (SSS)

    Tiering up¡­

    Grand Scan (SSS) -> Deep Focus Scan (SSS)

    Tiering up¡­

    Deep Focus Scan (SSS) -> Elite Scan (SSS)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up¡­

    Ranking up¡­

    Elite Scan -> Master Scan (Z)

    Gained title: Glimpse of Transcendence: You have become the first to become an almost all knowing being and touched on the power of transcendence. Your transcendence skills last twice as long. (If instant or one attack power is multiplied by 1.5)

    Atlas was in awe at the insane changes and power he had earned. He had gone from two Z-grade skills to 5!

 Chapter 41: Back on the Grind II

    Atlas opened up his stat sheet in anticipation of all the dramatic upgrades he had recently gotten. Waiting with baited breath for a half second as the screen came into focus.

    Atlas Channing

    Tier: 3

    Level: 140

    Class: Reaper

    Subclass: Absorber

    Mana Pathways: Rare

    Mana: 15,868

    Life force: 22,720

    Stamina: 22,620

    Titles: Shadestrider, Skill Master, Boss Slayer, Powerful Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser, Fate breaker, Debuffer, Glimpse of Transcendence

    Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Avatar of Slow Death (Z), Ultimate Mirror Defence (Z), Mana Turret (Z), Master Scan (Z), Elemental Union (SSS), True Mana Monarchy (SSS), Consume (SS), Misty Step(SS), Supreme Damage Resistance (SS), Perfect Awareness (SS), Demonic Energy (S), Consuming Light (S), Regeneration (S), Crafting (B).

    Spells: None

    Talent: Z

    Potential: Z

    Stats:

    Endurance: 2,262

    Constitution: 2,272

    Strength: 2,282

    Dexterity: 2,292

    Wisdom: 2,281

    Intelligence: 2,261

    Free points: 86

    Atlas looked over his stat sheet with pride. It had grown by leaps and bounds since he had started, and now he could truly be considered powerful. (At least in his standards.)

    He glanced at the time left and was surprised to see that he only had a little over 6 hours on the timer. Hadn¡¯t he just completed a wave? Why was the break period so short?

    For the first time in what felt like forever, he brought up his temporary skills.

    Temporary Skills-

    <ol>

    <li> Ultimate Consume -In use</li>

    <li> None</li>

    <li> None</li>

    </ol>

    He blankly stared at the almost blank information. Only a single skill? Had he really upgraded all of his skills to that extent? If so, he was really doing good at leveling up his skills. The only problem was that it left him with very little temporary skills to utilize. Atlas suddenly had a thought. Was it actually worth it to him to get more temporary skills? He had recently gained a slew of new skills that he barely knew how to use, so wouldn¡¯t it be better to just work on his current skills until the next wave? It would bring a lot more benefit to him in the short run, and maybe even the long run.

    Deciding on his plan of action, he pulled up the descriptions for all of his new skills.

    Ultimate Mirror Defence (Z): Everytime you would take melee damage, instead reflect 99% of damage back and take 1% damage. Your Defence rises by 5% on every activation of this skill, further reducing all damage taken. Defence buff resets at midnight.

    Mana Turret (Z): Create and Charge up a turret made out of mana, it takes 10 seconds to charge up the turret but after it is charged, it can sustain itself off of the ambient mana in the air, allowing you to shoot endlessly.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Master Scan (Z): If used on something sentient, it brings up a basic stat sheet of the sentient being. If used on something non-sentient, it brings up a detailed description of the item, material, etc. (Can interact and use other effects of ocular abilities.)

    Elemental Union: You can control all elements within a 1000 foot radius centered on you. You can combine and experiment with any different types of elements in different ways to create different effects and spells. This ability is innately powered and hard to explain. Play around with the different powers to fully understand what you can do. Costs mana. (differs depending on effect.)

    True Mana Monarchy: You are a ruler of mana, and it responds to your call. You can control mana far more efficiently, and mana activally rushes around you, rapidly enhancing your regeneration, wanting to be closer to supreme royalty. This effect is dependent on your Intelligence and Wisdom. (Intelligence*1.5 = Efficiency of mana, Wisdom*1.5 = Mana Regeneration)

    Regeneration (S): Your natural rate of absorbing mana, lifeforce, and stamina is strengthened, allowing you to use skills and abilities far more often. Increases regeneration by 150%

    All of the skills were powerful, with Elemental Union and True Mana Monarchy having the least interesting changes, seeing as they were existing skills that had just been upgraded slightly.

    All in all, they were very potent abilities that would add a lot to his overall power and recovering abilities. Master Scan was the most interesting for Atlas, partly because he hadn¡¯t seen its description before, and partly because of its effects. It would take on other ocular effects? How exactly did that work? And did that include title effects such as Shadestrider¡¯s night vision? The possibilities of the skill intrigued him.

    He tested it out by staring at the city wall and activating his skill.

    Scanning¡­

    A vast amount of information suddenly flooded directly into Atlas¡¯s mind, and he knew everything from the composition of the wall to how much it weighed to how much strength a person would need to roughly have without skills to damage the wall, about 4,000. The best part about the vast amount of information in his brain however, was that it was easily understandable and seemed to flow carelessly through Atlas¡¯s brain, making his thoughts clear and precise as he parsed the information off the wall. As soon as he thought of something else, his thoughts immediately became slower, and he could easily tell the difference between when his thoughts were implanted, and those that were his.

    Atlas was in shock. Would he learn this much every time he used this skill? If so, he would become a sage just by scanning everything he came across, this was an absolutely broken skill.

    Atlas began to scan everything he could find, roaming the grove and finding all sorts of vegetation and minerals, mostly from the mine.

    His mind was filled with a large amount of information, and every once in a while he would have to take a break so as to not go insane from all of the constant information.

    After he had scanned most everything in the vicinity, he opened up his notifications and was surprised at what he saw.

    Due to your high understanding of the makeup of various materials, Crafting has increased by 50 levels!

    Would you like to rank or tier up skill: Crafting (B)?

    Tiering up¡­

    Crafting (B) -> Apprentice Crafting (B)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Apprentice Crafting (B) -> Intern Crafting (B)

    Tiering up¡­

    Intern Crafting (B) -> Mid Tier Crafting (B)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up any further¡­

    Mid Tier Crafting (B) -> Journeyman Crafting (A)

    Tiering up¡­

    Journeyman Crafting (A) -> High Tier Crafting (A)

    Tiering up¡­

    Cannot tier up any further¡­

    High Tier Crafting (A) -> Expert Crafting (S)

    LUCKY BONUS!

    Expert Crafting (S) -> True Expert Crafting (S)

    His Crafting skill, which had for so long been his lowest skill, had jumped a full two ranks with a couple tier ups in between, and all from just going around and using Master Scan. And this all happened without ever even using the skill!

    Atlas checked the time until the next wave started. Just a half hour left until it started. Atlas took a deep breath and started to prepare for the final wave.