There were no future shattering dreams. In fact, it was one of the rare days where there were no True Dreams at all and when they woke him; it was with a very polite prod to his hip. They waited five seconds and then there was another. “Awake,” he called, while he rolled out of bed.
As he accepted the offered food, his eyes discreetly checked the mood of the group.
Internally, he smiled.
He spotted genuine grins and twinkling eyes. Michael, Everlyn, Vidja and Puma were in deep discussion probably making last moment changes to their strategy for the day. Gerald, Usko and Soetanto were giggling at a joke Gerald had told, with Gerald laughing the hardest. Keikain, Clare and Toni were clustered near each other. They weren’t talking, but they stood in companionable silence. Finally, Thor and Bao were standing together with the girl having a hand on his elbow. Tom’s eyebrows rose a little at that.
A short time later, after he had finished eating and grabbed a toilet break they headed out to fight. He was almost disappointed when the first battle progressed the same as previously. The monsters would swarm towards them, but they did it in a piecemeal fashion like they had the day before. It was only ever two or three at a time, which was easy enough for him to deal with. Their numbers never rose to the point where they could truly trouble him, let alone force them to retreat to a more defensible location. Tom would strike them with his healing spell, and they would all concentrate exclusively on him, while the others would launch a web of destructive magic that tore them apart.
Then he or Rahmat would climb up and grab all the available puff balls and they would move on.
It was a simple routine and more fun than the last couple of zones because the fights themselves were interesting and even the rock climbing was a pleasant break from the intensity of the combat.
Just after dark, they moved into another of the caves, and Tom decided to direct a True Dream. He was going to harass Jenny’s conspiracy and ensure they had to fight for every moment of privacy. With his desire clear in his mind, he fell asleep.
The dream followed the same script as the previous ones. An instant of clarity and then the white static descended.
He waited impatiently for the interference to fade and this time his count only reached two hundred twenty before it did, which was forty less than previously.
The static vanished, and Tom eagerly sought to assess the situation. Maher was staring wide eyed at where the three of them had been talking.
The wador which had been the one blocking him had collapsed unconscious. Tom observed the white of its rolled up eyes and the unnatural way it had fallen.
The dream broke apart, and Tom didn’t care.
It had passed out!
He felt like jumping up and down in excitement. The damage he was doing didn’t feel superficial and if True Dreaming could eliminate one of the wador or at least weaken it then that it would make him feel better.
The days blended together.
Tom improved his ability to block magical strikes with his earth armour. Despite the techniques’ effectiveness, there was nothing special or new in the process. There had been no epiphany or moment of genius. Instead, he was just combining his many advantages in widely disparate fields into an effective tool. His dodge skill slowed time, Spark domain let him track items, the wraith from his trait gave even more information to calculate what should be blocked or those that shouldn’t. The blacklisted attacks were ones which were either, weak enough to ignore or too powerful to try and halt. With those sources combined it was a simple matter to track the trajectory of various attacks and then Earth Manipulation did the rest by borrowing some of the rock he had encased on his chest to create a tendril to block the incoming missile.
At its base, it was simple.
But undeniably useful.
Unfortunately, like everything, it was another drain on his mana. He did not use it to block every attack and instead reserved it for when the saving in healing costs was worth the cost of animating the thread of stone. In practice, that meant he used it every five seconds or in battle terms hundreds of times over the duration of each fight for a mountain top.
If he had purchased it, he would have been exceedingly happy with the use he was getting from it.
He was certain Everlyn, and a few others had noticed his new ability, but none of them said anything. He wondered if they thought he had bought a specific skill, evolved it from scratch or if they even considered it might be pure manipulation. How shocked would they be if they realised that his stat sheet hadn’t changed any time during the whole week.
Tom wanted to tell them about it, to brag about turning a basic tier zero ability into a spell that a high level mage would be happy to have in their arsenal. He knew it was impressive, but the one time he had tried to raise it, his throat had constricted, and it was not like he hadn’t known why. Of course, bragging about something like that would cause jealousy and cause him to be perceived as a showoff.
“He’s almost there.” Usko said excitedly.
He glanced up at where Rahmat hung two hundred metres above them, precariously perched right near the point of the mountain. Carefully, he cut the flowers off the stem. One and then the second and last.
There was a huge cheer from everyone when the second puff vanished into his storage ring. Usko did overly enthusiastic fist pumps, Toni clapped and Thor grabbed Bao and spun her around in excitement. Tom was pretty sure they were a couple now, but his throat had constricted the one time he had tried to ask.
With that last puff ball harvested, they could finally leave the zone. It had taken them six and a bit days to get to this point, which was longer than Everlyn’s initial estimation, but the time had not been spent in vain. The enemies they had faced had been diverse, which meant more experience, as they did not need to worry as much about slayer titles. More important were the individual gains they had made. Most of them had been granted levels in the chaos bolt spell and the coordination between the two initial groups had advanced in giant leaps.
In the heat of battle, they had started to act as a functional unified team and knew when to intercede when someone was about to be overwhelmed by monster attacks. Personally, Tom was ecstatic at what he had managed. His comprehension of his spells had taken massive strides forward particularly Earth Manipulation. There had been no official recognition through formal spell levels, but he could sense the improvement. A large chunk of the difference between his limited understanding and the elevated official levels granted by the challenge trial had been crossed. He was now significantly closer to getting to the point that he would be able to start progressing a lot of the spells once more.
They were close to the exit to the next layer and Evelyn led them in a beeline towards it. It was an uneventful trip as she travelled at the bottom of the crevices and nothing flew down to challenge them.
Finally, they were in the safe room and he felt the quest complete.
As always, he stood guard while everyone else went in and did their maintenance. As they were descending a layer, they all had to spend their windfall on boosting their rank to match where the future enemies were. Or at least boost up to around rank twenty-three so that they would be able to match the speed and strength of the rank thirty monsters with their technical skill and diverse abilities bridging the difference.
Toni emerged from her system room. She appeared happy and even without actively inspecting her he could feel the significant jump in her magic and a far lesser one in physical attributes.
She waved at him and that was the permission he needed, so he retreated into the system room.
Congratulation for collecting the required puff balls
Your contribution is 9%
Experience awarded 790,000.
Tom considered those numbers for a moment and then decided that he was happy with them. There were fourteen humans in total, so nine percent was a little above average. His role of tanking the enemies’ ranged attacks had been deemed to be a greater contribution than the straight damage that others like Thor had focused on producing. .
“How much experience do I have.”
Earned experience is 2,450,000
Impressed, he whistled out loud with the noise echoing weirdly in the system room. Considering he didn’t have any plans to buy additional traits or to ramp up his levels faster than the others, at least before the dragon, the huge pool of experience only received a nice to have designation.
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If there was something he wanted to buy with it, he would be a lot more excited. Having a large saving balance and no new toys to grab, just didn’t do anything for him.
Briefly he wondered if he should do away with the advice of all the others and buy some overpowered ability. It would, after all be the height of foolishness to die with cash in the bank. With that figure he could afford a tier seven skill, admittedly probably not the peak versions. Almost unbidden, the wall shivered and two skills appeared reflecting his subconscious desire to acquire a powerful defensive passive.
Skill: Magic Resistant Aura – Tier 7.
Creates an aura that reduces the intensity of all incoming attacks by the difference approximately equal to a tier. Weak damage spells will be cancelled entirely.
Cost: 2,000,000
Skill: Blunt Force Body – Tier 7
Reinforces the body to provide extreme resistance to blunt force damage and moderates momentum to avoid knock backs. All blunt force blows from something less than rank forty in strength will be fully negated.
Cost: 1,550,000
Both made him stop and wet his lips.
They were incredible, and he wanted to grab both of them even tough neither would help him against the dragon in any appreciable way and would probably do nothing in any of the future zones they were going to have to navigate through.
Unless, of course, they saved his life.
Tom shook his head at that thought.
The theory crafting, they had done as a team was sound. With their scouting strength, they were unlikely to be surprised by a life-threatening monster.
It was better to maintain a reserve in case they ran into a zone where the challenge was truly unsurmountable unless he pulled out something expensive to counter them.
After all, he was the only one who was going to have these sorts of reserves, as everyone else would need to spend their experience to keep up with levelling demands.
For now, he wanted to focus on what was required. He had needed to buy levels to boost him up four ranks, as agreed with the others.
Tom briefly considered punting and buying a level in his legendary class Breadth of Serendipity because of the luck he had got when the auction house had the dodge trait available, but quickly rejected it. That had been over a week ago and since then, nothing either lucky or unfortunate had happened to him. Maybe if he had of acted immediately, it would have been worthwhile, but not today. If he invested in it now, he would just get an average result, which was far less than what his other classes gave. He considered his needs. For this upgrade, he mainly wanted to focus on magic, but he figured he also couldn’t let his physical skills slip too much. He was about to be fighting creatures at rank thirty, and he needed his agility and strength at a minimum to reach twenty. Giving up fifty percent in ranked attributes against monsters was still overwhelming, but was not as bad as it could be and the boost in experience made it worthwhile.
“Purchase eight levels of elemental summoner and four of Lightning Tank.” He ordered.
Cost of the twelve levels is 385,000 experience
Tom nodded.
Keeping pace with the growth of the zones was still relatively cheap for him. It would be considerably more expensive for the others. They received fewer attributes per level. So while he had reached rank seventeen at level forty two they had needed over seventy levels to do the same. That meant not only did they need to buy more levels to keep up with the required rank but each level they purchased would cost twice as much as what they did for Tom. Every single layer the relative cost differential between them would increase.
The mathematics was reasonably simple.
If they had an expert class, they were getting seven attribute levels per level of which one or two points if they were smart would be invested into fate, meaning their effective return was something like five and a half. He on the other hand excluding the three that went into fate got nine and a half per level.
This meant he was receiving a shocking fifty percent more per level and almost twice as much if they prioritised fate.
While he had to buy twelve levels to match the monster’s growth, they probably needed to purchase twenty and potentially more. Tom couldn’t be bothered doing the mathematics fully, but he suspected that instead of four hundred thousand he paid they were already at the million mark and possibly more. By as soon as the next ring, they might be unable to keep up with the rising monster levels.
Tom glanced at the wall and his full character sheet appeared.
Classes Level – Fifty four
Lightning Tank: 25 (+4) - Expert
Elemental Summoner: 29 (+8) – Expert
Breadth of Serendipity: 0 – Legendary
Attributes
Strength: 170 (+12 Class, +6 Title: Strength Spring, +9 Title: Tripled Class)—Rank 20 (+3)
Vitality: 191 (+12 Class, +12 Title: Vitality fount)—Rank 23 (+3)
Agility: 169 (+24 Trait: Fates Agility, +3 Title: Tripled Class)—Rank 20 (+3)
Magic: 207 (+48 Class, -4 Trait: Fates Agility) —Rank 24 (+5)
Fate: 277 (+24 Trait: Fates Agility, +12 Title: Competition Shaker (I))
Mana Pool: Magic * 2 = 414
Spells
Lightning–Affinity 83
Spark: 65 (+1) (Tier 0)
Lightning Spears (16) (Tier 3)
Lightning Ball: 18 (Tier 3)
Lightning Skin: 18 (Tier 2)
Lightning Enrage: 36 (Tier 1)
Intelligent Lighting Barrier: 6 (Tier 4)
Earth–Affinity 91 (+9)
Earth Manipulation 128 (Tier 0)
Earth Sense 16 (Tier 3)
Living Rock 16 (Tier 4)
Throw Rock 65 (+ 1) (Tier1)
Stone Skin Partial 32 (Tier 2)
Remote Earth Manipulation 24 (Tier 3)
Stone Golem 16 (Tier 4)
Harnessed Meteorite 12 (Tier 4)
Defensive Stone Turret 16 (Tier 3)
Healing–Affinity 64
Touch Heal 95 (Tier 0)
Dead Healers Touch 1 (Tier 5)
Directed Range Heal 4 (Tier 3)
General
Summon Playful Wisp: 69 (+18 from class passives) (Tier 0)
Summon Lightning Elemental: 17 (+2 from class passives) (Tier 3)
Summoner: (23) (Tier 1)
Chaotic Aura: 1 (Tier 4)
Chaos Bolt: 2 (+1) (Tier 2)
General – Non Critical
Low Light Vision 43 (+1) (Tier 0); Clean Others 5 (Tier 0); Clean Teeth 8 +1) (Tier 0); Cut Hair 3 (Tier 0); Decay Resistance 5 (+4) (Tier 0); Efficient Sleep 8 (+7) (Tier 1); Instant Sleep 7 (+6) (Tier 0); Precognition Support 1 (Tier 2); Aura Mind Healing 3 (+2) (Tier 1); Caffeine Jolt 2 (+1) (Tier 0); Toxin Purge 1 (Tier 1); Truncated Sleep 1 (Tier 0); Instant Awareness 7 (+6) (Tier 0);
Critical Skills
True Dreaming 1 (tier 9)
Fate Weaponised Black Dodge: 3 (+2) (tier 5)
Battle Teleport – Enhanced (2) 2 (+1) (Tier 4)
Lightning Feet: 14 (+1) (Tier 3)
Lightning Dodge: 6 (Tier 4)
Non Critical Skills
Contract Binding: 1 (tier 5); Social Silence 1 (Tier 7) (This skill is a curse from a GOD and can’t be removed or evolved); Acrobatics: 12 (+11) (tier 1); Pact Master: 23 (Tier 2); Elemental Whisper: 38 (Tier 1); Elastic Regenerating Skin: 19 (Tier 2); Burst Cast: 62 (tier 0); Plane Sense: 25 (tier 2); Health Burn: 9 (+3) (Tier 3); Mana burn: 4 (+1) (Tier 3); Strengthened Throwing arm: 8 (+2) (Tier 2); Accurate Throw: 13 (+4) (Tier 1); External Awareness: 1 (Tier 2); Spear: 30 (+1) (tier 1); Decay Conditioning 5 (+4) (Tier 1); Daggers 2 (Tier 1); Inflict Pain: Daggers 1 (Tier 1); Deep Cut: Daggers 1 (Tier 1); Reflective Shield 2 (+1) (Tier 3); Spear Lunge 2 (+1) (Tier 2); Spear Extension 1 (Tier 3)
Class Passive Skills
Class spell boost: 38
Lightning Tank Feet: 34 (+10 Class)
Traits
Free Class Slot, Epic Soul Space, Fates Agility, Child of Elements, DEUSs Chosen, Elemental Summoner Passives, Channelled Damage Mirror, Intangible Avoidance, Crystallised Moment, Dodge Expertise
Titles
Lightning Mystic, Friend of the Elementals, Strength Spring, Vitality Fount, Healing Sponge(III) , Venom Resistance (V), Competition Shaker (I), Trial Dominator (II), Trial Speedster (IX), Camouflage Piercing–Stone, Stage Advancement (Earth), Earth Friend, Stone Skin, Golem Master (II), Golem Prodigy, Evolution Master, Oracle Master (2), Complete Conspiracy Discoverer, Sage of Earth, Unique Skill Creator, Triple Classed, Legendary Class Holder, Triple Advance, Tripled Expert
Other
Soul Space: 54 slots and 3 metres cubed
Ranking Points: 3,138 (+204). Position on Ranking ladder: 2nd
He had dropped from first to second, which was a disappointment, but he guessed that was the trial. With the race against the layers collapsing where every instant was precious and the threat of the dragon, he had not been able to practice as much as he would have liked too.
No great insights or evolutions meant the massive flood of points had slowed.
Tom skimmed over most of it. His physical and magical attributes now averaged rank twenty-two like he had been aiming for. There had been a few minor gains in the occasional ability but nothing earth breaking if he was being honest. There were also a couple of skills that he felt that he didn’t use enough.
Primarily, these were his offensive lightning skills. Years of leaning on Spark were probably influencing him here. At close range, Lightning Spears would usually be the better option, but his instincts let him down and he would reach for the spell he was used to in most stressful situations. Beyond that there were lots of niche spells and skills like Throw Rock, Lightning Barrier and Defensive Stone Turret that remained as an important part of his build but were very situationally dependent.
The prioritisation of magic had boosted his pool to four hundred. That would make a difference in his spell selection. More mana usually meant a new spell rotation rather than just a straight speed up of what you were already doing. These other spells that had previously been too expensive to cast in his rotation now became available… unless, of course there were lots of ranged monsters. In that case, all of his mana needed to go to Dead Healers Touch… or if he was getting hurt then it would be required to heal him constantly… or.
Tom paused.
He had to admit there were lots of ‘Ors’ but he was comfortable that he had the right abilities for most jobs and a war chest if something unexpectedly cropped up. Given they were in a trial that was almost a certainty. Probably in the next zone, if he was being honest with himself. They were due for a surprise.
With one last look at his stat sheet and a smile at how far he had progressed, Tom went to face what was next. It was time to see what the next layer was going to throw at them.