15 The Might of Magic

I said, "Why not?"

The magic in the purple one's hand shook with energy as he said, "Wait, Gelg, he's not a human. He's an unknown level 82. He could be one of that necromancer's commanders. Be careful."

I said, "What necromancer?"

Instead of answering, the purple one unleashed his magic. I dived towards my left as he shot a violet streak of energy towards me. The bolt singed any nearby stone, leaving a wave of molten magma behind. He charged another bolt as mister green charged me.

Arcane lizard man was too far away for oppression, so I kept it off. If anything, the green guy acted as a shield against him.

I leaned close to the rock floor as the green one came close. The purple one shot another purple bolt towards me, but I leapt up over it. As I landed in front of the green guy, I stomped with my heels. The stone caved beneath me, setting the green one off balance midway through his swing.

His sword wobbles towards me from the right, no longer an even swing. I shrug my right shoulder, making his strike skid up my arm pads and past my face. Orange sparks fly off my armor, lighting the sewer walls. With his left side open, I whip a compact hook into his gut.

His armor's soft compared with Baldag-Ruhl, so my fist sinks deep into his chest. He keels over as I bend down, dodging another purple bolt. As I come up, I press with my heels and drag a fist upwards. It collides against the chin of the warlord, snapping his jaw. The sound of breaking bone resounds down the cavern.

The purple one shouts, "Goddamit."

Sweat flies off the back of Gleg's head, his skull whiplashing backwards. He collapses to the side of me. I keep my arms tucked against my sides as I inch towards the mage. A bead of sweat falls from his purple skin as he says,

"Why did that fucking necromancer have to come here."

The arcane master unleashes a funnel of violet fire, coating the entire tunnel in a burning blaze. Agony envelops me from all sides. It isn't an unfamiliar feeling though. I glance at my hp. It feels like about 20-30% of my health a minute. It even outpaces my regen rate, though not by much.

I charge towards him. As I reach out of the flames, he readies another spell. Before he fires off another bolt, I grab his hand and jerk it upwards. Purple lightning arcs over my head, cleaving straight through a spike of my armor. I pull him towards me with his arm. I headbutt his face with my helm.

His teeth fall off me before I grab his other hand. He whines in a stupor. I pull him in and headbutt him again. More blood and teeth. I smash my face into his like a hammer, pulverizing his skull into a thick stew. I toss the headless corpse aside before turning around. The green lizard guy is now black and writhing on the ground in pain.

I walk over before lifting a heel over his head. With a wet crunch, his face caves in as I stomp, and the ground beneath him cracks. I wipe blood off my helm as they both disintegrate into nothing.

Already, the dexterity bonuses were showing themselves. I doubt I could have pulled off something so fancy without being so lithe. Two notifications appeared,

Two tomes collected for Gelg Monok and Moronos Golgon. Information archived into personal library.

Bounties collected. (Gelg)112,000*2*1.5 = 336,000 exp acquired + (Moronos)165,000*4*1.5 = 990,000 exp acquired. 5 level up!

Five free levels essentially. My choice for my next level 30 attribute had become obvious with this fight. Some enemies couldn't be face tanked without dying. If the arcane master had landed those bolts, I could be dead. I don't know for sure, but they looked damn dangerous.

With that in mind, I put all 5 points into dexterity. The perk screen pulled up right after with far fewer options than before. That pitiful rat boss had given me a dungeon core, somehow. My armor had eaten it.

[Powerful(Strength of 15 or more) - Your strength is admirable. Doubles carrying weight.]

[Smart(Intelligence of 10 or more) - Your intelligence is good. Doubles effective memory.]

[Flexible(Dexterity of 10 or more) - Your dexterity is good. Doubles flexibility bonus.]

[Lithe(Dexterity of 15 or more) - Your dexterity is admirable. Doubles reflexive and reaction time bonus from dexterity.]

[Graceful(Dexterity of 20 or more) - Your dexterity is excellent. 1/10th of dexterity added to perception. Physical oriented skills are learned twice as quickly.

[Perceptive(Perception of 10 or more) - Your perception is good. Doubles sensory bonuses.]

I picked the perks graceful and lithe, noticing the difference in an instant. No part of my body felt foreign. Every fiber of every muscle obeyed my commands. I didn't feel jumpy. I felt like every movement had been practiced a thousand times. Like my limbs were water. Even with my clunky body, moving was second nature now. I opened my attribute screen.

Level 87 Attribute Totals

Strength - Increases carrying weight, maximum speed, and physical power 30

Constitution - Increases hardness, density, and weight of your body 36.3

Endurance - Increases regeneration of stamina, health, and their totals 51

Dexterity - Increases ease of movement, flexibility, and reflexes 20

Willpower - Increases internal motivation, mana regen, and Mental Res 30.3

Intelligence - Increases memory, critical thinking, and total mana pool 10

Charisma - Increases likeability, persuasion, and decreases prices at shops 4

Luck - Increases money found, odds in your favor, and chance of rare events 3

Perception - Increases comprehension, the five senses, and awareness 12

Ten more levels before the per level bonuses. I'd be a graceful titan once those went through. With oppression, I could kill groups of people while focusing on 1v1 combat oriented builds and skills. It made my build airtight. I rather liked that.

Magic may even come later, but for now I'll specialize in physical superiority. It hadn't failed me so far, and I doubt it would. My armor ensured that.

I glanced at the two bodies of the lizards. There wasn't any real guilt from killing them. It wasn't like I had a choice anyway. What did interest me, was the talk about some necromancer. I had a few theories about it, but I couldn't be 100% sure about anything at the moment.

I checked their armor if it was useful. When I beat into theirs, it bent like aluminum foil. These guys need some more constitution. Anyways, they didn't really have anything useful on them, besides for their tomes. I left them and killed rats in this so called dungeon. While doing so, I read up on their archive. I discovered a few interesting facts.

For starters, you don't get exp from killing other non-rift monsters unless they have a bounty. You can, of course, loot their body though.

Next, I learned that coming to new worlds was a common practice for two reasons. A, the bosses were young and easily killed. B, they were all over the place. They gave perks that were very difficult for higher level players to obtain. One could sell for quite a few credits. Of course, some dungeons were transferred between worlds. The dungeon I ended up in was just such a place.

Something else was...very interesting. When Schema came, so did everyone and everything else. Races from all over the galaxy had come over from portals to major population centers. Trade was allowed, but taking dungeons from new races was forbidden by Schema. If a race never got off their feet, then they'd struggle to become independent in the galaxy.

In some extreme cases, entire species were devolved into slavery due to extreme dependence on more established races. The Skeptilian people were an example of this. They weren't a very proficient race when it came to combat. Compared with humanity, they lacked the stature for it. That warlord was an exceptional case of their maximum potential. Very rarely, however, they had an affinity for the arcane.

These few gifted members of their species were excellent assassins and PvP specialists. These mages were feared throughout all worlds. A well placed shot could end almost anyone. Of course, regeneration builds actually countered them for the most part. If they burned a % of your health as true damage, than regenerating it before you died was the only real answer. Defensively speaking, of course.

These two had been brothers, one gifted with an affinity and the other a marvelous worker. They were collecting these cores for unlocking combat oriented perks for family members back home. It turns out they had grandparents who were dying, so they wanted to unlock the double lifespan perk for them.

Of course, I still felt no guilt whatsoever. They still tried to kill me when we met. Fuck those guys.

As I read, I was amazed at my memory of the whole thing. I absorbed the knowledge like a dessert soaking up water when it rains. Even without any notes, I processed the information with machine like efficiency. The extra intelligence was already very notable. I may invest in its first perk next. I mean, knowledge is power, right?

I glanced around the sewer room for a bit longer, wondering if there was anything hidden. While searching the place, the throne of the rat king looked oddly suspicious. I walked over and pressed down on the throne.

The stone tablet sunk, and darts shot towards me from above. They bounced off my armor like rain on a window. I shrugged before a set of stone tablets lowered around the dungeon floor, revealing a staircase.

I walked down the stairs brimming with excitement. Now it's time to go dungeon delving. I walked down for about ten minutes before reaching a doorway. A circular, hollowed out slot was at its center along with a weird language I couldn't read.

At least, I thought I couldn't. After focusing for a few seconds, a few of the words came into focus.

"Level 2...Put....core....slot..."

How could I read this though? I put my hands on my hips before an epiphany suddenly smacked me. I said, "Holy fuck! I can't believe it. This is what perception does."

This is why the skill was so good. The skill didn't just let you see your surroundings more clearly. It let you understand things you didn't more easily. That combined with my higher intelligence and sheer willpower let's me interpret random runic glyphs that make no sense. That's what lets me understand the lizard's language.

How else would non-combat skills be even remotely useful? I mean, I had to invest into combat given my early circumstances, but now I didn't. Information can be worth it's non-existent weight in gold. I'm sure my realization of all this is due at least partially to my increased intelligence at this point too.

My armor deformed before revealing a pitch black orb that glowed with a white outline. As it landed in my hand, I was holding a tiny little eclipse in my fingers. The dungeon cores looked as valuable as they were.

I put the core in the doorway, and the orb floated midair. Tendrils of light leaked into the doorway from the core before light expanded all around the glyphs. The door slid open revealing a massive cavern.

Torches sparsely lit dozens of pillars stretching from the top of the cavern to the bottom. Wooden bridges stretched out from these pillars, connecting makeshift shacks at the midway points of these pillars. Gremlins, goblins, and orcs walked on these bridges. Some of them were as high as level 20.

At the bottom of the dungeon, swarms of angular, sharp insects crawled on the ground. Colored a deep, menacing purple, these reached up towards level 30. In the distance, a gremlin laid on its knees in front of an armored orc. The orc kicked the gremlin down into the abyss, and when it landed, the insects swarmed it. It died in less than a second.

I already could paint a picture of how this place worked. Orcs ruled over gremlin and goblin slaves. The insects kept them fighting over the limited space the pillars offered. What a shitty existence.

Well, they wouldn't be existing for much longer. I was plenty deep now. I activated oppression and trot forward. Several goblins and gremlins fell of the bridge leading towards the first pillar. They died within 2-3 seconds of oppressions aura. Sick.

I trot forward, the goblins and gremlins dying in a wave as I went forward. Their bodies would disintegrate into blue mana that my armor absorbed before reaching the bottom. The insects below cried out, likely feeling cheated out of a feast.

I passed by absorbing the easy ambient mana. The orcs would charge at me, weathering the aura rather well. They'd die after around 10 or so seconds, but it was still much better than the others. A few even reached me. I would smash them like dropping an egg of a countertop, but they did reach me.

I got zero exp for these enemies. They were far to low level for any exp. Still, they gave tiny bits of ambient mana. I'd see what the boss of this area was like. He'd give me another dungeon core, and then I'd be able to get another perk. Hopefully, at least.

I walked for a while like this, inflicting an effortless genocide on the village. About two hours later, I reach the fanciest shack here, with skulls, feathers, and totem poles jutting out from it. An ogre strolls out, a deep green compared with the lighter shade of his minions. Muscles ripple as he moves with a club of iron. His teeth jut out from his jaw, and above him it reads,

Cracole, Exiled Ogre of the Wild(Level 34) - An ogre that was exiled by his village for his cruel methods. He was sentenced to become a bottom dweller, living in the darkness of the caves below the village. He slowly bided his time, trying to amass an army strong enough to over take the vilage.

After Schema moved his village, his plans fell apart. Now he is a bitter, angry cheiftain, who unleashes his wrath onto the weaker members of his village.

I suppose the easiest method for judging a person's character isn't how he treats those above him. It's how he treats those below him. It doesn't matter. He's like a BloodHollow bat.

As I near him though, he contorts. He vomits a stream of blood before the veins on him turn black. Claws grow from his fingers. Skin grows over his eyes and nose. His arms lengthen. His teeth turn long, like knives while acid drools from his mouth.

What the fuck is going on? I walk until it's within oppressions range. It crumbles down before roaring with an inhuman, alien sound. The Schema's message of what it is changes.

Monster(Unknown lvl 84) - A force unleashed this being's inner potential at the cost of its mind. Be wary.

I sprinted forward as it stampeded towards me. We clashed at the center of a bridge.

Stronger than I, it pushed my back. The wood beneath me cracked as I pushed against its shoulders. We shook as we struggled, each of us trying to get the upper hand. Jerking sideways, I used the monster's momentum to force it against the bridge.

It charged again, but this time I planted my feet. I torqued my hips sideways and arced my fist forward. It traveled overhead, and right as the monster reached me, my fist collided with the top of its head.

I nearly bounced backwards at the sheer force of the impact. The creature crushed into the bridge, crushing wood like dry leaves. The echoes boomed seconds later in the gargantuan cavern.

I lifted both fists into the air and crushed the monster into the bridge again. With a few more strikes, the beast's skull cracked open like a wet walnut. A few seconds later, it died. As I started wiping purple blood of me, my armor chomped on the corpse in a grotesque malformation of metal.

The screeching of bending steel finally stopped when it finished eating the corpse. With the fight handled, I turned around, wondering where and who the necromancer was. There was no movement on any of the pillars, except for the writhing of insects below the bridge.

Beneath my feet, the wood creaked for a second. I glanced down, noticing just how fucked up the bridge was at this point. I pushed off my feet to run off it, but the bridge collapsed as I did so.

I fell downwards for a few seconds. My skin pulled on me, and then my stomach floated as I fell. A second later, my head whipped as I landed with a monstrous boom. Stone cracked, and bugs hissed in pain. As I pushed myself off my landing spot. The insects swarmed towards me.

Thank jesus for oppression. I smashed the bugs like trying to kill cockroaches. They gave a similar, satisfying crunch when I hit them.

A few seconds later, the insects crawling on me died from oppression. I hid in their bodies, using them as a shield from the other insects. The bodies dissipated as my armor absorbed their mana. Of course the greedy little fuck couldn't wait a second.

The insects could actually damage me, mainly with poison. Without oppression, I would have died there. It took over an hour of killing these damn things before they thinned enough that I could reach a pillar.

As I climbed the pillar, I checked out my notifications. I'd gained a level, so I put a point into dexterity before my perk screen appeared again. I'd gotten another core from the chieftain.

[Powerful(Strength of 15 or more) - Your strength is admirable. Doubles carrying weight.]

[Smart(Intelligence of 10 or more) - Your intelligence is good. Doubles effective memory.]

[Flexible(Dexterity of 10 or more) - Your dexterity is good. Doubles flexibility bonus.]

[Perceptive(Perception of 10 or more) - Your perception is good. Doubles sensory bonuses.]

I select powerful this time. I'd wait until I put more points into intelligence for the smart perk, and besides, getting up this pillar is hard as fuck. I'd been putting off powerful for a long time too.

My body and armor lightened a tremendous amount, so I crawled up the rest of the way with ease. Once atop it, I sprinted towards the exit. Whatever unleashed that chieftain, I didn't want to fight it. At least not here on unstable bridges.

I reached another stone wall just like the one leading into this dungeon. My armor spit out the dungeon core into my hand. Holding the tiny eclipse in my palm, streams of light flowed into the gate. The glyphs on it glowed blue before the doors slid open. Dust fell from the corners and cracks of the ancient stone as they moved.

The door opened. All I could see was a wall of sickly, purple smoke as the doors opened. This mist condensed into a single point. From it, a gray man walked out. Wearing ornate robes, his skin peeled off him, like a mummy. His body was dry as cracks in mud, and when he moved his hands, his flesh crinkled.

An aura leaked off him, nothing like my own. My aura suppressed until something died, his decayed until no life was left. It tore into my health like Baldag-Ruhl's insects. The wooden bridge behind me collapsed at its might.

This lich's eyes glowed a deep blue, like plumes of navy fire. He let his mana ebb outwards. When it crawled over me, I choked on it. This mana was thicker than the sand that the Lord of Worms let out. I couldn't even breath. He didn't even need time to set this up. He just had the mana needed for it. He was that powerful.

As I gasped for air in the mana, the thing spoke with a gritty, archaic voice, "What have you done to my son?"