Maiz was clean out.

His body ducked of its own accord, and something warm passed overhead. He leapt forward, catching a flash of light. Almost immediately his staff, wreathed in ribbons of fire, made contact with something soft and malleable, like wet sand. He shut his eyes briefly and saw red as the light of the Flaming Strike bloomed outwards, far brighter than anything else in the cave.

But even with his eyes closed, Maiz didn’t pause, delivering two more blows to the thing before him in quick succession. He opened his eyes just in time to see the fire between the creature's teeth extinguished, its body fallen.

Maiz turned, and then dove to the side with a jerk as the final monster leapt at him again, snarling. Not enough mana left. He seriously regretted not putting more points into Intelligence and Wisdom now, though gods knew his Flaming Strike wasn’t all that effective at the moment. The creature was growling at him now, eyeing him with the wariness of a wild animal. Sparks of fire drifted upward into the darkness of the cave, illuminating little of the surroundings.

Instead of standing still like an idiot, Maiz stepped forward, swinging his staff down at the little demon. It hopped to the side, and he immediately used Flicker Strike with a snarl of his own. His staff’s momentum rebounded as if it had struck a springy tree branch, and caught the monster in the side, hard. He followed up with another downward attack, which the creature was too stunned to dodge, and then drew his staff back for the finishing blow. Taking aim at the fiery glow of the creature’s mouth, he swung.

His blow met little resistance, and for a moment he thought that it had missed completely. He stumbled a little, balance disrupted by the unimpeded motion of his staff. Did I kill it? The growl a moment later answered that question. Where…

Oh. Oh hells. His staff was quite a bit heavier than it had been before. The fire that emanated from his opponent’s mouth was now floating in the air, suspended on Maiz’s weapon. Maiz slammed his staff downwards, but the instant before it hit the ground, the creature let go. That was excellent, except that now there were two sources of fire lighting the cave. And Maiz’s hands were getting a little warm.

After waving the staff around a bit did nothing, the fire continuing to spread with supernatural speed, Maiz dropped the staff. Got to be quick. Illusion Strike. He felt his power tighten across his body as he stepped, raising his foot in the air. The creature snarled in reaction to an illusory attack, and hopped backwards. Maiz hopped right along with it, and brought his foot down with all his Strength onto the thing’s dark-furred neck.

There was an audible crunch as something broke, but Maiz didn’t stop, bringing his foot down twice more, once on the body and once on the head. As he prepared to attack again, he saw the monster's fire die. He lowered his foot, wincing a little. Certainly, this was better than fighting the mostly mundane jackal-things in the previous section, but he still didn’t necessarily enjoy slaughtering these things. And his foot hurt now.

The flashing purple icon in the corner of his vision attracted his attention, and on a whim he decided to focus on it, if only to see what the monsters were called.

You have slain Bioric, rank 2 (4)! +0 exp (40*1.7 knowledge modifier*.01 feat modifier)

You have slain Flame-Touched Bioric, rank 5 (4)! +1 exp (100*1.7 knowledge modifier*.01 feat modifier)

You have achieved ranks 16-18 in Flaming Strike! +0 exp (15*.01 feat modifier)

You have achieved ranks 16-19 in Fast Feet! +0 exp (20*.01 feat modifier)

You have achieved rank 16 in Flicker Strike! +0 exp (5*.1 feat modifier)

Further improvement in Flaming Strike, Fast Feet, and Flicker Strike is impossible at current proficiencies and title rank.

Congratulations! You have completed the Apprentice feat for the Spellsword title!

New bonus title gained-Dauntless

New spell gained-Windblade

Congratulations! You have completed the Apprentice feat for the Nameless title!

The Mask skill has been updated

Huh. So they’re called ‘biorics.’ It was a little odd that the ones he’d just fought were the same species, but with fire magic ‘added’ somehow. It was also nice to see his skills increasing--apparently challenging the Path was helping his knowledge enough to progress. Not to mention…

What the hells? He’d completed his Spellsword feat? And that had apparently been enough to complete the Nameless feat as well, meaning that he could finally become an Apprentice!

“That’s the stupidest feat I’ve ever seen.”

Maiz heard his voice as if he was far away from himself, so great was his shock. And annoyance. Based on the fact that all of his experience gains had come before the feat was completed, there was only one thing that could have triggered it. The feat had to be killing an enemy without using a weapon or spells. For a title that specialized in killing enemies with weapons and spells. Ridiculous. At least Hugan’s Warden feat had made sense--after all, the title was about protecting people. The Scholar feat had been completely understandable as well, and apparently Warrior Monks were quite spiritual so that had been fairly reasonable. Maiz would never have thought that Spellswords were expected to discard their only advantages in a fight in order to prove themselves.

But Maiz forgot about his annoyance at Nomenadon’s illogical feat system when his brain got around to comprehending what had happened. I did it! He could finally become an Apprentice, and get that much closer to fulfilling Viselys’ requirement! As well as his own plans for the future.

Maiz quickly focused on the first skill he’d gained, reading the description.

Windblade (Spellsword): Creates cutting edge of wind around the user’s weapon that persists as long as mana is used to sustain it.

Rank: 1

Cost: 5 mana per second

Effect: The wind aura surrounding the user’s weapon converts 20% blunt damage to cutting damage (this replaces the edge of the weapon).

Wow. This spell seemed extraordinarily useful for Maiz. Considering that staves didn’t have edges of their own the spell would basically make his preferred weapon into a longer, more useful sword. It seemed like it would be a downgrade for a swordsman however: perhaps that hinted that the ability would become more powerful in the future?

Though he was eager to test his new spell, Maiz had a more pressing concern. He opened the description for The Mask.

The Mask (Nameless): Passive ability which allows the Nameless to ignore title restriction for all skills, talents and spells. However, the Nameless is unable to use divine guidance for any skill, talent, or spell. Whenever the Nameless learns a title-restricted skill, talent or spell, the Nameless may change his/her displayed title to the title associated with that skill, talent or spell. The Mask ability is negated if another sentient, non-divine creature comprehends the Nameless’ identity. Note: Benefits/drawbacks of talent change as rank increases.

Rank:2

Effect:

Rank 1: Nameless may learn any skill or spell and change his/her title to that of a skill or spell he/she knows. Prevents the Nameless from using divine guidance on any skills/spells.

Rank 2: Nameless has perfect resistance to effects which invade the mind.

Now that was interesting, for a variety of reasons. First, Maiz had checked The Mask periodically, but had never seen its rank increase before. Would it only increase when he completed a feat for the Nameless title? Moreover, the effect he’d gained was a little... ominous. He supposed it made thematic sense, for an ability called The Mask, and it would allow him to conceal his true identity better against some titles. However, it seemed oddly specific. DId that mean Maiz could expect to meet more mental assailants in the future, or was it just that such strategies were more common when the title was created?

That was quite a few questions. However, he’d also gained a great deal in this Dungeon. New abilities, exciting prospects for the future, and, of course more combat training. Now he just had to find the way out.

Wandering around the cave for a bit revealed that, while there were no passageways leading to more enemies, there was thin arch set into a wall. Just before Maiz approached, it began glowing red in response to some unknown signal. It was a little disappointing that there wasn’t a strong ‘boss’ monster left in the Dungeon, as there often was in stories, but Maiz supposed that it made sense for what was obviously kept as a training tool for Novices. Those flaming jackal-monsters had been quite a handful, after all. Perhaps they were considered some sort of collective boss by whatever force governed the Dungeon.

Regardless, it was time to move on. Maiz stepped into the arch.

He found himself in an empty stone room. The space was a perfect cube, and there were no doors leading in or out. The light of the room emanated from the stone itself, a soft white that lit the space evenly, similar to other parts of the Path. One wall had a series of glowing blue carvings set into it, and the opposite wall had a mundane inscription. The first seemed like an enchantment of some kind, probably a ‘portal,’ and the second was a… diagram?

Maiz studied the room with an analytical eye, feeling strangely calm. Over the past week of challenging the Path, he’d learned to approach problems like this methodically. There was always a purpose behind them. On the earlier tests, those purposes had been fairly obvious, but some, like the wooden post room, had required more insight. Even fighting the golems had been an exercise in tactics and managing fatigue as much as it was combat training.

Just then, his stomach growled. Oh, right. Time to test out that skill, I guess. Enlightenment. Immediately the hunger vanished, as did his thirst and slight sleepiness from the long hours of work he’d done that day. That was a useful ability. Now back to being smart.

Approaching the strange carving, Maiz saw that it was indeed a diagram. Two, in fact. Both were depictions of a human silhouette in different poses. The first was simply standing, front facing Maiz, and there was a series of lines carved within its body, seeming to culminate in its open palms. The second was in a punching pose, one leg coiled and one extended, muscles taut.

It took Maiz only a moment to recognize what the first diagram was showing. It was a spell--a fairly simple one, but a spell nonetheless. The second one, the punch, was some sort of skill, then? Presumably he could use these abilities to interact with the enchantment on the other side. He decided not to touch the enchantment until he’d learned at least one of them, lest he be sent back to the beginning of the Path.

After a minute of work, Maiz successfully copied the spell shown in the diagram. It was really quite close to a mana-manipulation exercise. He simply guided his mana through his body in loops, pooling it in his hands, then pushed it into the air. His Notification Sheet informed him that he’d learned Mana Projection, which apparently did not have a title associated with it.

Maiz was tempted to simply use the spell on the enchanted wall, as he was now sure was intended, and continue on. But he couldn’t resist taking the time to figure out the simple Punch skill shown in the second diagram, which also did not have a title. Then, of course, there was no sense in not taking the time to put the two abilities together into a single move. That only took about ten minutes in total, so he felt justified in the effort. Walking to the opposite end of the room, he performed the dual-maneuver, coiling his body tightly as he pooled mana into his hand, releasing it at the same instant that he made contact with his fist. He also winced a little, closing his eyes in an involuntary reaction to sending his fist straight into the rock wall.

When he opened them he was in another strange room. This one was lit by the same type of glowing stone as the last, but instead of white it was purple. A very familiar shade of purple. As soon as he registered the color, Maiz’s heartbeat quickened, but he looked around cautiously. This place was much more confined than the previous room had been, and the air felt… musty. Old. Or perhaps ancient would be a better descriptor in this case.

Directly in front of him, a small altar had been set into the ground, carved of black stone. There was a book set innocently before it, the leather of its binding looking dark in the strange light. Beyond the book, carved directly into the altar and glowing purple like the walls, was a single symbol.

Maiz began to laugh.