Between killing waves of ants and other giant insects, Silas considered his build.

Killing these ants hadn’t gained him any combat Skills yet, but that wasn’t too surprising when the magic sword he wielded did all the work. Well, Mana Magnet helped too, making sure his mana didn’t run dry. Each time the sword connected with a target and sent out the purple chained lightning effect his mana spiked down, then up. Outside the dungeon he would have a hard time regaining mana that fast, even with his Skill assisting.

Summon Character was by far his most powerful Skill, in theory. Yet he could barely sustain a level one Walker, kitted out in the absolute best gear one could acquire, sure, but even still, he had hoped for more.

Instead of sustainability, perhaps he should focus on a truly overpowered character next time? One that could smack down any problem with a single attack? While possibly impressive, such a solution would only help against a very narrow subset of problems. He had to admit, though, having such a solution in his back pocket would certainly help his peace of mind.

If he had access to more mana he could do so much more with the Skill, but it seemed this world ran on a finite amount of mana, apparently just what spilled from the dungeons. …And he’d been using that valuable resource to conjure cheese.

Oh well. The rats had certainly compensated him adequately for his use of the resource.

No wonder the princess got so upset, though.

Finite resource or not, the mana seemed quite plentiful inside the dungeon. Why didn’t people just step inside to fill up? It wasn’t that dangerous, not if a squad of level one summoned skeletons could hold their own. Or, maybe they did? He certainly wasn’t aware of the dungeon’s normal traffic patterns.

What he needed was his own personal source of mana, not just Mana Magnet to gather it. Perhaps he should try for another Skill to actually generate the stuff? He filed the thought away, something for future-Silas to consider. As Eve recently pointed out, he wouldn’t be buying his next Skill for quite some time.

While he suspected he could rip away a being’s mana with a high enough Will and Mana Magnet, that would likely only help him against mages. He’d hit zero mana a few times, and while it did make him feel a bit lightheaded, that was it. A bear or some warrior—or some warrior bear—wouldn’t really care if he took away their mana.

Monsters might be a different story. He could see their glowing cores inside their heads or chests when focused on his Mana Sense, but after trying a few times he felt certain he couldn’t rip out their mana with his current capabilities.

No, for now, as much as he hated to admit it, he was far better off focusing on physical abilities, assuming he was going to continue winding up in situations where he needed to fend for himself. Given the state of this world, such felt like a fair assessment. Hope for the best, plan for the worst, and all that.

Eve aside, putting points into Vitality could never be a bad move. Staying alive for the win!

With Eve in the equation the choice seemed obvious the more he considered it. Sure, she could maybe grind Vitality across the tier threshold on her own in a few months. Yet if he boosted his Vitality now, then perhaps in a few months she could help raise it to an even higher tier? Accelerating his growth wouldn't be a bad thing. She could just use all that processing power to help him find more efficient ways to grind up his lagging mental stats.

Plus, he had to admit he liked feeling physically powerful.

Coming to his decision, he told Eve as much. “You’re right, more Vitality now is better. Just put some of that processing power towards finding a way to help me grind up Charisma and Wit, yeah?”

She appeared beside him for the first time in a while, projecting an image of her cat-girl avatar in ornate, white-enamled plate armor inlaid with fine patterns of gold and silver. She held a strange Chinese guandao-like polearm made entirely from some sky blue material, completing her fantasy warrior look.

“Good,” she nodded. “I already have some ideas on exercises which might improve them, but like with anything else it will be up to you to put in the work if you want to see any results. Wit, we can probably train in another virtual scenario. Charisma, I’m not so sure. You’ll probably have to interact with more than just me for that one to go up.”

Silas suppressed a groan, having already drawn similar conclusions.

Eve raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

With a roll of his eyes he opened his Status and upgraded his Vitality, spending all three of his saved AP to raise his base Vitality from twenty nine to thirty.

Eve’s projection winked out.

In his head, she said, “ Un momento, por favor. ”

He had two years of Latin classes under his belt, not Spanish, though he hardly needed them to understand her meaning. The random Spanish was a bit concerning, however. Had her language processing thread crashed or something? Where did she even learn Spanish? Was she going to force him to learn Spanish, as a way to gain yet another Skill and work on his Wit? At some point he’d need to refresh his Latin enough to get full Skill credit, and wasn’t that just a terrible thought?

But Spanish too? He would need to put his foot—

“Ainsley!” he shouted, having lost control of his body again it seemed.

He popped his neck one way, then the other, proving to himself he remained in control. Eve had just…borrowed his voice, apparently.

“ Sorry Silas just a minute this could be important ,” Eve blurted into his mind.

The old curmudgeon scowled, looking up from his orb. “Yes? This is delicate work, you know.”

Again having his movements taken over, he sheathed his sword and said, “For my continued protection while you do your delicate work and take advantage of my aura, I want those weapons I selected back. To keep.”

Ainsley’s lips tightened into a line. “You left them—”

“I know you picked them up.”

“That sword alone—”

“It’s nice, but it’s only good while the mana lasts, right? It’s good here in the dungeon, but outside even I’m not inexhaustible. The others will prove useful as well.”

After a moment in thought the old man responded, “The shield you can keep. The armor I can loan you until you find better, I suppose. Don’t want you dying on me. But of the others I can allow you to have one. More would be irresponsible, when you can’t even keep track of them all when fighting. The sword, glaive, or—”

Again she cut him off. “The glaive, then.”

Silas felt a bit cheated, not being part of these negotiations. What glaive? Apparently Eve really wanted the thing? A sword of chain lightning was pretty cool, offering him firepower well beyond what he could do on his own.

…At the very least, he should try to learn some magic spells when this mess was over, or buy some chain lightning wands, or something. Or maybe he could buy the sword from Ainsley directly? He did have a fair amount of coinage saved up with the bank of Taylor. He made a mental note to ask before he had to give up the sword.

The old man waved his hand, a recently-seen sky blue guandao falling to the ground.

Eve walked Silas over to Ainsley and had him pick up the polearm. The thing didn’t seem particularly noteworthy, aside from the color.

Before he could ask about the weapon, Eve shifted his grip on the shaft to just behind the blade and turned the weapon’s sharp end towards his own stomach.

Apparently he needed to die with honor while performing the Japanese rite of seppuku , for she pushed the blade into his stomach, the sharp blade cutting through the brown reptilian scale armor protecting his chest as if it were a mere cotton t-shirt.

Ainsley, who had just gone back to his glowing sphere of rings, seemed horrified, a look Silas felt entirely justified as, after a short pause, Eve had him sink the weapon deeper and deeper into his own stomach.

At least Eve made sure his death would be painless, denying him the sensation of pain during his final moments.

She had him push the entire shaft into his stomach, using his own hands to ensure the very end of the shaft passed into himself.

He watched in stupefaction as his wound closed, the brown scales knitting back together almost as quickly.

“Lad?” Ainsley asked, tentatively.

Silas scratched his back, confirming that he did not, in fact, have a polearm exiting his back.

“What, never seen someone store a weapon away?” Silas found his mouth saying. His body turned and walked away, to rejoin the fight against a new wave of ants.

“ All yours again. Don’t mind me, just performing a few upgrades. ”

“ Upgrades?! ” He tried to not sound too upset, but had trouble masking his feelings within his own thoughts.

“ I apologize. Almost as soon as you improved Vitality, my Skill must have as well. A number of calculations I tasked to run in the background completed, informing me of the material’s potential. In short, the metal is quite durable. It will serve as a good foundation for your next round of upgrades. Mine as well, I do believe. ”

“ You could have asked. ”

“ I could have. Instead I chose the optimal route for acquiring the material, as once Ainsley accomplishes his goals here he would have little reason to acquiesce. Time was of the essence, as we have no way to know when he will be done with whatever it is he has been doing for the past few hours. Again, I apologize for the necessity. ”

She wasn’t really apologizing. Maybe that blue metal was worth it, was her point? He reminded himself Eve always acted in his best interest, then got back to killing monsters.

During the lulls in battle he tweaked his Status, growing tired of seeing a long list of Skills he didn’t care about. He wanted an easy way to see what changed and by how much.

At Eve’s suggestion he stopped depending on the sword so much and was surprised to find he didn’t need it to demolish the oversized monsters. Before long, new Skills started rolling in. Dodge. Block. Shield Bash. Unarmed Combat.

After he beat a giant crab-like spider to death with its own armored leg, earning him levels in both Clubs and Improvised Weapons, he couldn’t wipe the grin from his face.

Being so strong was fun. Maybe he should plan to get Mana Body Reinforcement after all?

Ainsley watched the boy finally stop using the Sword of Xuthus with impunity, still a bit miffed as to why he chose to keep the glaive over such a powerful artifact. The boy didn’t seem to have suffered a backlash from overusing the weapon, instead he merely lost his warrior’s trance. Or, from his new, brutal attacks, perhaps he now channeled a more barbaric warrior?

Perhaps the previous trance had simply reached the end of some time limit? They had been down in the dungeon for nearly twenty hours. Truly, it was impressive he remained in the focused state for so long without pause.

It had irked him to watch the boy use the weapon time and time again, when he himself could only channel a mere fraction of that power before his well threatened to crack from the stress.

Ainsley had to remind himself his specialty was finesse, not brute strength, as he returned to his masterpiece. Soon his Guardian Seed would be complete. Under normal circumstances it would only be able to operate for a few hours before needing to delve into the dungeon for a recharge. But, if together they could topple one of those titanic beasts he’d seen crawling up from the depths and recover an intact core? Well. He certainly would no longer need to fear having his Academy snatched away from him by the petty machinations of lesser mages, that was for certain.

Again putting from his mind the disturbing image of the boy storing away the indestructible glaive in such a manner, he returned to inspecting his runework. Each line contained a command. A flaw in a single rune could cause his entire creation to fail at an inopportune moment. Not only did the runes need to be shaped correctly, they had to be in the right order as well, their instructions perfect.

Most lines he copied directly from the Academy Seed, lines with their effectiveness proven through the ages. Instead he focused on his own lines, ensuring each matched with his smaller-scale tests.

Greatness couldn’t be rushed, yet soon the time for action would be upon him.

Status

Silas Aegis

11y 3s 23d 21h -> 11y 3s 23d 22h

L15 (671/680 XP) -> L16 (708/816 XP)

H: 48.2/49 (50/day)

S: 45.7/49 (50/min)

M: 28.9/29 (29% eff.)

1 AP

STR: 39 (19+20)

AGI: 39 (19+20)

END: 49 (29+20)

VIT: 50 (29->30+20)

PER: 39 (19+20)

WIL: 29

WIT: 20

SPI: 29

AFF: 29

CHA: 12

4/8 SP

29 -> 34 Eve (VIT)

NEW! -> 09 Dodge (AGI/PER)

NEW! -> 08 Block (STR/END)

NEW! -> 06 Unarmed Combat (STR/AGI)

NEW! -> 05 Shield Bash (STR/AGI)

NEW! -> 03 Clubs (STR)

NEW! -> 01 Improvised Weapons (STR/AGI)