Chpt. 23) Arrival at the Tier six dungeon

After eating lunch with everyone, Ford opened up her Yggdras system and allocated her ability points. Level up, forty-eight ability and skill points are available. Ford distributed the points between STR, PER, END, LCK, and WIS, then read over her stats. Name: Ford; gender: Female; race: human; Grimoire: antarctictite; class: Ruler/Sin; Level: twenty-one. Abilities: STR: fifty plus five; PER: twenty-four plus ten; END: sixty; INT: fifty-one plus ten; AGI: forty-two plus ten; CHR: thirty-two plus ten; LCK: twenty-five plus ten; WIS: forty plus ten; SOL: thirty-five.

Skills: natural: carry weight: two-hundred seventy-five kg, quick-witted, resilient, immovable will, cook, sleep paralysis, silent intimidation. Skills: weapon mastery five/five, crystal heart five/five, blood controller five/five, crystal weapon storage five/five, void warehouse five/five, crystal battle music two/five, blood weapons five/five, regeneration five/five, embracing pain five/five, psychosis five/five, strategist one/one, party stats five/five, radar one/five, targeted slaughter five/five, self-repair five/five, battle control five/five, essence ball five/five, essence mortar five/five, essence thrower five/five, essence volley five/five, essence manipulation one/one, essence enforcement five/five, blood salvos two/five, boiling blood two/five, berserkers rage one/one, holistic shield five/five, holistic kill four/five, linchpin five/five, hard-shell five/five, speak one/five, bond one/five, senses one/five, companion stats one/one, companion class one/one, companion skills one/one, companion’s form one/five, folding one/one, heating one/one, shaping one/one.

HP: six-hundred sixty; STM: six-thousand one-hundred twenty; MN: two-hundred two-thousand ninety-eight; EXP: one-thousand two-hundred seventy-five/six-thousand seven-hundred thirty. STM recharge: four-hundred four per second; MN recharge: four-hundred three per second; Grimoire progression: ten of one-hundred percent.

Once she finished that, she opened up her skill tree and began to browse. Select class: Healer, Priest, Necromancer, Light, Dark, Space, Time, Creation, Destruction, Possessor, Illusionist, Void. ‘Not going to lie, I’m curious,’ Ford thought as she selected Void. Void selected. Select route; destruction, creation. Destruction selected. New skills acquired.

Skill: destructive field: create a two-meter diameter sphere around an object within ten meters; the sphere will turn anything within it into mana; the amount of mana acquired is equivalent to the mass of the object; requirement: INT: ten; cost: two-thousand mana; level: zero of five.

Skill: gravitational pull: change the gravitational pull of objects when you touch them; the object will be destroyed; requirements: INT: ten; cost: ten mana per second per point zero one meter per second squared; level: zero of five.

Skill: mana pool: passive ability; store the mana from the objects you destroy; requirements: END: fifty, INT: ten, skill: destructive field; storage: ten-thousand mana; level: zero of five.

Skill: energy release: passive ability; use the mana you stored from the mana pool for other uses; can release all mana at once in a ray; level: zero of one.

Ford was amazed by most of these skills and couldn’t help but get all of them to level five and re-read them. Skill: destructive field: create a sphere around an object within twenty meters; the sphere will turn anything within it into mana; the amount of mana acquired is equivalent to the mass of the object; requirement: INT: twenty; cost: one-hundred mana per diameter meter and one-hundred mana per second to sustain it; level: five of five.

Skill: gravitational pull: change the gravitational pull of objects when you focus on them; the object can have that gravitational pull permanently; requirements: INT: twenty; cost: one-thousand mana per permanent change, one-hundred mana per second per object plus ten mana per point one-meter per second squared pull; level: five of five.

Skill: mana pool: passive ability; store the mana from the objects you destroy; requirements: END: fifty, INT: ten, skill: destructive field; storage: ten-million mana; level: five of five.

Skill: energy release: passive ability; use the mana you stored from mana pool for other uses; can release all mana at once in a ray; level: one of one.

She then went over her skills, placed points into speak, bond, and senses, and read the new descriptions. Skill: speak: passive ability; talk to animals and monsters; requirements: PER: twenty, INT: twenty, WIS: twenty; level: five of five.

Skill: bond: create a bond with any willing animals or monsters; requirements: PER: twenty, INT: twenty, WIS: twenty, SOL: one, skill: speak; cost: one SOL point per companion; level: five of five.

Skill: senses: passive ability; share sensations with your bonded animal or monster; requirements: PER: twenty-five, INT: twenty-five, WIS: twenty, SOL: one, skills: speak, bond; level: five of five.

Then Ford closed out the window and left the last twenty skill points for later. Then she looked to her left and saw Ace staring at her intently, “What?” she asked.

“Can you assign my ability and skill points, please? Because I can’t,” Ace said.

“Oh, sure,” Ford said as she activated companion stats and placed the stat points Ace had evenly between intelligence and wisdom. Name: HK-9 ‘Ace’; gender: ???; race: mech Hellhound; Grimoire: carbon; class: Void, Time, Destruction; Level: eight. Abilities: STR: one-hundred-fifty times two; PER: fifty; END: fifty-two; INT: twenty-six; AGI: forty-two times two; CHR: thirty-two; LCK: fifteen; WIS: seventeen; SOL: six.

Skills: natural: carry weight: one-thousand five-hundred kg, great strength, great speed, shock, bloodhound, tracking. Skills: destructive field five/five, gravitational pull five/five, mana pool five/five, energy release one/one.

HP: five-hundred seventy-two; STM: five-thousand three-hundred four; MN: thirteen-thousand four-hundred twenty-one; EXP: one-thousand nine-hundred twenty-six. STM recharge: eighty-four per second; MN recharge: twenty-seven per second; Grimoire progression: zero of one-hundred percent.

Ford felt a little surprised that Ace had the same void skills that she had and at the same level. ‘It must be because of the companion’s skill, skill. But it looks like it will only give skills in the void, time, and destruction skill trees,’ Ford thought after allocating Ace’s thirty-two points.

“There you go, Ace,” Ford said, “do you feel smarter?”

“Yes, I do. I am the smartest boy!” Ace said with pride and puffed out his furry chest. “Can I have a chest rub?” he asked.

“Maybe later, buddy,” Ford said with a chuckle, then stood, “Hey, Ee, how long till we get to the next dungeon?”

Ee said nothing while she finished her carving. After a few minutes, Ford began to get impatient and started tapping her foot. A few minutes later, Ee put the carving into one of her shadow spaces and said, “At our current pace, maybe two days. That’s if we only stop to eat and take bathroom breaks.”

“Preferably in that order,” Benet said from the other side of the cooking fire.

Ford looked at him sidelong, “Nooo, really?! I thought it was jack off first then eat,” she said sarcastically.

“Not all the time,” Lilly mumbled into a cup of tea.

“What?” Ford and Benet reacted immediately.

“Hmm, wha’? I didn’ say anythin’,” Lilly said defensively.

Ford pointed at her and decided not to push the subject; instead, she said, “Alright, who wants to just run straight to the next dungeon quickly and finish it off? Or do we want to take our time? All in favor of running, raise your hands.” Lilly, Benet, Morgan, Gimble, and Farah raised their hands. Ace attempted to raise his paws and failed miserably, toppling over to the ground. “Looks like the majority wins. When you’re finished, Max, Benet, get Ace hooked up to the wagon, and we’ll get going.”

“Fine, but can we at least stop for the night? Sleeping in a wagon sucks,” Max said.

“I got no arguments with that,” Ford agreed then wondered over to rub Ace’s belly.

***