Kent sat in the cave mumbling about his current dilemma. The message that had randomly appeared before made no sense. He had never heard of the system speaking to anyone like that. Sure, there were quests that were given out on rare occasions by the system, but it was impossible to gain real information about who or what was behind the system.

His uncle had told him of churches, those institutions praying to gods of the system, and others were especially present in the cities with a strong noble presence. They claimed to receive special instructions from the system or the church but from what Kent’s uncle had told they were mostly ignored outside of their dominion.

The mention of a true enemy was beyond confusing. Weren’t monsters the one true enemy of humankind? Maybe only the ones outside dungeons were the true enemy. Or maybe dungeon cores were the enemy. He would reconsider his current stance of ignoring the message should he ever get out of the dungeon or be confronted with the core.

All that pondering led him nowhere, which was frustrating until he focused on his level-up.

He proceeded by preparing spending his free stat points by going out and engaging a new group of monsters to hurry his stat growth.

The monsters he had faced to get the fresh blood were a pair of turrls, one at level nine and an agitator at twelve. The fight had been easier, especially towards the end now that Accelerate Metal had ranked up, increasing the acceleration, range, and maximum mass.

Accelerate Metal (2/10) (3/100)

Accelerate a previously attuned piece of Metal towards or away from you. Gravity does not affect the metal for the duration of acceleration.

Acceleration: 11.2 m/s^2

Maximum Mass: 10kg

Range: 40 m

Cost: 1 (acc) mana per second

It also brought up an interesting question. How he had been able to accelerate his canteen for as long as he had, made no sense when it came to the skills description. He had forgotten about the range limit. But the canteen had been at least a hundred meters away. He tentatively concluded that the range described the distance at which you could change the effect and not the total range. Though the confidence in that statement was low at best.

He invested his free stats in willpower and drew the appropriate sigil as soon as he had returned to the cave, to increase his regeneration as much as he could. He would focus on Vitality at a later point, more regen and capacity would be essential as of right now.

The stat increase had come and gone without any unforeseen side effects this time around, which might have been due to the fact that he had literally painted his entire undressed body in the blood of a recently killed turrl. The only attribute that had changed besides willpower was magic thanks to his new title Apprentice Mage and he had drawn the appropriate sigil as a safety precaution. There had been no warnings by the system, unlike the previous time which he took as an indicator that he had understood the systems working at least partially correct.

What he was currently debating again were skills. Mage’s Augmentation implied more than he had originally considered. Especially once he considered what other sigils the tree would eventually allow. Whether it could offer a magic sigil or a willpower one at a higher tier were the most relevant questions.

The idea was simple. If it did, he could potentially increase both attributes ad infinitum. He could in fact bring all of his stats there if he had sufficient regeneration. While he was firsthand experiencing the vast difference in power between stats and skills, there would be a point where one should be able to beat the best swordsman in melee if you just overpowered him sufficiently.

A skill could only do so much in the face of overwhelming power. The only exceptions were skills like Death by ten thousand Punctures, they were absolute and quite frankly unfair.

Yet, he doubted the magic and willpower sigil's existence and the fact that sigils would stack. There would be a limiter at some point. The system didn’t allow for something to be that unbalanced.

It didn’t matter in the short term though. Because while Mana Core and Magical Wellspring would be great at a later point in time they were just too weak and took too long to rank up. And his immediate use for both available sigils was limited. It warranted an increased focus on willpower though.

The skills of Metallic Insight were still what he would pick at a later point, but they wouldn’t be the boost of versatility he needed. The same went for the other Metallumancy skills. His mana was low already thus choosing a mana skill would not bring him more immediate strength which he needed if he ever planned on getting out of the dungeon.

He kept coming back to the Daggers tree. Death by Ten Thousand Punctures sounded awesome. But it was not to be. It was a skill to expand upon a baseline and Kent’s was thin at best and he needed something to help accelerate his growth.

That was because he had found another issue.

Kent Larsson [Level 2] [60%]

Pools:

Health: 67/67

Stamina: 150/150

Mana: 8/48

Stats (0 Free Stat points):

Vitality 14

Toughness 11

Endurance 27

Strength 23

Agility 21

Senses 12

Mind 11

Magic 24

Willpower 33

Regeneration 14

Skills (1 Free Skill Point):

Accelerate Metal (2/10) (3/100 Exp.)

His experience gain had gone down to static twenty percent after reaching level two. Which was infuriating in many regards but also downright worrying.

If it showed a trend, a decrease of five percent per kill at each level it could potentially hinder him from reaching level ten, maybe even make him stop leveling again, just after he had gained the ability in the first place. Being forever stuck at level six wasn’t as bad as level zero, but it wasn’t fun either.

The more he thought about it, the more viable became Mosquito. The weapon skills would require some training to actually grow but offered baseline instincts that could skew a fight slightly into your favor for free. He knew that a friend of his uncle hadn’t been happy with the route his axe skill took after the second specialization, but it would be something he could handle when it came up and he didn’t plan on relying on the skill forever in the first place.

He mentally hovered over the skill ready to select it and at the last moment changed his decision.

Penetrate (1/10) (0/50)

2.5% of the next attack’s damage dealt to armor is applied to the wearer, as long as hardness is overcome.

Attack ignores 2.5% of hardness on the receiving end.

Angles attacks to impact the opponent more directly.

Cost: 3 (rank/4) Stamina

Things had worked out thus far because he hadn’t encountered monsters that specifically countered him.

He had asked himself What if there was a turrl in here like the one outside and whether he could pierce the hide of that one. What did it matter if you were able to do all sorts of fancy moves but not actually injure your opponent?

It was the better choice even before the additional lines in the skills description showed up. Those were definitely going to help him with either worry. He was a good bit away from total armor negation, but 25% at rank ten would be a good start and work well with the skills he planned to pick up in the future.

Now it was time to move out again and clear as much of the forest as he could with his meager resources.

***

Kent returned to the cave with empty mana, a lot of hunger, and three turrl carcasses in tow. There was also a good chunk of confusion on his face.

He had planned on hunting until either reaching single digits stamina, running out of two of the three health potions he had with him, or gaining his next skill slot – which should have happened at level four.

Yet here he stood with another difficult decision ahead of him and not remotely prepared for it. He had imagined ending up in at least two additional fights, depending on how much experience he gained each consecutive level. He had found out that it was fifteen percent at level three but that wasn’t the odd thing.

New Notification Log Entry:

You have reached level three. A new skill point is available! Three free stat points are available!

It makes no sense. I know it is levels one, four, seven, and ten. Followed by a skill every ten levels. So how, why, and what? Do I get skills at one, three, five, seven, and nine? I already have the titles and some strong trees, isn’t this a bit too strong? His mind wandered as he tried to come up with a justification.

Maybe to balance out the effects traits can have? So, I get an extra skill that might emulate a trait? But why would the system care? It hands out quests to all rewarding the murder of traitless, why is it helping me now. Is it a different system? I can’t remember what the notes said, but maybe.

His musings ended up short-lived when he realized that he didn’t care too much at the moment. He had greater worries than a reason behind something that he couldn’t influence. He would gladly continue theorycrafting if it actually lead somewhere, but right now it was pointless. He would take whatever he could as long as it got him stronger.

He wasn’t even mad anymore at having gotten only fifteen percent to his next level with each kill. It made sense in a way. He gained more stats per level than most and skill points more often. That required energy and maybe experience would fill that void.

The most recent combat had shown him a few things. Penetrate really did more damage even if the target didn’t wear any extra armor, just as he had postulated when he had seen the skill the first time. The few similar skills he had heard of all did the same, and some even had the same name. Though the increased damage was minuscule. The wounds he caused happened slightly easier than they should and were a bit wider – only by tiny margins right now – but large enough to notice through phenomena like the dagger slipping out easier.

The supposed re-angling of the strike wasn’t noticeable, but maybe that would only work against actually armored foes or at a higher level.

Even with his new skill the group he had fought made him feel felt more pressure. The count of three enemies in the last skirmish had been his absolute maximum, even with growing another level and investing the three new stats into willpower again he wouldn’t be able to compensate without another skill.