It might seem strange to have a Seraphim as an enemy but in this world, Seraphim were the specific followers of the god Cortos. Cortos was a harsh god and had very few followers among the humans. He was widely regarded as a relic of older, crueler times. Of course, being a god and being real one had to be rather careful about not being too critical. If Corwin was a follower of Cortos, he’d have to fight a different enemy as Seraphim would be allied. Nonetheless, Corwin currently followed no god, and was rather unlikely to as he didn’t like the restrictions gods placed on their followers.

All of this meant Corwin had to fight the Seraphim and that explained his activation of Wind charge. He accelerated in just as the Seraphim cast mana shield. His swords were stopped by an orb that flickered into life around her. Unfortunately, this orb would cause a certain amount of damage to be directed to MP instead of HP, making the process of killing the Seraphim longer and more involved.

Astrid Nebulae next cast Starfall, a skill Corwin had dealt with previously, and quickly moved out of the AoE area. He was lucky enough to not get hit, but was rather disturbed by the fact that this opponent had an AoE that they could free cast as a normal skill rather than when their HP hit a specific percentage. He re-engaged shattering the mana shield and focused on damaging the Seraphim while dodging her normal attacks. Everything went fine until the Seraphim reached 80% HP, at that point the Seraphim activated a summon skill. Disrupting blow failed to stop it (Corwin tried anyway since it sometimes worked on these skills, albeit with a far lower than 90% success rate), and for his trouble he faced two metal slimes.

Metal slimes had moderate attack, high HP and good defense but almost no agility. Nonetheless, Corwin couldn’t afford to have the battlefield cluttered with summons as he’d be easily defeated by numbers if he was unable to dodge the many attacks of strong enemies not experiencing level suppression. Corwin thus engaged the slimes and slowly whittled ones health to zero. Unfortunately, as the slime died it turned into energy and flowed back into Astrid, replenishing her mana. Shortly after, another starfall came and Corwin was hit once, unable to dodge it perfectly while focused on the slime. He lured the slime out of the AoE and finished it off, once again disappointed to see the energy flow from the slime to Astrid, giving her recharged mana. When he re-engaged most of his skills blasted against the mana shield before breaking it and slowly reducing her HP. Eventually he whittled her down to 60% and had some good luck when disrupting blow worked on her special skill. The fight continued and Astrid fought intelligently, timing her starfall to hit immediately after a parry. Corwin was in close and without a defensive skill he was exposed to Starfall getting hit twice, down to 60% health. He got more cautious when he re-engaged and his hitpoints slowly recovered while Astrid’s continued to fall. He saved his parry this time, and Starfall combos were unavailable to his devious opponent. Eventually she hit 40% and unfortunately disrupting blow failed on her special skill.

This time she summoned two cupids. Cupids were the most junior angel and fought with bows. Their attacks had a chance to induce the charmed status, which would temporarily prevent one from attacking. Corwin thus needed to dodge every attack to finish them off as fast as possible. He was mostly successful in dodging, but with two cupids to worry about Astrid would score the occasional blow. Wind charge was incredibly useful as it largely stopped the cupids from kiting and enabled him to finish one off, watching as it recharged Astrid’s mana. As he was charging to the 2nd one, Astrid activated Starfall. He was unfortunately charging through the radius of the attack and the fastest way out was continuing forward. He used parry once but still took multiple hits, leaving the AoE at 20% health. Corwin chugged a health potion, hoping to recover quickly before he used a slew of skills on the 2nd cupid. It was slain, turning into a pool of mana for Astrid. Corwin re-engaged his primary foe, and whittled her health down to 20%.

Angels got very scary at low health because they possessed heavenly berserks. Astrid’s heavenly berserk was the very powerful dual form. She split into two angels, each with 10% health and each attacking Corwin. The pressure was on, and he needed to deal with one of them as fast as possible. Corwin pulled out all the stops using vanishing steps to dodge. He tried to keep one angel at distance and force them to constantly close as he maneuvered around the other dealing damage to it. Unfortunately, even with his special technique he wasn’t able to avoid being hit. Even worse the enemies recovered HP quite quickly when he had to disengage for each of their starfalls. Nonetheless, Corwin bravely persisted.

The first angel’s HP fell to 5% and it started to charge a special ability. Disrupting blow failed to defend against it. He attacked all-out and got the angel down to 1% health but couldn’t kill it before the enemy triggered. His aggressive attacks left him open to the other angel and his health had fallen to 40%. With his potion still active Corwin just had to bear it. He grit his teeth and wondered what was in store for him when the special move fired. He prepared to dodge.

The angel activated the special ability “Two become one” and suddenly there was an 11% health angel fighting Corwin which received massive buffs to its stats. While it was still a level 8, it fought like a level 10 lord. Fortunately, level suppression didn’t increase. Corwin barely held on dodging, and even getting in an occasional blow. His health dropped to 30% as he brought Astrid to 5% health. She started charging another special ability and disrupting blow failed to cancel it. A burst of damage brought her to 1% health before it fired.

Nebula Domain. A domain was a controlled realm that became the surrounding radius of a fight. In a domain, the owner of the domain would be buffed while it’s enemies would be debuffed. If two conflicting domains were used they would weaken each other until one triumphed and the triumphant domain would apply its weakened effects. The nebula domain was a buffing domain, so in it Astrid got even stronger and faster. Corwin could no longer dodge and was forced to trade blows with the powerful enemy. One hit took him to 20% health, the next to 11% as a regen tick helped. He frantically hit Astrid going all out. One more hit brought him to 1%. Astrid attempted to use starfall but disrupting blow came off cooldown to stop it. As she wound up for her last normal attack his sword pierced through her and a flash of golden light emerged. He had slain his enemy, by the slimmest of margins.

He excitedly looted the corpse, getting a level eight iron amulet, and two more magic crystals bringing his total to five. He wished he could wear the amulet, as he needed to get stronger. There were two more stairs left, and if the past was any indication the 40th stair would be a big step upwards.

Corwin rested to full health and prepared to challenge the 39th stair. What powerful enemy awaited him, he wondered. He didn’t need to wonder long, as when he stepped up to the 39th stair he had his answer. His first reaction was, a dragon how his this possible? Fortunately, it wasn’t a true dragon only a lesser draconic being. Nonetheless Dragons were more powerful than other lords and this would test him severely. He looked his opponent over.

Tsuros, Baby Red Lesser Draconic Being

HP: 50,000/50,000

MP: 30,000/30,000

The Def and MDef of this being were unable to be identified by Corwin’s passive skill, he could only hope for an improved identify in the future to have more information. For the moment, he just hoped they were manageable. Corwin was also glad the lesser draconic being couldn’t fly, he had no tools to engage with an airborne enemy at this stage of the game.

Corwin activated wind charge but was forced to abort it as the dragon opened with its flame breath which filled a cone heading towards him at a scary pace.

Corwin Swordborn

Spoiler : Level 6: 60% of level 7

Str: 149 (base:5)

Agi: 169 (base:30)

Con: 149 (base:5)

Int: 52 (base:5)

Cha: 52 (base:5)

Lck: 33 (base:5)

Cnc: 33 (base:5)

Sta: 33 (base: 5)

Def: 349

MDef: 152

HP: 1494/1494

MP: 912/912

Gear:

MW: Iron Tier Level 7 Longsword, +14 Str, +14 Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage: 56-64, Durability 24/25, Requirements: 42 Str

OW: Iron Tier, Level 7 Shortsword, +14 Str, +14Agi, +14 Con

Base Damage 42-49, Durability 25/25, Requirements: 42 Str

MA: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate, +12 Str, +12 Agi, +12 Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements:36 Str

LA: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate Cuisse +12Str, +12Agi, +12Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements:36 Str

B: Iron Tier Level 6 Plate Gloves +12 Str, +12 Agi, +12Con

48Def,24MDef, Durability 29/30, Requirements: 36Str

G: Iron Tier Level 7 Plate Boots, +14Str, +14Agi, +14Con

56Def,28Mdef, Durability 35/35, Requirements: 42Str

RR: Silver Tier, Level 7 Ring of Hidden Attributes (+28 All base attributes, +28 All Hidden Attributes)

LR: Iron Tier, Level 5 Amulet (+10 All base attributes)

AM: Silver Tier, Level 7 Ring of Elements (+28 All base attributes,

Ignore 1.4 Levels, Ignore 1.4 Equip Levels

Skills:

Time Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Space Manipulation, Special, Tier 0, Level 0

Thunder Slash, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Wind Charge, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Disrupting Blow, Rare, Tier 0, Level 1

Double Slash, Uncommon, Tier 0, Level 1

Slash, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Pierce, Common, Tier 0, Level 1

Parry, Common, Tier 0, Level 1