Rest and recuperation was ongoing, as the party got down the stairs into the Kra’zix den, now unoccupied. Lucas was almost back to tip – top shape, fatigue he felt just ten minutes ago now distant memory. Feedback from Margaret heal was incoming and since nobody know what waited them further in the dungeon, Lucas suddenly finding himself with a lot of free time as they played it safe with Ted, seeing as his injuries were horrific after his little stint in the last fight and nobody was willing to risk it coming in the middle of some gruesome fight.

“I’m not about to complain” Lucas thought as he pondered the wait. As much as he would like to continue immediately and push further into the dungeon, this down time might allow Lucas to rectify his mistake of not unlocking new skill before entering dungeon.

“Fucking politics” he weakly cursed, deep down aware that he was looking for excuses. The hard truth of the matter is that he was becoming complacent without real challenge, only that blue – skinned witch, Pyra, anything resembling a challenge in the last months. And Kra’zix, but Lucas knew he will soon forget about the slain ratman as they progress further into the dungeon, as the bosses will only become harder.

“Okay, enough distractions” Lucas thought as he cut his current line of thought and focused on the task at hand. He called “Status” mentally and navigated to the class submenu, finding himself looking at the prompt.

Sword of doom level 56

When your enemies see you as the doom incarnate, you slowly start to become one. You are walking catastrophe, a death sentence for anybody foolish to wrong you or stand against you. While some fight for glory, other for the thrills, your fighting style is purely based on winning and killing your opponents in the most efficient way.

On level up: +5 Agility, +4 Strength, +2 Perception, +2 free points

Available skill points: 5

Would you like to spend your skill point now?

Y|N

“You know, I don’t fully agree with you. I still find thrill in the fights, especially if the opponent represents real challenge. And I proved I’m not a pure killing machine, using my skill to just knock them out, as proved back in New Flame” Lucas tried to start a conversation with the System, which wasn’t talkative it seemed, as Lucas was left without answer. With a sigh, he mentally ordered skills selection to open.

“Recalculating…”

“Recalculation completed”

“You can now browse your available skills”

Thousand of skills flashed before Lucas’s eyes, before settling on a few dozen that were unlocked, one of them even being “Strike a pose” which he unlocked in simpler times, but decided to pass on it. After a lot of filtering and searching and reading, Lucas managed to trim the list down to just two skills he could potentially learn.

Double strike (Uncommon)

The multiverse is vast and littered with beings that are simply unable to die in one hit, prompting other powerful beings with guile to devise a method of delivering two blows simultaneously. This skill allows the user to land additional hit if he manages to land the first blow. Damage of the second strike is buffed by 0,1% by every point of Strength.

Cost: 100 stamina

Lucas felt this skill, simple in what it did, was pushing the floor of his potential combat prowess, while not doing much to increase ceiling. Admittedly, the bar was set pretty high with “Vengeful doom strike”, as it was a bit of a task to surpass an instant kill skill. Lucas didn’t particularly like this skill or find it interesting enough, the raw efficiency of the skill was enough for it to make the final cut. Not content dallying further, he focused on the second skill.

Doom radiation (Passive)

The doom always likes to make it presence known and the ones who walk with it always radiate the fraction of its vast power from their bodies, making their opponents cower before them. This skill allows the user to slow down everyone around them by directly attacking their mind.

Other skill on the list was something that would turn Lucas at absolute blitz on the battlefield, his two passive skills working in tandem. To untrained eyes, he would probably look like he is breaking the space – time continuum as he casually cut down anybody who opposes him and swiftly move to the next one with his speed build – up, while his enemies struggle to do simple movement. There was a glaring problem, however. He was fighting in the team and this skill didn’t discern friend from foe, making them also legitimate targets for the slowing down. He could almost envision a battle where that slowing down cause a serious injury or even death of his teammates and friends.

Continuing to ponder his choices further, Lucas could see all of the problems the passive skill would bring. Since the skill was passive, he would need to take the time to turn it off when he was out of combat, or risking becoming a pariah, as the people would start avoiding him if they are always sluggish around him. And even if he was willing to risk to try and live with it, the hassle of activating it if he suddenly finds himself in combat situation might cost him a few precious seconds while he is turning it back on, possibly costing him his life.

Alternatively, if he decides to become a pariah, it could lead to become too complacent and too dependent on this devastating combo. He even suspected if he chose this passive, by the time he finished his journey, maybe even this dungeon, he would be the most powerful human on Earth. But, as the description of the first skill said, the multiverse is vast, and he was guaranteed to find someone who could reasonably counter him and defeat him as he struggles to adapt without his devastating combo. Taking all this into consideration, he quickly chose the “Double strike” and closed the skill menu, content with his choice.

The rest of the time Lucas spent alternating between training and sentry duty, using some time in between to finish his mental recuperation. Soon, the feedback will hit Ted, and he needed to be ready. He discussed incoming situation with the rest of his party, confirming they will try to avoid using another one of Margaret’s heal skills that cause feedback, trying to patch him up with transferring Health using “Life transfer touch” and health potions. They could gulp two each to have some effective health for transfer and they could feed Ted two. Lucas seriously doubted he would need that much, but Margaret wanted to make sure, as she didn’t check the amount of damage he took, acting quickly because she was frightened he would lose an eye.

“The moment is nearly here” Margaret whispered. Lucas cast an appraising eye on her, trying to gauge her confidence. Although his reasoning that they should move quickly was quickly agreed by the rest of his party, he had another reason to try that, knowing from Bruce Margaret was near a class advance. He hoped this act would be enough to push her over the line, her next class hopefully removing some limitation of her current one.

When the time came, Ted suddenly screamed, his face opening in thousand cuts and bites. Maggie stepped forward, allowing Margaret to transfer her Health to Ted, as per agreed order. Lucas was planned to be last in line, reason being he needed to protect the rest of them in case of an attack. Margaret hands started glowing, one light blue which was touching Maggie and another green as it made contact with Ted.

“So far so good” Margaret said as Maggie prepared her first health potion, chugging it down. Some of the more superficial wounds on Ted’s face were already closing, but the deeper one remained.

“Shit, we have a problem here” Margaret shouted, slight panic in her voice “there is some kind of poison draining him. I’m afraid it’s that wound near the eye” she finished as Ted tried his best to remain calm, his face contorted in absolute pain. Maggie lost all of the color in her face, chugging second health potion immediately, allowing Margaret some more health.

“Mags, it’s time to switch” Chen said, positioning himself as Margaret’s new target. She immediately touched him, transferring his Health to Ted.

“It’s almost expended, it seems” Margaret said excitedly as Chen quickly drank first Health potion. Sudden scream from Ted forced Margaret’s face into frown as she concentrated on him. “Fuck, it renewed itself. We would need more health”

“My turn then” Lucas said, Chen already almost depleted after the second potion he took. As soon as Margaret touched him, he could feel a cold feeling going through his body to the place where the touch happened, weakening him with every second passed. Opening his “Status” he followed his Health points, watching as the numbers went down. When he noticed he was down to third of his Health, he gulped one of the health potions.

“You restored 800 health points via health potion”

“Almost there” Margaret said through his teeth, her focus completely on Ted. Lucas saw he needed to drink another health potion, so he took it without much pomp

“Due to drinking more than one health potion quickly, you restored 400 health points via health potion”

“Fucking finally. It is done” Margaret said as she took one of the health potion and pour it into Ted’s mouth, finally allowing him to relax and fall into slumber “That poison was one nasty piece of work. That swarm would kill us all if the fight… wait, what?” she finished, losing herself into what Lucas could only guess was a System prompt. Few moments later, his guess was proven true, as Margaret shared it with everyone, informing Lucas that class advance he expected actually happened.

Avatar of health

Ways of life are finicky and people usually find themselves on a brink of death. Will they cross that threshold or no now depends on you and your willingness to help. Gathering excess energies from all around you, you are storing them for later use, unleashing all your healing potential in the right moment and saving countless of lives, if you so desire.

On level up: +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom, +2 free points