And from the darkness erged... a skeleton. Old armor rusted in several places, a long sword equally rusted, raised in an attack pose that would have been nacing if the whole ensemble hadn’t looked like it was about to crumble on its own at any mont.
Nothing impressive.
Haru stood there staring at the creature with a completely neutral expression as it advanced toward him, sword raised to stab, and when the blow ca, Haru simply raised his right hand, which caught fire [Ignition].
The skeleton’s sword t his palm, and the rusted tal began to lt on direct contact with the concentrated flas, turning into an orange liquid that dripped onto the ground.
"You’re kidding ," Haru murmured, looking at the skeleton that was still trying to push the lted sword away.
He flicked it with the fingers of his free hand, and a small sphere of compressed fire ford on the tip of his index finger, which shot, tah! straight to the skeleton’s helt.
The sphere pierced the old tal, went through the bony skull, and continued until it hit the wall behind before dissipating, and the skeleton’s skull caught fire from the inside out.
The creature dropped what was left of the sword and began to uncontrollably beat its head, trying to extinguish the flas, staggering from side to side for about three seconds before finally collapsing into a pile of burnt bones.
The entire fight lasted exactly two seconds.
Haru looked at his own hand, still on fire, closed and opened it, testing the sensation, and realized that it was clearly stronger than before. It made sense; he had gone from level 11 to 16 all at once after killing Kaelthar, but he hadn’t yet properly tested what that ant in practice.
He continued walking through the tunnel that opened into a larger chamber with more tunnel options branching off in various directions, and he had barely taken three steps when another skeleton ca running out of one of the side tunnels, completely unard but coming straight at him with its bony hands outstretched, trying to grab him.
Haru let it co, waited until the last second, and when the skeleton got close enough, it grabbed his head with its right hand and blew it up, bam! Concentrated fire detonated the skull into fragnts that flew everywhere. The headless body fell and lay writhing on the ground, trying to reassemble itself.
He took advantage of being alone and opened the system, deciding it was ti to finally get properly organized and see all the options he had accumulated.
The interface appeared...
┌───►SYSTEM◄───┐
[STATUS WINDOW]
├────
◊ Na: Haru Mizuki
◊ Race: Human
◊ Rank: Lower Maestro 1
◊ Class: None
◊ Title: Personal Bodyguard
◊ XP: 16.500 / 30.000 [LVL: 16]
└─────────────♦
┌─ [STATUS WINDOW]
◊ Strength: 21
◊ Agility: 20
◊ Stamina: 19
◊ Intelligence: 25
◊ Luck: 9
◊ Charisma: 19
◊ Mana: 10.000/15.000
└───────────────♦
But the skeletons kept coming.
Three more erged from different tunnels, and the one he had knocked down was now rebuilding itself, bones coming together again and a body rising as if nothing had happened.
Haru sighed, began pacing the chamber while reading the system’s information, dodging blows from the skeletons without even looking at them properly, using only peripheral vision and the sound of their footsteps to calculate where they were.
"Wow! I’m really strong... Even my rank went from Lower Maestro 3 and 2 to Lower Maestro 1... I think I understand, the 1 ans I’m in the first class of this Rank."
He kicked one that ca from the left, sent a fireball at another that tried to grab him from behind, grabbed the third by the arm and used him as a shield against the fourth that ca from the front.
"That’s right, I can upgrade my skills..." he murmured, reading the new system dynamics he had unlocked, which showed the option to spend XP to evolve existing skills instead of just acquiring new ones.
He dodged a sword that grazed his shoulder, counterattacked with a punch that blew the head off the attacking skeleton, and went back to reading the upgrade options while continuing to move.
Haru looked at the options while smashing another skeleton against the wall using the body of another as an improvised battering ram, thinking about which one was worth evolving first considering he had limited XP and would probably need it for other things as well.
[ACTIVE SKILLS]
♦ [Touch of Goddess]
◊◊ [Ignition] LVL: 1
► 4.800 XP
◊◊ [Mana core] LVL: 1
► 5.500 XP
♦ [Mind Whisper] LVL: 1
► 3.200 XP
♦ [Shadow Step] LVL: 1
► 6.000 XP
♦ [Micro Spatial Compression] LVL: 1
►7.200 XP
◊◊◊ Available skill slots 7/8
[PASSIVE SKILLS]
♦ [Battle mory] LVL: 1
► 4.000 XP
[CURSES, BLESSINGS, PACT ]
[CHRONIA’S CURSE: ]
◊ Ti Stop: LVL 1
►7.200 XP
[DEVOURING COVENANT]
► 10.000 XP to activate...
Just looking at the XP prices already frustrated Haru, quickly doing ntal calculations of how much he would have to farm to level up multiple skills and realizing it would take an absurd amount of ti.
"Damn it!" he yelled, giving a spinning kick to the skeleton coming from the side, kicking its head which flew like a soccer ball and hit the wall on the other side of the chamber. "What the hell!"
More skeletons erged from the tunnels, he destroyed both with fireballs without even looking properly, just aiming by sound.
He sighed deeply trying to calm down, and then noticed that [Touch of the Goddess] didn’t show XP prices in the list. He tried clicking on it to see if he could.
The system responded imdiately with a large notification that covered half the screen:
[EVOLUTION BLOCKED]
[Chronia’s Curse – Maturation: 9% complete]
◊ Evolution locked until 100% maturation achieved
[Touch of the Goddess – Maturation: 12% complete]
◊ Evolution locked until 100% maturation achieved
◊◊ Note: Unique/Tier S skills require natural growth
◊◊◊ Forced evolution may result in permanent damage...
More frustration grew in Haru’s chest, the feeling of being blocked by the very skills that should help him. He crushed another skeleton that had rebuilt itself.
"Damn it, so the best skills can’t even be evolved!?" he complained loudly.
But then sothing caught his attention as he looked again at the list of skills available for upgrade... A small smile appeared on his face.
"I know what the hell to evolve!"
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