The wind howled over the deck, salt-heavy and charged with something unnatural. The crew spoke among themselves, eyes darting off towards the dark horizon. One voice cut through the storm, "Of all the Irv'eth in the sea, you're the fuckin' worst! And—And you're not even in the sea!" The man in front of him said, his arm waving frantically as he seemed to be unable to decide whether to point at him or the rampaging seas.
Jacob smiled nonchalantly, "Calm yourself, lad."
It had been more than a couple of years since someone had insulted him so blatantly, it was a warm reminder of the past. Irv'eth were gigantic sea creatures, obsessed with the whimsical obliteration of sea-faring vessels; and the sole reason Organon had begun to invest so much into airship research over the past few decades, "I feel it in the air! I know you feel it, too. Even the lads know it's not natural!"
"An'?" The man responded shrugging emphatically, "That don' mean we got' to be the ones to check it out! You accursed shit."
"Look, it's two days detour. Followed by a well-deserved night of relaxation in Yamdos for the men. Don't you think they deserve it, eh lad?!" Jacob returned, spreading his arms wide and his palms open towards the man in front of him.
"An' why is it that anytime there's any trouble, you go an' make us go toward' it? It's been quiet. I've liked the quiet, Ironside. I fuckin' like it!" he retorted, his face flushing red, his hair messy and wet. There was an urgent pleading in his tone.
Jacob brought his hand to his greyed hairline and ran it through his matted hair. He knew that no good would come of them detouring to the island, but, they had to. The mana in the air was wrong. There was a pulsating darkness within, it was calling to everything around them. It felt, parasitic. They couldn't ignore it; why was there such an ominous emergence in the vast emptiness of the sea? The island of Yamthos was the only thing for hundreds of leagues, and the pulsating darkness came right from its direction.
"Lad… we're going. We can't very well leave it and you know that! Plus, the only reason it's been quiet is because you sea-faring bastards went and dried up for almost a decade!"
They would go to Yamthos. The darkness called to him. "Why?"
"We dried up?! You wen' and dried up, you overweight fuckin' one-legged squid-hugging dirt-shit!"
Jacob phased the oh-so-well-known grumblings of his old friend, his thought still on the darkness, one hand running across the tarnished silver key in his pocket. The darkness held a familiarity that he couldn't ignore as well. Why did it feel like… him?
It couldn't be…
Urstoks: Elias's most loved Dungeon inhabitants. Nine of them lay scattered, their decaying bodies filling the enclosed space with their acidic stench and the tenth, the tenth thrashed wildly, impaled by Elias's relentless strikes.
Two days had passed in this brutal cycle—eat, fight, rest, repeat. Now, on his fourth and final round, he pushed forward, determined to carve out his next steps on his bloodstained path.
As he finished the final Urstok off—his mana barrier mitigating the desperate attempts to fend him off—a smile crept onto his face. Ten abominable creatures down, and he'd only lost his sanity, was that really such a steep price to pay in this world?
The beast's frantic movement ceased and Elias's muscles relaxed, the grip on his two blades lessened. He hadn't taken many wounds during the fight. The familiar pulsing of an errant tongue having injected it's venom bounded within his leg and there were a few grazes across his limbs—nothing the moss wouldn't fix.
The total cost of the fight was around 10% of his life force and 30% of his mana. He'd realised that his mana costs would quickly outweigh the drain on his life. He just needed to make sure his attributes reflected the need for mana in the future; somehow.
He looked at his surrounding, a mess of yellow ichor that had dried into a murky brown as it was slowly processed by time. The terrifying Urstok' had been defeated in his domain and a glowing notification pulsed in his view.
The crimson cursive text of the dungeon was accompanied by that same growl within his mind: "Dungeon of Orus: Sub-Objective: Slay Inhabitants of the Dungeon: 10 / 10 – Reward earned: Calculating…"
"Escape tunnel…?" Elias whispered.
"Bonus earned for slaying inhabitant above your Tier."
Well, at least the System wasn't too cruel. He had thought that he was likely experiencing a harder time than others would have in the same situation, with actually being awakened and all.
"Bonus earned for slaying all inhabitants at a Tier above your own."
"Woah, I didn't even think of that…" Elias continued in his hushed voice, his mind returning to his first quest completion. He had earned a number of bonus rewards for completing the quest in a way that indicated he needed someone to check on his own mental health.
[Calculating final reward…]
[Final reward calculated: Reward: Choice of Tier 1 Enhancement Skill Gem – Rare – ERROR – recipient is below Tier 1, rewards adjusted – Reward: Choice of Tier 0 Enhancement Skill Gem – Unique.]
"Huh?!" Elias gasped as he mulled over the words, Enhancement skill gem? That was new to him. Elias had learned him first few skills through Uthred, who had been able to imbue the spirit of the skill into him by splitting off a fraction of his own skill and forcing it into Elias's spirit. It could only be done once you had reached an incredibly high proficiency in the skill of choice. This? An Enhancement Skill Gem – He hadn't heard of something like that from Uthred and, well, it had a 'Unique' rarity tag.
The System continued:
[Option 1: Enhancement - Body — Option 2: Enhancement - Mind — Option 3: Enhancement - Spirit]
As the main notification window listed his three options, three separate windows appeared underneath, each one titled with one of the three options, followed by a System generated description.
[Enhancement - Body
'As you begin your path for power in the universe, you must guide your path and shape its will. You have chosen to focus on your physical body.'
+1 to all physical stats per level, doubling each Tier:
Tier 1 0: 1 — Tier 2 1: 2 — Tier 3 2: 4 — Tier 4 3: 8 — Tier 5 4: 16 — Tier 6 5: 32…
You may choose a physical affinity for your body.
'Enhancement skill gems can be altered through Skill Fusion and Enhancement Crystals - Alterations are permanent and will forever affect your path.']
[Enhancement - Mind
'As you begin your path for power in the universe, you must guide your path and shape its will. You have chosen to focus on your mind.'
+2 to Intelligence and Perception per level, doubling each Tier:
Tier 1 0: 2 — Tier 2 1: 4 — Tier 3 2: 8 — Tier 4 3: 16 — Tier 5 4: 32 — Tier 6 5: 64…
You may choose a mental affinity for your body.
'Enhancement skill gems can be altered through Skill Fusion and Enhancement Crystals - Alterations are permanent and will forever affect your path.']
[Enhancement - Spirit
'As you begin your path for power in the universe, you must guide your path and shape its will. You have chosen to focus on your Spirit.'
+4 to Willpower per level, doubling each Tier:
Tier 1 0: 4 — Tier 2 1: 8 — Tier 3 2: 16 — Tier 4 3: 32 — Tier 5 4: 64 — Tier 6 5: 128…
You may choose a spiritual affinity for your body.
'Enhancement skill gems can be altered through Skill Fusion and Enhancement Crystals - Alterations are permanent and will forever affect your path.']
Elias read the description carefully; all options were incredible, but he was confused: he could see that the original reward had been a Tier one enhancement skill gem, but that it had lowered to match his current Tier. As if it was trying to point out just how out of place he was in the dungeon at his current power, at least the Dungeon was providing some help, in the form of a power-up.
What stuck out to him most, however, was the increase of attributes for each Tier, instead of starting his gain in attributes at half of that of a Tier one per level increase, it had instead introduced a whole new Tier to the skill calculations.
What did this mean? He didn't really know, other than the numbers got much bigger. Were big numbers good? His limited experience told him yes.
Other than the obvious benefit the System was offering him for taking the Skill Gem at Tier 0, he could also see that there was more to the eye with this type of gem. He moved to a space in the rocky arena that he'd used to store some flora, odd and ends that he'd had on his person and his backpack. He reached in and pulled out a round crystal — 'Tier 0 Skill Enhancement Crystal - Rarity - Rare', this crystal could be used with the Enhancement Skill Gems. His mind raced as he locked onto a disturbing realisation; the system had provided rewards that synergised with each other. They weren't random? Were they not just pre-ordained rewards? Both times, he'd completed bonus objectives that he had thought were just that — bonus objectives, optional. Why, then, did it seem like he had just been offered the exact reward that was pre-planned for him to have received? He'd joked and vented in his frustration at the omnipotent power that was the System — Maybe it really was listening…
He shook himself—now wasn't the time for overthinking. He had a reward to claim.
He mulled over the rewards for a while, thinking about what he needed right now, a reward that benefitted him in the future was all well and good. But he needed to secure his future first, by surviving in this damnable cave.
Elias thought his body was relatively strong in comparison to the creatures here; it didn't feel like it due to his lack of experience and full-cloth armour set. But he had quite a lot of life points and had only lost 10% in his last fight. He'd also managed to fight one off with no mana.
His mind, well. It was absolutely frazzled. He was surviving on pure determination and a grit to survive—maybe some clarity of thought could help, but, could a bonus of two attributes really fix that? How would he even level up a mind-related skill?
Then, there was spirit. He could feel the turmoil within. Tess, his mother, isolation, grief, sorrow, anger—all the emotions within him forming a maelstrom of chaos, electrifying his purpose as they numbed him to the depths of the Dungeon.
But, what would focussing on his spirit even achieve? He truly had no idea.
Minutes passed as he weighed the options, his fingers curled into fists. "Which one?!" he thought before his voice broke the silence, "You could've told me about all of this, Jacob… you had years."
It was true. His mentor had been by his side for five years and yet, in all that time, he had never revealed the full truth about the System—about skills, levelling and Tiers. Instead he had urged Elias to focus on his youth, his freedom. "When you awaken, you'll have all the time in the world to explore it," Jacob had said.
But now, standing in this damned dungeon, Elias wasn't so sure.
"Well… you were wrong!" He yelled in an outburst of pent-up frustration.
He might not even have a week left to explore the system, he could die any second.
He closed his eyes and picked, the systems gruff voice ringing throughout his mind, "You have selected:
[Enhancement – Spirit – 'As you begin your path for power in the universe, you must guide it, shape its will. You have chosen to begin with spirit.'
+4 to Willpower per level, doubling each Tier:
Tier 1 0: 4 — Tier 2 1: 8 — Tier 3 2: 16 — Tier 4 3: 32 — Tier 5 4: 64 — Tier 6 5: 128…
You may choose a spiritual affinity for your body.
'Enhancement skill gems can be altered through Skill Fusion and Enhancement Crystals - Alterations are permanent and will forever affect your path.']
As soon as the words finished in his mind, a heavy crystal appeared in his spare hand. It glowed gently with a red light—moments after it arrived an array of orange tendril began to form around the light inside and he felt an instinctual pull from within his chest, he thrust it towards the centre of his chest and—a warm sensation pulsed as it collided and thrust straight through his skin, leaving no wounds. It pushed into his channels; beginning as a gentle warmth that quickly surged into flames within. He screamed as fire coursed through him and pulsed with an intoxicating energy. It was a mix of pleasure and pain and he dropped to the floor as it wracked his body.
"Is this what gaining power feels like?!"
It continued for what felt like minutes as he succumbed to its enthrallment. Eventually, it dulled and his focus returned just enough to spot the notification in front of him,
[Please choose a spiritual affinity:
Resilience
Restraint
Manipulation]
Elias groaned, "…Easy," as he mentally signalled to Resilience, if he needed anything right now, it was keeping it together in this Twin-forsaken place.
A sudden thump of power echoed from every cell in his body, making him gasp, but it was over as quickly as it appeared.
"I'll just stay here… for a bit…" he whispered to himself, an exhaustion running over him.
[New Sub-objective…—] the System began.
"—FUCK!"