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"A D-rank dungeon break... This shit has to be unheard of." A group of men and women were equipping their gear, slinging weapons over their shoulders and hanging potions from their hips.
They resided within a massive room, a cave room lit with wall torches, and abundant with voices and speaking.
There were countless groups of people similar to this one spread across the room, setting up tents and cooking pots.
"Obviously not Luke. Do you know how many dungeons break out there in the wild? You've just never heard of a D-rank dungeon breaking so close to a settlement. They're usually discovered before they can." A woman replied, one decked out in huntress gear. Two daggers were strapped onto her lower back. If it had to be guessed, she was likely a stealthy scout of some sort.
"Whatever... At least we're getting paid for this." He replied.
"How much do we get paid again, Clara?" Another man, asked. This one differed from the heavyset tank that was Luke. He wore gear more similar to hers, lighter but still protective. He was equipped with a sword, and a mystic looking gauntlet on his left hand.
"Come on Arjae, you're supposed to be our leader why don't you know, huh?" Luke slapped an open palm on the battle mage's back, forcing a cough out of the smaller man.
"I'm not the one who suggested we take this quest... Clara was." Their labeled leader replied.
"Yeah, shut up boys." Clara chuckled, "This isn't a quest we get paid for completing. We get paid in the experience and the loot we collect. So make sure to harvest up all the materials we pass by, I cleared up space in my storage ring just for it. It's not often you're allowed to clear a dungeon as many times as you want. It's our luck that this one only has two floors." She explained.
Another woman who had finished strapping potions to the sash overlapping her robe, raised a hand.
"You don't have to raise your hand Jess, I'm not your teacher." The group laughed, the Jess in question showing a hint of embarrassment.
"So are we speedrunning or going for collection? I heard you and Arjae mention speedrunning earlier.." Their healer asked.
"Well... This was an urgent post on the quest board, and as you can see, there's at least ten other parties here. This little event's probably only going to last for two or three days before the dungeon is subdued and monitored, at that point we'll be limited to two clears a day at best, maybe even one. I suggested we say fuck the collection quest and just speedrun for the boss as many times as we can... It's more experience for us and better loot. It's supposed to be some Broodmother that drops high quality E-rank weapon materials." Clara explained.
"But, that's up to whether or not you guys are all up for it... We'll still harvest herbs and stuff for the guild so they can make all their potions and blah, but we couldn't make that decision without knowing if you guys would be down for the grind." Arjae chimed in.
The three other party mates, Luke, Jess, and Ryan, all exchanged glances.
"I mean you two are high D-rank, me and Luke are low, and Jess is high E-rank... Hell yeah we're good to grind?" Ryan, their mage replied with a laugh.
Jess and Luke both nodded in compliance.
"What's the worst that can happen, it's a low D-rank dungeon..." Luke added.
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[Status]
|Name: Jora |
|Class: - |
|Race: Demonized Human |
|Level: 10 (22.8%)|
|Talent(s): [Gluttonous], [Wrath]|
Health: 400 | Mana: 250
| Vitality: 25 || Strength: 25 |
| Agility: 25|| Intelligence: 20 |
| Wisdom: 10 ||(+4 Hidden)|
| -Sensitivity: 40 || -Capacity: 15
| -Defense: 14 || -Luck: 15 |
Attribute Points: 0
Intrinsic Skill(s):
[Devour] Lv 1, [Integrate] Lv 1, [Fury] Lv 1, [Punishment] Lv 1
Passive Skill(s):
Active Skill(s):
[Leap] Lv 2
Jora closed the panel, remaining sat on the cold stone floor.
He had noted his understanding of every statistic. Vitality equaled life, one point was ten health. With increased Vitality came denser bones and stronger skin amongst a multitude of things. Strength equaled, well, strength. The power behind a punch, the amount of weight he could lift. Even how strong his muscles were, and their capability of handling such dense bones. Agility was the flexibility of his tendons, and the elasticity of his overall body. How quick his reflexes were and even how dexterous he was. Intelligence referred to the size of his mana pool, with one point being five additional mana. It was also loosely tied to processing power and perhaps even the potency of his magic. Wisdom was more tightly connected to magic potency, that being pretty much its only use. Without it, he wouldn't be able to cast more complex spells in the future, in the case he did gain access to magics.
Like usual, he wasn't completely sure how he was able to understand these things just from looking at the system, but he had to move past it. He could only be thankful he wasn't truly mindless, despite having one singular memory.
His hidden attributes were most definitely the most important discovery he made...
Sensitivity was the reasoning behind he could so deeply feel the world around him. The air around his body, the age of the earth, the embrace of the water. It was tied to his sensitivity towards the elements, magic, and what he assumed was a boatload of undiscovered things he would have to find out for himself. It indirectly seemed to increase his overall capabilities, that being something he didn't understand entirely.
Capacity was... His overall pools? Perhaps? One point equaled ten in both health and mana, and he honestly felt more capable upon directing his attribute points into it. Maybe his appetite increased as well?
Defense was possibly the most mystical, and what confused him most on how he understood it. The ten points he originated with, meant his body would negate a grand total of 0.1% of damage...
100 points in Defense would grant a 1% reduction, 1,000 equaling 10% and 10,000 equating to 100% damage negation...
An incredible thing to think about, but nearly impossible realistically.
He doubted many entities would have high enough Defense for him to siphon, and he couldn't imagine ever having enough attribute points to just dump it all there. It would take 200 levels worth of attribute points just to reach 10% damage negation through Defense...
As for the last attribute, Luck... It was self explanatory in honesty, but there was no defined categorization in his mind like there was for Defense. More Luck meant... more luck?
But what he did understand was that, just like Defense, the returns were abysmal. If he wanted to become some lucky character that had everything go his way... He would need hundreds of points into the stat...
But thankfully he could see there being lucky enemies he could gain from.
Something dripped onto his shoulder.
Jora soared to his feet, channeling mana into his legs reflexively like how the recollections illustrated.
Creak!
Pain through his lower leg, his body tumbling into the ground fifteen feet away from where he had been resting against a dungeon wall. In that same moment of his ankle folding, he had understood.
He hadn't skimmed over how his skill integration had reshaped the Jumping Spiders [Leap] skill to fit his body, and now he completely understood why speaking the skill word came natural for he considering the spider didn't have to.
It was a stabilizer used to tame the mana flow and enhance the output of the skill. A chant that worked to his benefit.
Using the skill without it's activation word had disturbed the process, creating instability in his ankle as he intended to launch himself away.
No matter what, he couldn't let this small mishap set him back, the situation didn't feel right.
He internally thanked himself for being born with such Sensitivity.
Locking eyes with the creature that disturbed the elements within the air, he could almost feel the mana in it's body now that he was fully observing it.
"Another Jumping Spider... But... bigger." It looked identical to the monster he had just encountered less than an hour ago, but double the size.
It had eight hairy legs, eight bulbous eyes, and pairs of pincers and mandibles at it's forefront. It's back side was massive, bigger than Jora's entire body, and he took note of that.
Instinctively, he could tell he wouldn't be lucky enough, or even capable of devouring this thing in one go...
He couldn't tell if he was imagining things, but he swore there was both confusion and rage in it's eyes.
Heat arose in Jora's mind.
"Huh?" He said, his brows furrowing. "Why the hell are you mad at me?" Anger crept onto his face.
In response, the anger seemed to grow within the spider as well. It's mandibles clicked together, and it crawled against the wall, slowly coming down from it's position on the ceiling above where he had been seated.
At the same time, a smell had once more infiltrated his nose, a skill almost begging to be activated.
He could feel it in his soul.
He wanted to eat this beast.
"[Fury]. [Punishment]." Just like that, his Mana dropped by 100 points, nearly half of it gone. He could feel it in his body. A small tinge of exhaustion hitting him, but it was inconsequential.
The [Scared] Status effect has been applied to [Dungeon Jumping Spider (Mother)]!
A flicker of doubt flashed into the arachnids eight eyes, and he could see the confusion within it deepen.
Heat dispersed all through his body, as a small fog escaped out his mouth with each breath.
Each breath he lost one point of mana.
It almost made him angry.... He had less than a few minutes to finish this fight against this threat, and he could only attribute that to his own weakness.
It didn't feel right. It felt...
Unfamiliar.
"Fuck you."
It was like a cue.
Both monsters dashed towards each other.
Honestly, all these events had been an interesting start to Jora's life.
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