He stared at the status with a smile. He quickly spread his stats, noting he'd gained extra points from the class selection, and distributed them to keep things even — he really didn't want to deal with halved stats anymore, at least for one more floor. Or one more regression, depending on what came next.
[Horace Smith, Level 10, Eldritch Warrior]
Experience: 91,700 / 102,400
Mana: 92/92
Strength: 18 → 20
Agility: 17.5 → 20
Endurance: 15 → 20
Intelligence: 15 → 18.5
Perception: 10
Unallocated Points Remaining: 0
Unique Skill: Time Dragon's Blessing
Upon death, regress to the earliest possible time in the realm the blessed one occupied at the moment of death, retaining 50% of stats and non-unique skills while keeping other benefits such as proficiencies.
Proficiencies
Bastard Sword [Minor]
Skills
Elemental Attunement [Passive] — User becomes aware of Mana and can draw it through their body and into a weapon, temporarily enchanting it with a basic element.
Chromatic Strike [Active] — Consumes 10 Mana. The next strike by the user carries heightened elemental power of a random basic element. Chance to inflict a status effect based on the element.
Horace was still grinning as he stood up. Finding his balance with one arm was tricky, but the ideas turning over in his mind helped him adapt.
His unique skill meant he would keep one skill on regression. Ideally he would have liked to keep Chromatic Strike — he was already aware of Mana, and knowledge carried over the same way enemy weaknesses did. But that was for later. Right now it was time for the fourth floor.
Stepping through the portal, he appeared in a slightly different scenario. Instead of a single beast, he faced eight — all with the same name.
[Abyssal Spider — Level 13]
"Great." He muttered, looking them over. They were spread across the chamber in a loose half-circle, massive for their kind — around the size of a small dog — their mandibles dripping with a black, tar-like liquid. "Poison." He cursed, rolled his remaining arm to loosen it, and dashed forward at the nearest one.
He slashed it across the body as he closed in, fire rippling along his blade. It crumpled, but the other seven reacted instantly — all of them spraying web at once. He ducked away from three shots but the rest caught him, webbing his arm to his torso and dragging his sword arm in tight.
[You have been poisoned by "Abyssal Spider's Dark Element Poison". Your stats have been temporarily reduced.]
He felt weak. He twisted his wrist against the webbing, angling the blade back toward himself, and let the fire burn the strands away. It took a second he didn't really have — the first spider, the one he'd slashed, was back on its feet and launching itself at his face.
He jerked his head aside and it sailed past. The second was already coming from his left — he twisted away from it, keeping his feet moving. The third hadn't jumped yet, still on the ground in front of him. He drove the blade down on it, called upon Chromatic Strike, and felt the mana charge build in his arm an instant before fire detonated off the sword at the midpoint of the strike. The spider vanished in burning flesh and scattered guts.
Five left. He whirled — two were in the air, already mid-leap, and a volley of webs a half-second in front of them.
He barely dodged two of the shots. The rest hit him. And then the spiders literally took his head off.
He found himself on the first floor again. Frantically he checked his status.
[Horace Smith, Level 1, Classless]
Experience: 1/100
Mana: 46/46
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 9.25
Perception: 5
Unallocated Points Remaining: 0
Unique Skill: Time Dragon's Blessing
Upon death, regress to the earliest possible time in the realm the blessed one occupied at the moment of death, retaining 50% of stats and non-unique skills while keeping other benefits such as proficiencies.
Proficiencies
Bastard Sword [Minor]
Skills
Chromatic Strike [Active] — Consumes 10 Mana. The next strike by the user carries heightened elemental power of a random basic element. Chance to inflict a status effect based on the element.
Horace was as happy as he could manage, given he'd just died. "Okay. Good. That's going to be a massive help." He breathed, then looked at the goblin. "Here we go." He muttered before charging forward, his sword slashing the moment it came within reach. He cut its leg, but instead of backing off he channelled his mana into the blade and called upon Chromatic Strike.
This time he felt the strike charge with something invisible as his blade met the goblin's chest. With a sharp boom the goblin's chest exploded — a pocket of compressed air punching clean through it. He breathed in as a grin spread across his face, and then a message appeared above the level-up notifications.
You have gained [Minor Proficiency in Mana Manipulation]
Your Intelligence gained 0.75 points
This was undeniably a gift from the Goddess for his rough life. Mana Manipulation was something any class could pursue, but it was also the foundation of a core melee ability — Aura. The potential of it was undeniable, but this was only the first step; he had a long way to go before he could actually manifest it. Still, it also neatly rounded out his Intelligence stat.
He quickly assigned his stats before heading to meet the direwolf. Given his new skill, he prioritised Intelligence.
[Strength: 15 → 18]
[Agility: 15 → 18]
[Endurance: 10 → 18]
[Intelligence: 10 → 28]
[Perception: 5 → 13]
He confirmed the allocation and sighed as his mind sharpened. Then he walked to the teleportation circle.
The floors that followed were significantly easier. With his skill, he dispatched the wolf — stone spikes erupting beneath his strike — and then the Ent went up in flames from his elemental strikes before ice spikes froze it in place, letting him finish cleanly. He reached level ten once more, and was once again faced with the class selection.
[Class Selection]
[ELDRITCH WARRIOR]
[ARCANIST]
[MAGUS]
[ARCANE SWORDSMAN]
He was grinning. Save for the Eldritch Warrior, every option here was an Uncommon class. These classes were for the better-prepared — people who had trained in something specific, in this case Mana Manipulation. Add his Bastard Sword proficiency on top of that and you got something like the Arcane Swordsman.
You might wonder what the difference was. It was simple — the Eldritch Warrior tried to bridge magic and weapons as two separate disciplines. The Arcane Swordsman was different; they channelled pure mana directly into their sword, meaning no chaotic random elements, just clean, focused power.
It wasn't a difficult choice. This was the most direct path forward, and Horace had always preferred direct.