Ian smiled to himself as he looked at his status screen.
Name: Ian Spelling (Hidden)
Alias: Zero
LVL: 363
Status:
STR: 3588
END: 3340
AGI: 3286
WIL: 2584
INT: 2646
Skills: Prestige Mode (Awakened), Prestige Leader (Inherent), Statistical Synchronization 2/3 (Inherent), Enhanced Body 10/10, Enhanced Mind 10/10, Conceal Identity, Analyze 1/5, Poison Resistance 1/5, Basic Item Storage 3/5, Strength 1/10, Agility 1/10, Endurance 1/10, Soothing Touch 1/5
Available SP: 460
His stats were closer to an adventurer around level 800, though he lacked the attack skills and spells they usually had at that point. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment. He had needed to spend the points to finish maxing out Enhanced Mind. He needed the mana regeneration and capacity if he wanted to be able to use Magic Soul effectively. If he couldn’t constantly use it, he was going to have difficulties with harder enemies.
There was another reason he needed to max Enhanced Mind. Claire had spent most of the last week poring over the skill archives to search for rarely used synergies. Most people followed specific builds as they leveled, utilizing the general skills in similar ways based on their inherent skills. Ian knew Jen and his sister would probably end up taking very similar skills at similar levels. They were both archers, and unless one had a larger aptitude for another specialized skill set, they both would be too limited in skill points to branch too far off the historically refined progression.
There were entire libraries of information for new adventurers to identify what their next goals should be after every leveling milestone. History’s successes helped pave the way to save lives for the newer generations. However, Ian was in a small subset of adventurers who didn’t have direct combat-oriented inherent skills. There wasn’t anything to point him towards any particular style. He also lacked an inherent type of magic, which stunted his growth as a mage, but he was still able to pursue any path of progression. He found himself in a situation very similar to Vision, his childhood hero.
Ian smiled at the thought of being more like Claire’s dad. Being able to see parallels with the gentle old man gave him a sense of excitement. Though, it wasn’t as exciting as Claire showing the dozens of potential skill plans she had compiled to take advantage of his increased skill points.
There had always been theory crafters who pointed out how certain skills would be perfect together. One of the most famous was the report on how to develop a magic-based archer who could stealth. Stealth required extra energy from endurance to maintain; archery required agility; and the magic required intelligence for effect and wisdom for sustainability. Add in the fact the Stealth skill was in the rare category with a 2000 SP cost and could only be selected after 2500 SP was spent to fully level the uncommon skill Sneak, and most adventurers would never get high enough to be able to successfully use stealth and a bow at the same time—besides any of the rest of the build’s skills.
These types of ‘super builds’ were always held back by one thing. Skill points. By the time they could be accomplished, the build would be too weak to effectively keep up with the monsters that spawned in the dungeons. Too many things needed to be constantly increased, meaning the builds were essentially useless—if anyone would be strong enough to reach them in the first place.
Ian could, theoretically, accomplish many of these builds. Unfortunately, most of the theory crafters focused on creating flashy builds that would mirror their favorite video game characters instead of being truly viable. They wanted a tool that could do everything and be damn good at it. Instead, they managed to be horrible at everything at best and dead at worst.
“In a dungeon, it’s better to be a sharp blade than a Swiss Army knife,” Ian muttered to himself as the dungeon checkpoint came into view.
He had caught the metro over to the new dungeon Claire had sold him on, which was supposed to have a minimum level requirement of 450. However, Claire had pulled some strings and managed to get him special permission due to his stat levels.
Ian waved at the representative who was doing the security checks. When he said his alias over the stone, it glowed green and the man had let him pass with a smile and some small talk.
“He must get pretty bored here. Claire mentioned this dungeon rarely sees even a single party per day,” he said under his breath as he looked at the portal.
Shrugging, he walked over the threshold and found himself at the base, staring out at the half-plowed fields covering the landscape. Turning around, he took in how the portal was built into a cliff that was perfectly smooth and rose straight into the air over a hundred feet above him. As he looked around the clearing, he saw the village in the middle of the valley surrounded by a wooden palisade. The fields sprawled all around the village, only stopping where they met the steep cliffs that made up the edge of the dungeon.
The village and its inhabitants gave the dungeon its name, Horker Village. As Ian looked around, he could make out a few of the workers tending to the fields. They were his targets for the run. Grabbing his spear, he started moving towards the first creature.
He slowed down when the creature came into clear view. The horker in front of him was a humanoid with boar-like features. It was over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a huge potbelly. Its pink skin was covered in brown and black fur that covered nearly everything but its three-fingered hands and face—which looked exactly like the boar’s head with two tusks and pig ears. It was holding a spade, which it was using to make furrows through the dirt.
“Damn…it must be pushing 350 pounds at least,” Ian quietly whispered.
He took a deep breath as he used analyze on it.
Analyze Results - Horker Worker
LVL: 532
Ian slowly began to move up to his target. Horkers were strong, but they couldn’t see very well in the bright sun. They were a subterranean species, which is where the third, and most dangerous zone in this dungeon resided. However, what they lacked in vision, they made up for in aggression.
There were many reasons nobody ran this dungeon. The primary being that the horkers outside the village were all single monsters and limited to levels 500 to 550. Once inside the city, the creatures jumped up to reach levels 550 to 700, and a single clash could bring dozens of the creatures down on a party. The difficulty of the two zones varied far too much for it to be a smooth transition.
Ian smiled as he finally closed on his target enough to make his move. He dashed forward the last ten yards, catching the creature with a thrust of his spear as it turned towards the noise. The spear missed getting a clean hit on the creature and cut open the skin right below its neck from shoulder to shoulder as it slid across its chest.
Ian didn’t even have time to swear as he quickly ducked under the spade that the creature swung as it grunted in pain. His dodge lined him up perfectly to stab forward into the creature’s inner thigh. He knew they weren’t human, but his instructor had always told him that the inner thigh would not only cripple movement, but also cause most creatures to rapidly bleed out.
Thrusting his spear forward, it slid deep into the creature’s flesh before he twisted it and jumped back to avoid the spade’s return swing—his momentum pulling the spear free. The creature let out a deep grunt as it took a step to follow him, only to stumble as its injured leg struggled to maintain its immense weight.
Ian capitalized on the moment the spade slammed down by driving the spear into the creature’s chest. It slid along a rib for just a moment before hitting a gap and sliding in the full length of the blade. He hadn’t thrust with all his strength, but he hadn’t expected the ribs to be so much tougher than the goblins and kobolds he had been farming.
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Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 100 levels higher than you. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 5 levels. You have achieved level 368. You have been awarded 100 skill points!
“Hell yeah!” Ian shouted before quickly looking around to make sure his shout hadn’t drawn more enemies. Luckily, the closest one he could see either didn’t care or was just too far to hear him.
He reached down and looted the horker, receiving a single small essence stone. Ian nearly sighed, as it was the same he was getting from each of the higher-level goblins and kobolds. Comparatively, he was making considerably less money here than in his last dungeon. There were a few rare items that dropped from the normal mobs in this dungeon, but they weren’t on the horkers outside of the village.
“Who cares about the money? Time to collect some of that sweet, sweet SP,” Ian said as he jogged off towards the next horker.
*~*~*
Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 50 levels higher than you. Experience rewards are doubled. You have earned 2 levels. You have achieved level 412. You have been awarded 40 skill points!
Ian channeled his soothing touch into his heavily bruised arm. It took anywhere between ten and twenty minutes to travel between the workers. Then it took him a few minutes to clear the area and sneak up on it. It had become like clockwork, even if it was a pretty slow cycle.
He had grown complacent and had skipped fully canvassing the area. He hadn’t realized another horker was just over the rise of the hill when he had started fighting his target. It had been one of the lowest levels he had fought so far at 502, but he had been forced to take a risk to quickly dispatch it when the other horker had grunted a call at its friend.
The risk had paid off as the creature had died quickly, but he had been forced to take a heavy hit from the spade’s handle on his left arm. He thought it might have cracked the bone, but his healing spell was focused entirely on his muscles. As the creature came closer, he was forced to stop his healing and ready himself.
As the creature closed, it brought the spade straight up over its head, telegraphing its downward chop. Ian side-stepped and jabbed his spear into the creature’s upper arm.
Ian nearly winced as the spurt of blood reminded him of the cut he received during his encounter with the kobold hunter. However, he had no time to go down memory lane as his instincts took over, causing him to jump back to avoid a second heavily telegraphed swing. Ian took two more steps back as the spade passed in front of his chest with a whistle.
The creature looked down at its arm and growled at Ian. It struggled to get the three fingers that made up its hand to properly grasp the handle of the spade. Realizing it wasn’t going to work, it charged Ian again, holding the spade single-handedly.
Ian eyed the distance and leaned back just as the creature swung. As soon as the spade passed him, he stepped forward and thrust his spear up towards the creatures’ chest. Without being able to bring his full strength to bear, it sank about three inches into the upper edge of the creature’s pectoral muscle. Ian twisted as he pulled back to hear the creature squeal in pain. With the way the muscle had shifted, it looked like he had completely severed the monster’s pectoral ligament.
The creature dropped the spade and reached up to grab its chest. Not missing the opportunity, Ian drove the spear into the creature’s neck and quickly yanked it back out. He stepped back as the creature gurgled and fell to the side.
Congratulations! You have defeated an enemy more than 100 levels higher than you. Experience rewards are quadrupled. You have earned 4 levels. You have achieved level 416. You have been awarded 80 skill points!
Ian looted the two creatures before cracking his back. The extra strength he had to put into his strikes, as well as the jolts from the hits he had taken, had begun to take their toll on his body. He was sore and exhausted as he took stock of his location.
Sighing in relief, he realized he had made a complete loop around the village and could see the portal he had entered the dungeon from in the distance. Checking to ensure there were no more horkers between him and his destination, he took off at a comfortable jog.
Stepping out of the portal was like a jolt. A loud crowd and once again gathered beyond the dungeon’s checkpoint, and Ian could only sigh at the all too familiar sight. Reporters and photographers began taking pictures and recording as he shook his head and began walking towards the closest member of the AO.
“Good afternoon, Adventurer Zero. My name is Mavin Leets. It is a pleasure to finally get a chance to meet you.”
Ian was glad his face was hidden because it hid his momentary panic. The woman in front of him appeared to be in her early to late twenties or early thirties, and her suit did very little to hide her well-proportioned, fit figure or the deadly grace showcased by her precise movements and the way she held herself. However, he knew she was easily twice her age’s appearance, if not older, as she had been one of Vision’s party members when the group retired. She had filled the role of a physical damage specialist for their party with her inherent skill, allowing her to mold metal to adjust her weapons to any situation.
“It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Guild Master,” Ian replied after regaining his wits.
“Please, just call me Mavin,” she said with a sigh before giving him a smirk. “I’ve been trying to get them to change the title to Branch Director for nearly twenty years now, but those dweebs on the board say it has become a part of our heritage…even if it was originally a joke based on a cultural reference from the gamer and anime crowds.”
Ian could only nod in agreement. It was still a common trope in novels and games to have a guild master in charge of the adventuring guild, even if it wasn’t technically a guild in real life.
“Anyways, since Keeper Withers isn’t available, she asked if I would be willing to come pick you up. She was even able to tell me roughly when you would be coming out of the dungeon today,” she said with a glimmer in her eyes which confirmed she knew who Claire was. “Which is perfect, because I can help you bypass this viper pit, and then we can talk about your plans on the ride back to the campus.”
“That sounds perfect,” Ian said as he and Mavin both walked towards the checkpoint. As they got closer, people started screaming out questions.
“Zero, is it true you're dating Glade Runner?”
“Are you engaged?”
“How is she in bed?”
Ian just shook his head as Mavin snorted.
“You might want to get used to it,” she murmured after a moment before looking over at him. “I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Can you really share the enhanced experience you gained with your party members?”
“Buff abilities like that are wasted outside of the clans!”
“Do you think others will call you selfish for not sharing that ability?”
Ian was almost past the crowd before a familiar voice called out to him.
“The current offer is a million dollars per week if you join Peerless,” said Peter.
That caused the entire crowd to quiet as the man drew all the attention to himself. Even Ian looked back at the man who reminded him of an oily used car salesman. When he looked at Mavin, she was staring back at him with an annoyed frown.
“I need just a minute,” he said quietly before turning to walk over to the short metal fence acting as the barricade.
He moved to stand about six feet away from Peter Dinkem before tilting his head to the side. The man was smiling with a look that just said he had won the lottery. It was one of the only times Ian had ever wanted to punch another human being in his entire life.
“We can head on over to my car and head down to the clan’s headquarters right now if you would like. We could have you running dungeons with The Conquerors tomorrow. You should know that Avra and Lena are both very interested in you.”
The man winked as he said the last line, which nearly made Ian gag. It honestly didn’t surprise him Peter was willing to use his two star female adventurers as candy to dangle in front of potential recruits, but it did reaffirm his belief that the man was scum.
“Let me have my people bring a car around for us and we—”
“We,” Ian cut him off while stressing the word, “will never go anywhere together. For any reason. Ever.”
Ian stared at the look of confusion on Peter’s face as it began to morph into anger. Everything this man had put him through hit Ian all at once, causing the filter between his brain and mouth to disappear.
“Are you fucking stupid?” Ian asked before continuing, not giving the man a chance to speak. “How many times do you have to be told to take a hike before you get it? No amount of money could ever make me want to sell my soul to work for you.
“I can wonder what type of fake personality you have designed for me? What bullshit background story are you making that will cost the people I know their lively hoods? How many lives has your shitty little clan destroyed for the sake of entertainment and another dollar in your pocket?”
“Lies and boundless accusations!” Peter screamed, his face crimson in anger. “I should sue you for slander!”
“Oh, please do,” Ian said coldly. “I would love nothing more than the opportunity to take a chunk out of your clan that you will never, ever forget.”
“You seem to misunderstand my clan on a fundamental level because we have never done anything other than lift people up,” Peter said with a grand gesture of his hands. “If there were any proof to the contrary, everyone would already know about it. It seems everyone wants to stop our successful rise to the top.”
Ian snorted and began to chuckle darkly. “Be careful what you wish for, Peter. As I said last time, get bent.”
Without waiting for the man’s reply, Ian turned around and walked back over to Mavin. He could see the corners of her mouth raised and knew she had enjoyed the back and forth. He had even enjoyed the catharsis of wiping the grin off that pathetic man’s face, and he thought it was worth it even if he was probably going to spend the next few hours stewing over the best way to make Peter pay for his role in ruining his life.
“So,” Mavin said as they resumed walking past the crowd. “Are you going to make your own clan then? Claire said that you didn’t have an interest in joining any of the others.”
“Nope. Why would I join a clan when the AO already takes care of my needs and is focused on exactly what I want to do? I just want to kill monsters and collect stones. No fame, no bullshit.”
“Are you really serious about that?” she asked in a low, serious tone.
Ian smiled as they were ushered into a car. As the doors closed, he turned to face Mavin directly so she knew she had his full attention.
“The AO gave me a home, and it is entirely focused on helping adventurers. I’ll stay for as long as that remains its goal,” Ian answered.
Mavin gave him a huge, predatory grin.
“Perfect,” she said with a dark chuckle. “Have Claire let me know when and how you want to make your move. They have treated too many of my people like shit for me to ignore them anymore. I have a few ideas on how to hit them with a double whammy and make Peter wish he had never thrown money into the adventuring industry. Hell, most of them are even legal.”
Ian snorted as the car began to drive.
