Might as Well

After the defeat of the two golems, the entire ruin complex fell suspiciously silent. There were no roars in the distance, nor was the ceiling shaking and raining dust down on Sam. The only thing he could hear was an almost silent noise of water dripping somewhere, the happy panting of Lucky, and his own ragged breath.

With a negligent wave of his hand and a small exertion of his will, Sam retrieved the two marble-sized items remaining from his enemies. Then he plopped unceremoniously on the ground and leaned back, resting on his hands while closing his eyes in relief.

He mentally went over the facts and experiences so far in the ruin.

‘Three golems, three items,’ he mused, eyes still closed and Lucky snuggling up to him. ‘At this level, that’s the most I can expect. Probably still have a boss to fight, but the three marbles are probably keys to something…’

Opening his eyes, Sam took a quick stock of the situation. With the help of his Earth Wall spell he quickly raised a minimal cover in the corner of the room for setting up his tent. When finished with all that, he logged out for a brief rest, meal, and bathroom break.

Returning to the game, Sam sat down in front of his tent with Lucky, retrieved his rations and also set up Lucky’s food. He watched for a moment, smiling gently, as Lucky enthusiastically began to scarf down his treat. Then Sam also began to gnaw on his rations, ignoring their taste, while opening his status screen.

Thankfully, his notifications were still set to adaptive, so nothing bothered him during his fight in the ruins, but it was time for his brain to feel the good stuff watching all the numbers go up.

He first navigated to Lucky’s screen, wanting to see what the new skill his wolf companion used was.

[Thanks to taking care and fighting in sync with your companion, your skill, Spirit Link has reached Level 15!]

[Your companion, Lucky, has reached Level 15!]

[Lucky has gained a new skill, Shadow Jump!]

[Shadow Jump: Level 0/20 (0%) (Active) The wolf gains the ability to dive into your shadow and emerge from a different shadow. Range: 100 meters. Cooldown: 120 seconds.]

He reread the skill a few times, but couldn’t help but be impressed. The skill was something he could see being useful and powerful. More importantly, it was a skill that could be improved with time. Most pets and companions belonged to people who weren't using minion or pet specific skills. Thus, those pets gained skills that couldn't be leveled up. Getting a skill that could advance was incredibly lucky…

After celebrating the skill with a little playtime, he returned his attention to his own status screen. While one of his hands absentmindedly was going through Lucky’s silken fur, to the obvious pleasure of the wolf.

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up!]

[You’re now Level 22!]

[Gained 4 unassigned attribute points!]

[Gained 1 MAG point of extensive and creative use of your mana!]

[Gained +1 AGI for the impressive display of speed!]

He was a little disappointed at not getting an extra stat point after his fight, but it was pretty obvious to him that even if he hadn't used tricks to defeat the monster, he would have been able to win. Grumbling a little, he added the remaining points to STR, DEX, VIT and PER.

Frowning at the disparity between his health and mana, Sam made up his mind that after he was finished with the quest here, he would take some time and shore up his weakness. There were some basic skills that he would be able to get with little to no trouble.

Next, he started reviewing the level-ups of his skills.

[Advanced Mana Control is now Level 17!]

[Stable Mana Control is now Level 7!]

[Mana Shield reached Level 30!]

[Controlled Mana Shield reached Level 8!]

[Sustained Mana Shield reached level 6!]

[Thanks to sustaining your Mana Shield through several attacks that covered your entire body, you gain the sub-skill Layered Mana Shield!]

[Layered Mana Shield: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Allows you to layer your Mana Shield. For every level in the skill, you can create one extra layer over your original Mana Shield. Each layer costs 10% more to create and maintain. The current number of extra layers that can be created: 1. Upon reaching the maximum number of layers (7) there is a possibility to upgrade this sub-skill into a full skill.]

Sam stared at his newest sub-skill and let out a full belly laugh. One of the most coveted skills by those who had the chance to learn Mana Shield. Mana Armor, at its base level, was a skill that you could layer. Though, arguably, a novice mage wouldn’t be able to sustain it. Also, another negative aspect of that skill was that it only allowed layering up to three layers and the cost of that doubled every layer.

Compared that to an increase of 10% was rather generous…

[Light Ball is now Level 10!]

[Clean is now Level 10!]

[Earth Wall is now Level 10!]

[Wind Blade is now Level 10!]

[Thanks to making proper use of the spell, you learned Light Ball II!]

[Thanks to making proper use of the spell, you learned Clean II!]

[Thanks to making creative use of the spell, you learned Earth Wall II!]

[Thanks to making creative use of the spell, you learned Wind Blade II!]

[Thanks to using Wind Blade with your Mana Slash and Double Mana Slash, you created the spell Wind Flurry!]

[Light Ball II: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to conjure a ball of light to illuminate your surroundings. You have control over the movement and location of the conjured ball of light. You can increase and decrease its intensity, shape, and color.]

[Clean II: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to clean a selected surface. You can not only clean physical contaminations but also magical ones. Depends on the strength of the magical contamination. Above a certain level, Clean II only weakens it.]

[Earth Wall II: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to create a wall made of earth and stone. You have control over the strength, shape, and measurements of the wall. Allows you to strengthen the created wall with extra mana.]

[Wind Blade II: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to launch a blade of wind. The cutting power and speed of the blade are increased. You have increased control over its movement after creation.]

[Wind Flurry: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) A spell that allows you to release a flurry of wind blades aimed in one direction. The damage of the released Wind Blades depends on the Wind Blade spell and your mastery over it.]

Sam nodded as he read the notification about the spells. They were very basic spells. So it was not a surprise that with his Mana Control and usage, they would level up fast. Most spells went up to V before it became impossible to upgrade them. You could increase that limit by specializing. For example, in air and wind magic, thus allowing your Wind Blade to reach even X. But for Sam, this was more than enough.

For fun, he conjured a light ball in front of him and spoke a word.

“Red.”

The ball turned red. He smiled, then spent a few minutes playing around with the spell. Earning himself a level in it and recording a video of Lucky chasing after the constantly color-changing ball of light.

[Mage Sight is now Level 9!]

[Efficient Mana Slash is now Level 3!]

[Double Mana Slash is now Level 2!]

[Congratulations, you successfully broke through with the skill, Mana Strike!]

[You gained the sub-skill, Phasing Strike!]

[You learned the skill Extended Mana Strike!]

[Phasing Strike: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Those strikes that you enhance with Mana Strike gain the ability to ignore 2% of armor per skill level.]

[Extended Mana Strike: Level 0/10 (0%) (Active) The mana you use to enhance your strikes allows you to extend your reach, be it with your own limbs or weapon. +10% range on your strikes per skill level.]

Sam stared a moment at Phasing Strike.

“Ten percent True Damage!” he exclaimed in wonder.

Granted, there were defenses against True Damage, but against the common rabble, that skill was basically a death sentence.

[Mana Disruption is now Level 3!]

[Mana Body Enhancement reached Level 21!]

[Thanks to the continuous usage of Mana Body Enhancement, you gained the sub-skill Mana Influenced Body!]

[Mana Influenced Body: Level 0/10 (0%) (Passive) The mana running through your body enhances your physical attributes passively. +1% to STR, DEX, AGI, END per skill level.]

A nice but limited skill, still Sam was happy. The skills he gained during the fight were well worth the exertion.

[Discernment is now Level 5!]

[Intermediate Sword Mastery is now Level 11!]

[Stable Stance is now Level 5!]

[Thanks to handling the sword against a multitude of opponents successfully, you gained the sub-skill Freeform Defense!]

[Freeform Defense: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) When defending with your sword or parrying, you increase your accuracy and decrease the chance for a blowback.]

[Intermediate Breathing Technique is now Level 3!]

[Calm Heart is now Level 17!]

[Flow is now Level 7!]

[Multitasking is now Level 44!]

[Efficiency is now Level 6!]

Then came the skills from the Shadow skill tree. If Sam was honest, he was the most excited about these. After all, they were the basis of his future build. The Shadows were perfect for covert operations while also holding several high-damage skills that were capable of devastating entire groups if used correctly.

Not to mention several lesser-known aspects of the magic…

Sam had big plans for those aspects.

[Shadow Cloak is now Level 10!]

[Shadow Footwork is now Level 10!]

[Thanks to you integrating the skill almost perfectly into your arsenal, you gained the sub-skill, Shadow Cover!]

[Shadow Cover: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) When covered by shadow or darkness, be it natural or artificial, the effectiveness of the skill is increased by 10% for every level.]

[Shadow Burst has reached Level 3!]

Sam spent a few minutes going over his new and old skills, making sure to compare them to his inherited memories and to make sure that his plan going forward was still viable.

Satisfied with his gains, he stood up and began going over his equipment. He exchanged the sword for another one, as he was pretty sure that after overloading it with mana it was on its last legs.

‘Can’t wait for the time when I can buy swords made from mana metals!’

After making sure that his equipment was in order and that Lucky got a sufficient amount of pats on his head, he spoke up.

“Lucky, back into the shadow. We are going forward!”

He was answered by an excited bark, and Lucky jumped into the air and dived directly into his shadow.

The corridor after leaving the chamber with the two golems was suspiciously empty. He wasn’t besieged by golems dripping miasma, or roaring at him. The only thing he could hear as he tried to ghost through the corridor was the dripping of water and his own breath.

To chase away the darkness he summoned his new Light Ball spell, changing the color to red to protect his eyes.

Finally, after a few minutes of overly cautious walking, he could see the light at the end of the tunnel. The red light of the spell slowly gave away at the light that was appearing in the distance.

He hastened his walking a little, but his sword was still raised in a defensive position, ready for any sneak attack, giving the ceiling a glance every few feet.

As he reached the origin of the light, Sam dismissed his own Light Ball and stepped into the illuminated chamber.

It was a small room, containing nothing more than a giant stone door with three small holes in the relief and several stone torches lit up by ethereal white flames.

The artwork on the door was a giant tree whose roots surrounded a giant ball and based on the symbols, the ball was radiating light. At least, that is how it looked to Sam.

The three small holes were on the trunk of the tree carved into the door, lined up vertically.

Sam didn’t need much prompting.

He retrieved the small shining marbles from his inventory and, one by one, inserted them into the holes in the door and took a big step backward. He saw too many adventure films to fall into one of these…

The moment the last marble was inserted, it started shining much stronger, the stone torches also flaring and originating from the three marbles, a vertical line of light bisected the door.

Though nothing else happened.

Sighing a little, Sam stepped forward and gave the doors a push.

With intense groaning and making noises that would wake the dead, the stone door swung inward, shaking the room a little and showering Sam once again with dust.

Shaking off the majority of the dust, sword raised high, defensive skills engaged, and his other hand shining with restrained magic that was ready to be released at the first sign of trouble, Sam stepped into the room.

Thankfully, this chamber was also illuminated by the same stone torches. Though this time the flames were tainted by flecks and streaks of darkness.

Inside the room was the same thing depicted on the door.

Just, the entire thing was wrong…

The ceiling high up was covered by darkness which was occasionally illuminated by the flickering torches. In front of him was a giant ironwood tree carved from stone, the roots an intricate artwork. As the artwork on the door depicted it, the roots were enveloping a giant ball of light.

The difference between the artwork and reality was that there was the familiar miasma dropping down, like water droplets, from the ceiling. They ran down on the bark of the carved tree, finishing their journey by falling on the ball of light, tainting it.

Under the ball of light that was almost halfway converted into miasma was a pool of the same miasma, churning and bubbling. As Sam examined it with his Mana Sight, he couldn't help but describe the entire situation as evil.

He barely had the time to take all of this in, as the moment he stepped through the archway a curtain of white flames tainted by black light sprung up behind, locking him into the chamber and the bubbling pool of miasma gave a shuddering breath by way of a giant bubble and began to rise.

And rise.

And rise up high.

In a few seconds, what stood in front of Sam was a giant golem made from the miasma from the now empty pool with a few rocks and stones in its body. Sam scowled a little because a sludge-type golem required different skills to defeat than a golem made from solid materials. It didn’t even have the courtesy of having a giant glowing orb that Sam could target easily.

But Sam was a gamer, and he had fought sludge-type golems thousands, maybe even a million times in different games. So, while the controlling intelligence behind the miasma has caused him some trouble, it was not the end of the road.

Granted, this entire thing would have been easier with a team of people, but he had come so far alone, he might as well finish it.

He didn’t have much time as the monster roared and with it came a giant stream of miasma aimed directly at Sam.

Sam, ready for the attack raised his left hand and unleashed his own mana opposite of the stream of rapidly approaching miasma.

The two streams met in the middle of the chamber, oozing darkness clashing with the pale blue of Sam’s mana.

Thankfully, this gave Sam enough time to review the situation.

‘I don’t have any fire spell strong enough to burn it away and I doubt I could cut it up into enough pieces before I run out of mana.’ Looking down at his feet at the smooth rock, he had an idea. ‘But I have runes…

Pointing his sword down at the front of his feet, he began to move it slowly using mana to extend the cutting edge while carefully maintaining the stream of mana holding back the miasma. Though he made sure to play with the monster a little, pretending that his control slipped and letting the stream of miasma get closer to him.

The point was to make sure that the monster thought that they had him on the ropes while he carved his Heart Rune into the smooth stone floor.

While he had no skills that could kill the damn monster, he knew the runes for purification and containment.

Building a basic rune circle would be rather easy based on the controlling intelligence, as it seemed to only change things after a fight, so it used the sludge-type to counter the skills that Sam had shown off so far.

Rookie mistake, but one that Sam would capitalize on.

Finishing the rune, he threw a glance at the golem that was still roaring at him; the miasma leaving his mouth in a stream, like vomit in a frat house during a home game.

With a quick countdown, he cut off his own mana stream and instantly dodged to the right, letting the miasma splash with a hissing noise against the flame curtain, locking him into the chamber.

Taking a few steps, he peppered the monster with a flurry of Wind Blades. Using his newest skill the only thing it did was cut into the miasma which parted like jello and instantly fused back together. But Sam wanted the monster to concentrate on the attacks it had already seen and not on what he was doing on the floor.

Fortunately, the chamber was circular so Sam didn't have to go far, keeping his Heart Rune in his view, to begin carving his next rune. The monster meanwhile stopped its projectile vomiting and turned towards him, staying in the middle of the room.

However, instead of the monster releasing another projectile at him, it spoke, causing Sam to jump a little. Luckily, he wasn’t carving at the moment of the jump, so the rune wasn’t ruined.

“INTRUDER!”

The voice came out hoarse with ominous bubbling in the background as if it was coming from a deep, dark hole.

Sam, knowing that talking with mysterious entities was never the best idea, just looked at it, while his sword hand was continuing the drawing with him, occasionally glancing down to make sure he was doing it correctly. Thankfully, the basic runes were simple to draw…

“BEFOULER!” Came another roar.

Then another.

“ENEMY!”

Having finished the rune, Sam’s answer was another barrage of wind blades directly aimed at the mouth of the golem.

The response was pretty predictable. With a harsh cry of “DIE!” the monster released another stream of miasma at him. This time he didn’t try to counter it, he simply sidestepped it and continued to the next position to begin carving the next rune.

This time the golem and the intelligence behind it seemed to realize that Sam was fast enough to dodge the miasma stream. So, the moment Sam stopped, it raised both of its hands and once again opened its mouth. However, instead of a continuous stream of dark ooze it started spitting bullets of the disgusting material at Sam.

Sam simply tapped the ground with his foot and raised a curved Earth Wall in front of him, reinforced with his mana. While that cut off his sight, his other senses allowed him to see where the monster was aiming or what it was doing.

Seeing the wall rise, the beast roared again.

“DARKNESS WILL CONSUME YOU!”

And the barrage of miasma missiles intensified on his Earth Wall.

“Oh boy, one of those…” Sam mumbled as he finished carving the third rune.

Upon finishing it, he refocused his attention on the barrage and did another quick assessment, not wanting to get hit by the miasma despite his improved Mana Shield. He channeled a little more mana into the Earth Wall, protecting him.

And then exploded it at the monster.

This paused the miasma barrage, allowing him to continue his journey around the stone sculpture and golem while the body of the monster swallowed the debris and made its own.

The moment he found a nice place to carve his rune, another wall rose in front of him, protecting him from the renewed barrage that seemed to be cracking the wall with every impact, causing him to spend mana to repair it.

It only took a second for Sam to realize that the golem was using the rocks in its body to enhance the projectiles.

“BEFOULER!”

Meanwhile, the monster kept his very stimulating commentary up.

Sam didn’t dare to drop his concentration for even a second, no matter how much he wanted to slap his face with his palm. Dying right now would set the quest back enough that he would need an entire team to get back to the same position thanks to the monster learning from fights.

“DIE!”

Ignoring the monster, he reinforced the wall even more and tried to finish the rune as fast as possible.

After finishing the fourth rune, the fifth was the same.

The miasma golem kept shooting miasma bullets mixed with rock pieces from the exploded Earth Wall at him.

However, the moment he headed for the sixth one, the controlling intelligence realized that he could keep the Earth Wall intact during the barrage and changed its approach, which turned into a charge.

That is the monster decided to charge at his wall.

Panicking a little Sam channeled more mana into the Earth Wall, increasing both its height and width. The golem smashed against it with a thundering plop, miasma splashing everywhere.

Sam quickly finished the sixth rune, and as the miasma monster began to ooze around the obstacle, he exploded at it again.

Despite jumping backward at the same time the detonation went off, he was still splashed with enough frothing miasma that the first layer of his Mana Shield practically vanished into the ether.

Luckily for him, the golem was practically enveloping the wall when it exploded, so it was partly scattered. This allowed Sam to use the time it brought its body back together to finish the seventh and eighth runes, almost reaching the final spot on the right of the first rune, his Heart Rune.

The entire chamber was peppered with the exploded remains of his Earth Walls and small pools of miasma were everywhere on the ground, hanging from the wall and covering almost everything.

By the time Sam reached the last position, for the ninth rune for this very basic rune circle, the golem had pulled itself together, accompanied by a rather pleasant shrieking.

“ENEMY!”

“BEFOULER!”

“YOU WILL BE CONSUMED!”

“DARKNESS WILL PREVAIL!”

As always, Sam just ignored it and began to carve the last rune, the rune that would close the circle and connect everything together.

The monster immediately began to charge at him and raising its arms, it also began shooting balls of miasma at him. Scowling at it Sam raised several walls between himself and the monster, not caring about their quality just that they held off the golem long enough for him to finish the rune.

“YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!”

The golem simply enveloped the wall that rose up next to it and simply smashed the following one with a rock engulfed in miasma.

But Sam kept creating walls, and it kept the golem slow enough that he could finish the rune.

The rune glowed briefly with a pale blue light, showing that the circle was completed correctly, causing Sam to grin up at the golem that was leaning over him, arms stretched, ready to envelop him into the miasma. Sam was pretty sure not even his Mana Shield would protect him then from the dangerous ooze.

Luckily, he had a nifty little skill.

“Shadow Burst!”

He launched himself away from the golem that smashed down to the ground where he was a moment before like a dark and foul tidal wave.

With a few powerful strides, he arrived back at the first position, where he engraved his Heart Rune into the floor, and as the golem collected itself, he called out to Lucky.

“Lucky, launch it towards the center!”

He received no verbal response to his order. Although, the moment he finished said order, Lucky jumped out of the shadow that danced on the wall thanks to the weird lighting. The loyal wolf, then like a shadowy bullet, impacted the golem. Sam was happy to see that the shadows coiling around Lucky affected the spirit within and thus the whole golem, ignoring its liquid body.

The golem was launched back towards its origin point, not far enough to get it back to the center, but it was enough for Sam that it was fully in the circle.

Waiting for Lucky to land outside of the circle, he grinned triumphantly.

Slamming his hand down on his Heart Rune just as the miasma golem reoriented itself and exclaimed.

“Activate!"