Sol used both [Concealment] and [Muffled Movements] to silently approach the Awakened Gladiator. It hadn’t noticed anything and continued to slowly wander down the passage, but before it could take another step, a sword suddenly slashed into its neck.
The sword managed to penetrate through the skin and muscle, but the moment it made contact with the spine, it lost its momentum. It was a strike with only his sword passive skill affecting it so Sol wasn’t too surprised.
The Awakened Gladiator now understood it was being attacked. Completely unfazed by the sword in its neck, it gripped its battle axe and spun ferociously. The startup of the swing was almost nonexistent, reaching incredible speeds in less than a fraction of a second.
Sol’s sword was lodged in the creature’s neck and he knew he couldn’t pull it out in time to counter it and instead retrieved the shield from his spatial ring and used [Block].
A loud bang resounded from the collision and blew Sol back a few feet. Safe from any immediate attacks, Sol checked the Awakened Gladiator’s health.
HP: 1132/1500
’It did much less than I thought it would. It’s probably because undead are generally more resilient than living beings. Even a deep cut to its neck won’t stop it unless it went straight through.’
Sol lost the element of surprise, but he wasn’t worried as he was confident in being able to come out on top regardless.
With his sword still lodged in the Awakened Gladiator’s neck, Sol was left without a weapon, but it gave him the perfect excuse to try out something new. Sol brought out the Pollen Bow from his ring and pulled back the string as mana gathered in the middle, creating a light blue arrow.
The Awakened Gladiator finished his spinning attack and looked towards Sol with a primal hatred for the living. It charged straight at Sol at frightening speeds. In surprise at how fast it approached, Sol pumped a lot more mana than he originally intended into the bow, making the light blue arrow much more solid and darker. Before the Awakened Gladiator could reach Sol, he let the arrow loose, it left a faint blue trail as it flew to its destination.
The arrow flew directly into the head of the Awakened Gladiator and, as if there was no resistance, its entire head was blown away. The arrow kept traveling and hit the wall behind the Awakened Gladiator and continued to travel 10 feet through the stone wall before finally dissipating.
You have slain a Lv 60 Awakened Gladiator! Gained 240,000 Exp (600%)
You have leveled up! +5 Attribute points
Sol didn’t expect the arrow to deal so much damage, but it made sense the moment he checked his mana.
MP: 247/500
’I only meant to use around 100, but when it came charging, I spent too much mana on it. Even the intermediate fire spell [Explosion] didn’t cost even a third of this one arrow…’
While it worked out and instantly killed the Awakened Gladiator, it was an absolute waste of mana. Sol needed to work on improving his usage and composure as well. In retrospect, before shooting an arrow, he should have used the bow’s other ability [Grappling Vines] to first immobilize it or used [Blurry Steps] to outspeed it and run out of its range before attacking.
This was a good learning experience as it was his first time actually using a bow, but he was confident in being able to rapidly improve. He could also take this chance to try out other weapons to gain a better understanding of them.
With his thoughts in order, Sol went to use [Siphon] on the body but then noticed a problem. It was already gone, leaving only his sword clattering on the ground. He picked his sword up with an embarrassed grin.
’Whoops, I forgot that dungeons take the body immediately.’
Sol turned to where Amber was hiding, "Thanks for letting me have this one. Let’s find you a lone enemy so you can also give it a go."
He began to walk to the next passage in search of another enemy, but Amber suddenly stood in his way.
"Something wrong?"
She nodded, "How?"
Although it was a very vague question, Sol had been becoming fluent in Amber and understood what she meant. Since they were going to be companions in the long run, Sol didn’t want to constantly hide and suppress his abilities around her. He was also getting tired of the constant lying with everyone he met. Keeping track of his lies, who knows what, and what can he show had been slowly eating at his mind. He just wanted someone to know the truth at this point, and while the first person he wanted to tell was Annabel, he didn’t know when he would next see her.
"I have a talent that lets me learn the skills of other people, well, dead people. It’s why I have a wide assortment of skills though most are lagging behind in skill level."
Though Sol said the truth and could have gone more into detail, knowing Amber she only wanted to know the main details, so he kept it brief.
Amber asked one more question, "Legendary?"
Sol shrugged, "Maybe? It could be considered legendary as it’s the highest tier, but I unlocked it as my first talent at level 25."
It appeared she gained all the information she wanted and proceeded to turn around towards the passage in search of enemies. Although Amber didn’t treat it like a big deal it could be attributed to her not knowing much besides fighting in general. Regardless, Sol felt his secret was safe with her and a weight was lifted off his chest.
The two wandered the halls until they eventually found another Awakened Gladiator. Amber unsheathed her daggers before approaching her target. Her combat style mostly revolved around striking first and dealing with her target quickly with a flurry of blows.
Amber planned to do just that, making no noise as she appeared behind the Awakened Gladiator who was completely unaware. With both daggers, she didn’t target the head or neck like Sol but instead went for its right arm that wielded the battleaxe.
She precisely targeted the cubital fossa, the part of the arm that connected the forearm from the arm, and the shoulder. The Awakened Gladiator responded by raising its axe and using the same spinning move the other one used on Sol.
When it tried to do so, the right arm that carried most of the power in the swing snapped with its elbow turning in an unnatural way and its shoulder being ripped out by the strong force. The large axe flew away and hit the nearby wall.
Being disarmed both figuratively and literally, the Awakened Gladiator was unable to respond to the flurry of blows Amber unleashed.
While undead couldn’t be affected by pain or damage to vital organs, they still needed their limbs to function. Missing its weapon it was unable to use most of its skills.
Sol watched as Amber dismembered the Awakened Gladiator while keeping an eye on its health.
’The moment it dies… again, I’ll siphon its skills.’
It didn’t take long for that to happen as its health dropped rapidly and hit zero.
Learned [Defiance] Lv 5!
[Rage] leveled up! (8 -> 9)
[Defiance] Lv 5: Chance to brush off mental status afflictions. Efficacy increases with skill level.
[Rage] Lv 9: Let pure anger take control unlocking ones bestial strength. Increases strength by 90%, but also lowers cognitive functions by 50%.
Sol chose [Defiance] as it would be another passive to stack onto his already strong lineup and upgraded [Rage] to hopefully evolve it soon and maybe lose its downsides. Even if it doesn’t lose the negative trait it’s a good trump card when only pure strength is required. Sol considered learning [Living Corpse] but just going by the name he wasn’t sure what could happen. It could be a [Claw Attack] situation and change into something he could use like [Slash] but it could also turn him into an undead. Even if it didn’t it didn’t sound like a positive skill and would likely bring downsides as well. It simply wasn’t a risk Sol was willing to gamble on, he didn’t desire power that badly.
The Awakened Gladiator’s body fell and was absorbed into the floor of the dungeon. Even the arm and battleaxe that was cut off disappeared along with it.
Sol walked over to Amber. "Nice work! Are you over level 60?"
She shook her head, "56."
He was impressed by how easily she took the Awakened Gladiator down even though she was slightly behind in level. The biggest contributor to her victory was where she targeted first. Amber knew her strength wasn’t high enough to finish it in one blow and instead opted to disable its biggest strength, its weapon, and then go for the kill. She also used her massive speed advantage to launch tens of stabs and strikes in areas that would do the most damage.
While Sol’s combat style wasn’t similar to Amber’s, he could learn a thing or two from her performance. Sol was about to continue finding more enemies but then he remembered something crucial as he wasn’t used to working with a party.
"Ahh, I got no experience from that."
Sol had never partied with another person before so it completely escaped his mind when they were preparing for the dungeon. Experience isn’t shared and only the one who dealt the final blow gained all the experience. To remedy this a link ring was required. These rings could attune to each other and those who wore them shared experience as long as they were near one another. Without them it would be difficult for parties and especially healers or supporting roles to level up and become stronger.
"Amber I forgot to get link rings. Although we could keep going and take turns getting the final hit it would be tedious and time consuming. Let’s head back for now."
Amber nodded, though she didn’t mind continuing without the rings, she knew it would be more efficient to do so.
With a unanimous decision, the two made their way back to the surface, treating today as simply testing the waters.