Mysterious Presence

Spellblade, level 5

HP: 275 MP: 355 SP:195

Stats:

Strength 26, Dexterity 21, Constitution 24, Intelligence 22, Wisdom 20, Charisma 5

Luck 5, Speed 12, Stealth 2, Magic 28, Martial Prowess 20

Physical Skills:

Basic Attack (Blunt – Lv3, Blade – Lv8, Thrown – Lv2, Unarmed – Lv1)

Slash Lv11

Double Slash Lv11

Magical Skills:

Fire Magic Lv13

Wind Magic Lv11

Earth Magic Lv11

Water Magic Lv11

Enchantment Magic Lv8

Life Magic Lv13

Dimension Magic Lv9

Manipulation Magic Lv1

Negation Magic Lv1

General Skills:

Awakening Potential

Dash Lv3

Rest Lv1

Fire Resistance Lv8

Blessings:

Inventory Control Lv13

Naming Lv11

The period of three years was close to over, and soon my promise would be fulfilled and I won't have anything stopping me from leaving this awful place.

The respawn rate was somewhat random, sometimes taking a couple of months, and once even reaching half a year. Not only that, once my skills reached the half-tier point, they wouldn't level up against these pests. I ended up cycling through my methods for the sake of training.

With every level up, the XP requirement to level up again increased by a 100 every time, and the respawned villages had less monsters than they did during the initial raid, reducing the harvest. If I were to wait, the monsters would breed and might even level up, but the time it would take would be too long, so I didn't bother.

Eventually, I barely had enough to reach level 5. The stats that progressed beyond 20 advanced very slowly, so only my Wisdom, Speed and Luck experienced an increase. Luck seemed to improve by looting.

Once my magic skills reached half-tier, I had more options to mix them up, which worked fairly well for the pairings that I was aware of. Unfortunately, I couldn't try my own ideas as my skill level was still low enough, which seemed to translate to low comprehension.

Nothing noteworthy happened with Inventory Control reaching level 11, but Naming could now be used on beings of the same tier as me. Unfortunately, they still had to be friendly towards me, so I could not name soon-to-be-dead monsters.

I considered Naming myself, but it was too risky. I did not know if I could switch to my class names after that, and I couldn't Name creatures after what they were. Since I could change the name of a Goblin into Orc, I assumed that faking a class name that I don't have would be possible, but I didn't want to take the risk of being locked out of being Spellblade just yet.

Only Fire and Life magics could continue to improve, because I was their target. According to Priest, one of the ways to obtain Holy magic is by having both of these at a high level. Another way is to devote oneself to the gods, but that's not the path of the Spellblade!

Knowing that in a month I'm going to leave this place, I remained cheerful as I headed towards the kobold cave, which is probably going to be my last extermination in the area.

At this point, there were few skills that I could still train against these kobolds, as everything else, including attributes, would improve at a snail's pace in this environment. I haven't touched Manipulation magic at all, as charms and illusions weren't really my cup of tea, so the only thing that remained was Dimension magic.

But I was growing restless at the thought that this was the last time, so I simply wanted to get it over with, with no thought to actual improvement. Even though this was the only reason I was doing it in the first place, at this point it felt more like a routine and obligation. With such thoughts, I ended up turning to Fire magic. It was notoriously the most destructive element, as it sacrificed delicate control in exchange for power.

Only Fire magic had a low-level destructive area spell, the fire cone. Other elemental fields had similar spells, but they were either lacking in power or of higher level. Still, the cone of fire wasn't extremely popular, as it would destroy the environment and potential loot, though the aspect of friendly fire wasn't an issue if everybody was in the same party.

I didn't care about the loot the kobolds had to offer, and even though fire magic in a cave would normally be a bad idea, my PC body didn't seem to have an issue from the lack of oxygen. I could merrily light up all the kobolds and everything was just fine.

As the notice that the quest was complete popped up in the chat, I noticed that something was different this time around. According to the minimap, there was a neutral presence deeper within the cave. I was considering whether I should check it out or not, as it was a potential plot hook and could be interesting or rewarding, but something interrupted my thoughts.

Chain Quest: Mysterious Presence – Find out what resides deeper within the cave. 100xp, 10 crystals.

I didn't have much time to consider what this notification meant, as I was instantly pushed down by the sudden pressure overflowing from the cave's depths. The presence was still neutral, yet attacked me with just its being and forced me to suffer under the Terrified status, one that reduced all my abilities by 50%!

I found myself unable to move, but I was more surprised that even under these circumstances, I didn't really feel anything special. No, I definitely lacking control over my body, and the status effect was clear. Just like a player losing control over their character under certain circumstances, it didn't influence my mind.

Even though I didn't want to experience death, it wasn't final. I was more intrigued by what was going on than fearing death, so I had to push through. This was the start of a chain quest, which meant that I would have some dealings with this being in the future, for better or for worse, and obtaining information now, even before my journey has officially started, could prove crucial.

Determined to push through, I decided to finally invest my attribute and skill points. In this system, Charisma that usually meant force of personality, also represented the durability of the mind. In some systems, such as D&D, it was usually up to Wisdom, but Charisma was the Constitution of the mind in this world. As such, I invested my points in it in order to try and stand against the pressure.

I had a lot of points gathered up by this point – 94 of them. Between level ups, quest rewards and first kill rewards, I had an amount that even most level 20 folk wouldn't be able to achieve, and would take some up to 30 levels. And that was before one considered that my attributes were comparable to the elite of level 20.

I slowly invested these points into my Charisma, seeing how it effects the Terrified status. The thing that dwelled within the cave had such a strong presence, that after reaching 50 Charisma I was still under Afraid – a 20% reduction, and at 80 Charisma I was Shaken – a 5% reduction. Investing all my points, I ended up with an unfortunate 99 Charisma, which was not enough to remove the Shaken state.

Finally, I decided to also invest my skill points in the skill that I was eyeing for a long time, Social Manipulation. It was a general skill that encompassed all aspects of social interaction. If I had invested in a more specialized skill, it would improve faster than under Social Manipulation, but then it would have fewer uses.

With all my skill points invested into it, I had Social Manipulation at level 16. It pretty much meant that I'm banking on being able to converse with whatever it was down there. With such presence, it had to be intelligent, and probably had a language. With the translation function of the system, I was confident that I could establish a conversation with it – it was neutral after all.

Now my body was able to move, the obstacles were still there but much easier to break through. Before taking a step forward, I considered if there was anything else I could do to prepare. As I went over my skills, I understood my earlier foolishness.

While I could use Enchantment magic on my brain, it would provide me with resistance against magical attacks. The pressure I was feeling was simply from something that was beyond the realm of being called strong, and there was no magic behind it. It simply wished to oppress, and it was so. If I had trained Manipulation magic, I could have changed my state of mind. Manipulation magic could influence emotions for both good and bad, among other things. It was a versatile school of magic and it was silly of me to ignore it simply because I wasn't interested in illusions.

But now it was too late, so I enchanted my mind just in case and advanced forward. As I got closer, the heaviness in the air increased and it felt as though I was walking through thick soup, not that I ever had experienced such a thing in reality. I could not resist the Afraid status, though I was still far from being Terrified, which would have stopped my advance completely.

"You were able to come this far…" I heard a voice within my mind as part of the cave shifted in front of my very eyes.

No, this wasn't part of the cave. It was too scaly…

Chain Quest: Mysterious Presence - Defeat the dragon. 10000XP, Blessing.