Core Affinity
When Ezekiel finally woke up he had to stretch out his aching joints.
He went out to find the elderly goblin to ask if he could shower away the dirt and grime of the previous day... not to mention the blood.
He had to knock on her door to get her attention but so far it seemed like she hadnt woken up yet.
Since he could not clean himself there he would have to find another pond or stream like before.
While walking through the hunting territory he would occasionally slay creatures for experience, these kills were more difficult with only his fire magic but he still had time.
He was close to the next level but it was not quite there when he found a pond he could use.
~
After cleaning and getting dressed Ezekiel was ready for the next step, checking his new affinity bonus.
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Elemental Affinity (Shadow) Increased.
37% -> 52%
Core Affinity (Shadow) Increased.
0% -> 5%
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A 15% increase to his shadow affinity and he now knew what core affinity was!
It was certainly interesting to know that he would have another layer of affinity but would it do what he expected?
He mainly assumed that it would just further increase his damage with shadow spells but his core was such a large part of his mage power that he really couldn't be sure what would happen.
The only way to know was to test it out.
To test his new affinity he chose to hunt again, specifically he went back to his previous hunting path to avoid the view of others to use his shadow spells.
The difference between before and now was very interesting.
The first thing he noticed was that his spell damage was increased.
With a bonus of 52% to his shadow spells he expected his damage to be 213 but instead his damage was 220.
He circled the territory, even knowing how long it would take to return, all to hunt more creatures.
While traveling and slaying he eventually found another territory edge.
It was not a perfect map in his head but he was more and more certain that the map was like a dartboard almost.
A radial map that was built on different areas that eventually split into separate quadrants...
If he travelled all day he might be able to circle the forest that hid the village but he did not wish to waste his time doing so.
Once he fully dedicated his attention to leveling again rather than exploring he managed to increase his spell tier for two spells.
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Spell Level Maximum Reached.
Spell: Shadow Bolt (E) can now be improved
Spell options-
Shadow Arrow (M)
Increased speed and penetration power at the cost of damage.
Shadow Spear (M)
Significantly increased damage and speed.
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Spell Level Maximum Reached.
Spell: Fire Bomb (E) can now be improved
Spell options-
Fire Nova (M)
Significantly increased damage.
Fire Volley (M)
Significantly increased aoe and elemental effect chance.
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The result of his choices were the fire nova and shadow spear.
What he began to enjoy about the shadow spear most was how much faster it was.
He still did not know how to take advantage of any of the damage bonuses as none of them actually showed their damage bonuses nor did they actually gain any damage bonuses beyond his intelligence stat.
When he used the shadow spear he could destroy enemies much faster either way as he could abuse the speed that nothing could dodge.
Over the next few hours of the morning he was destroying monster pack after monster pack.
His spell damage was enough to break his targets before they can even react.
~
No matter how fast he leveled up he always assumed he would not catch up with his peers but he got a few more levels.
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Belial
Mage lv27. (Novice)
Shadowfire Devil
Affinity: 32% fire, 52% shadow
Mana Core: 0% fire, 5% shadow
Strength: 5
Vitality: 5
Agility: 91
Wisdom: 158 -> 166
Intelligence: 158 -> 166
Free stats: 56
Bloodline: child of the void.
Titles: n/a
Skills: Mana Control lv4 (E), Mana Sense lv1 (E), Mana Core lv4 (E), Spell Mastery (E)
Defenses: Fire Resistance lv1 (N)
Spells:
Mana Bolt lv1 (E)
Mana Burst lv1 (A)
Fire Nova lv2 (M)
Fire Bolt lv9 (E)
Shadow Spear lv2 (M)
Shadow Burst lv9 (A)
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His mana sense over the level grind had gone up in tier allowing him to sense even further.
He knew that he still wasnt strong enough to take out that slime so he had to explore more while leveling up.
While looking around he went off to ask a few players about the fastest ways to level up.
~
An elven player with green hair was the first one to answer him.
"Leveling up huh? Well i would say go to the dungeon. You'd be fighting a bunch of undead but it would be good."
According to the player the dungeon was inside of a cave found at the boundary between two city territories.
It took him some time to go find this cave and by the time he did he had even gained another level!
The cave itself looked simple although it was surrounded by players.
He approached the cave entrance and was met by a system window.
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Tomb Of Diana (t2 Dungeon)
Recommended Level: 30.
Dungeon Modes:
Normal
Hard
Nightmare
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He was happy to be able to enter a dungeon to level up faster so he chose the normal difficulty.
When he entered the dungeon he did not notice that many people seemed to be freaking out.