Chapter 50: Chapter. 50: Frictionless Shock

A set of twelve arrows was made, putting me at twenty-four, and then I was going to make an arrow every hour. And Glim was going to make sure to remind me of it. That said, I still felt a bit on the weak side.

Name: Blair | Level: 16

Race: ??? (E-Grade)

Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition]

Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN),

Universal Inquiry (NaN)

Free attribute points: 4

VIG: 35 | END: 36 |

STR: 30 | AGI: 41 |

PER: 38 | WIS: 34 |

Skills: [Proficient Archery (Uncommon Passive)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)], [Power Draw (Uncommon)], [Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)], [Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive)]

Attunements: Dark plants (I)

Prime Currency: 100

I pondered on where to distribute my stats this time around, but I didn’t really have an obvious place to put them on. And counting on the fact that I had gotten a skill that could potentially get me killed should it be wrongly used I was scared of touching my Agility stat. Wisdom did not feel lacking for now, though maybe it was just in my mind. The only thing that I had to consider was Vigor considering the amount of scrapes I kept getting. It made my skin tougher after all, my new skill was good, but suddenly stopping my slide would⁠— I shivered thinking about the catastrophe that would spell⁠— I quickly placed all four points in Vigor, it was better to prevent than to die from losing all my skin.

Vigor went from 35 to 40 points, which made it my second stat to hit 40⁠— well I had started with 37 or so agility so I guess it was cheating a bit. I was unsure about my choice, but it didn’t hurt to simply be slightly more tough. My mana felt near empty now, I still had five mana potions, and seven health potions. Things were good for me at the moment. I closed my eyes as the deathly battle outside finally calmed down. Though I gave my status one last glance before forgetting about it.

Name: Blair | Level: 16

Race: ??? (E-Grade)

Feats: [Lone Survivor], [Bottomless Ambition]

Basic skills: Universal Understanding (NaN),

Universal Inquiry (NaN)

Free attribute points: 0

VIG: 40 | END: 36 |

STR: 30 | AGI: 41 |

PER: 38 | WIS: 34 |

Skills: [Proficient Archery (Uncommon Passive)], [Explosive Shot (Rare)], [Power Draw (Uncommon)], [Penumbral Instinct (Rare Passive)], [Frictionless Slide (Rare Passive)]

Attunements: Dark plants (I)

Prime Currency: 100

Rare skills were good to have, but when did Common skills even come into play? My cloak was common rank, but that was the only item I had that was Common quality. It seemed almost lackluster.

[Well, The System is obligated to classify anything that slightly counts as a magic item, so in reality it's like an exponential curve⁠— er, you don’t know what that is?] I shook my head, Glim paused. [Well basically the more you get to the axis the higher it goes towards infinity. Though in this case the axis would be a Common item, meaning that they are the most common things and as rarity increases the rarer things become.]

“So, I’ll continue getting mostly Rare skills?”

Glim bobbed. [That is correct!]

That made sense to me, though it was a bit dumb? Did that also apply to the initiated too? The higher you went the less⁠—

[That is⁠—]

“Don’t answer that,” I interrupted Glim.

[I wasn’t going to! I was just going to dance around and pretend to answer it only to get reset by the system! Or pretend to do so! Like this!] It bobbed and trembled, its white light became red and then blue before it became a very dim wisp of light. [Ugh, Blair… I am dying…]

I stared, and then turned. It was time to get to killing worms and ants alike, or rather it was time to gain some levels. I smiled to myself, checked my belt ⁠— two mana potions and one health one ⁠— then headed out at a leisure pace through the smooth opening I had created. Glim followed after me, still dim.

[Do you not care about me? I am dying…] It spoke.

“It fits your name, Glim, unbright.”

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It returned to full splendor. [Well, screw you, too! Wait, no that would be screwing myself. But if I screw myself then wouldn’t it be counterproductive?] Glim grumbled. [Why are comebacks so complicated, wish the database had something⁠—I am just your SGA and make your day better, I am useful after all!] Its tone changed at the end but I paid it no mind, the traces of battle remained and rubble still littered the ground.

I stared into the distance instead, looking around for small skirmishes. Like always, they were fighting, ants and worms vying for something. Perhaps it was at the command of the Guardians. It didn’t matter as I simply looked for the perfect group to kill, well hunt was a better word. My eyes darted between small and bigger groups, and eventually landed on a group of three monsters, it was the closest as well. I wanted to try something, but I didn’t want to use arrows. I looked around through the rubble and quickly found a fist sized rock. A small smile of insecure excitement bubbled on my face as I held the rock tightly within my palm, but experimentation felt necessary with this new skill.

I still felt unsure about how it actually worked.

I looked into the distance to the place I wanted to go, and then threading my mana onto my palm I pushed it to the rock. It needed to be explosive⁠—weak, like an arrow. About half of the mana I had remaining went onto the rock and ballooned. The mana was still connected to me, but I knew I was going to start feeling like death as soon as I let go of it. I shook my head and pinpointed my destination once more, the mana remained unstable inside the rock ready to go off at any second. Steeling my heart, I took a leap of faith and tossed the rock behind me, in less than a second I heard an empty clack followed by the familiar boom.

The energy from the explosion sent me flying forward at an explosive speed, wind passed by my ears as I gripped my spear tightly, then as I was about to land, I angled my feet in a sliding motion. I felt a weird feeling go to my legs, and with a weird smack and a bump I slid as if I was going down mud, the ground became nothing but a blur as wind hit my face, and the distant group of monsters rapidly grew closer. It took less than a second before the weird feeling of friction settled in and the speed gradually decreased, but it was too late⁠—the monsters were about three meters forward. A worm trying to fend off two severely injured ants.

[Suvia Ant. Lvl. 17]

[Suvia. Ant. Lvl. 18]

[Rime Worm. Lvl. 21]

I picked my target and swallowed; bracing myself for pain I inched my feet forward on the ground and⁠— the slide continued as I angled myself better, just as I was adjusting to jump the friction kicked; like sand I felt my skin suddenly burn as I jumped. The air howled as the two ants took a pause, the worm unaware of my presence, didn’t turn. My ears buzzed and the lack of mana finally settled as I enhanced the tip of my spear, my stomach churned as I landed atop the worm. Riding it like a mount, I stabbed down whatever I thought was its neck. Ice spikes bulged underneath me but it didn’t matter, my skin hurt but was not pierced. Stab after stab, its entrails fizzled underneath the mana enhanced spear tip. The worm squealed as the ants simply stared. It didn’t take long before it died.

[You have killed: (E) Rime Worm. Lvl. 21]

There was no level up notification as I dismounted, quickly walking towards the ants who both took different stances. But it didn’t matter. A smile formed on my face as I ran towards them, the stone shone but it didn’t matter, I slid under their vicious dual attack, the lack of friction sent me right beneath their heads. I held onto the ant’s leg to stop before lunging myself atop of it. The ant squealed and its friend lunged towards me. Pushing as little mana as I could I made a sort of sharp edge at the tip and slid under the ant’s torso, quickly ripping it apart with a single stabbing motion⁠—its innards boiled and like a puppet without strings it fell nearly landing on me. The other ant squealed, its antennae shaking at rapid speeds, but it was too late.

It didn’t take more than three stabs before the ant died.

[You have killed: (E) Suvia Ant. Lvl. 18]

[You have killed: (E) Suvia Ant. Lvl. 18]

Were both ants the same level? There was no level up once more. I frowned thinking I had entered a leveling up threshold, something that basically made each subsequent level much more difficult than the rest, but then I remembered, one of the ants was level 17. Wasn’t I technically sharing experience with anything that had participated in the killing of each thing? I frowned, the same thing had happened when I helped the humans level up, alas, The System was fair⁠— I was unsure of my claims but it made me feel a bit better.

I sighed, relaxing my muscles. My vision became fuzzy and sickness overtook me. Right, mana. I sat down, looking around the battlefield as I let some mana regenerate.

[Incubation Period: 2 days 10 hours 43 minutes]

There was still quite some time before the two guardians emerged. My eyes moved round and about, things were a bit chaotic. Ants and worms still tried to climb through the ceilings only to fall and die from the impact, or throw each other off. There seemed to be a main frontline where the strongest ants and worms constantly fought, then there were smaller worms and ants fighting in some areas, and some small skirmishes that took place. It was odd to say the least.

I shook my head and waited a few minutes.

◇ ◇ ◇

[You have killed: (E) Rime Pupa. Lvl. 14]

[You have killed: (E) Suvia Pupa. Lvl. 10]

[You have killed: (E) Suvia Pupa. Lvl. 9]

I sighed as I slid my spear across the white worm. I had thought they were just worms killing each other but it was just a different kind of ant trying to kill a different kind of worm. I turned to the final worm that was profusely bleeding blue blood all over the floor. I had thought about it, and I truly was in no condition to be killing the level 20 ones, not without drinking a mana potion. I had almost fainted earlier. With a final stab I killed the worm.

[You have killed: (E) Rime Pupa. Lvl. 11]

[Level up: You have achieved level 17.]

I smiled to myself. This place is great. That said, I was lacking too much mana, and I still didn’t want to drink a potion. With all that in mind, I headed back to my cave, walking and sliding at my own pace. I was on the worm side, diagonally to my cave which was on the ant side⁠—needless to say it was a long distance.

Slide after slide, it took a few minutes to travel, just as I was about to enter the ant zone something strange happened. The cave bellowed, a deep rattle entered my ears and so did the familiar shrieks from the Ant Queen, my heart stalled as I grabbed an arrow, but nothing came. I did not stop, however, something strange happened. The ants and worms began to converge, completely ignoring each other, and all of the sudden as if they were a single colony they all turned to me.

My heart stalled, my mana was still relatively empty, but it was enough. Ants and worms alike rushed, but it was too late. Mana overflowed onto an arrow that was launched behind me. An explosion resounded amidst the rock and ice, the ground trembled and I was thrown forward towards my destination. I slid and prepared another arrow on my hand. It didn’t sit well with me to use it as a blow-up-stick of sorts, but I had no choice. Ice spikes were shot my way, the ground caved but the friction did not care, instead it launched me into the air. I scanned the cave in that brief second of air time and my breath stalled.

I saw all of the worms, the level 24 or higher, gigantic ants, an army as far as I could see were all looking at me. I landed onto a slide, canceling any type of friction in the process. The cave came into view, and with a final arrow behind me, an explosion boomed. The speed skyrocketed to speeds I had never seen before, the wind made my eyes teary and even the arrows inside the quiver trembled. The slide continued as the entire mountain clearing rattled and shrieked. The figure of the worm guardian loomed over the horizon, the Queen encroached— everything turned black as things became a blur. The wind came to a stop with shock, my very core trembled as a ripple of pain spread everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Everything went to black.

[Uh oh!] Glim spoke clearly in my mind as everything vanished. [Would you like to start the potion administration program? Actually, I am starting it! You are severely injured! No worries, it ain’t lethal! You just broke both of your legs!]

◇ ◇ ◇

I panted on the cave wall, struggling to not collapse. The entrance was sealed by rock, and my legs still trembled with pain even after taking the potion. I didn’t care for the guardians or the level up, not even the quest progress or the level up.

I had underestimated the skill.

A small sigh left me as I broke into a coughing fit. I admonished myself inwardly, but I never thought⁠— I didn’t think that it would happen so quick. The warning that Glim had given me regarding it was on point.

I closed my eyes and decided to wash the pain away through sleep.

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