NOVEL NEXT Chapter 104: More New Skills!
Luna sat down in their camp with a satisfied sigh, it had been a long couple of days ever since descending into the central valley. Now that they are in a relatively safe space it feels nice to finally relax.
Having 2 new party members is also quite nice, granted she hasn't really had a chance to get to know the other dragon all that much just yet. But based on some of the stories Susan told she doesn't seem all that bad, maybe a touch teciturn, but apparently she has a good heart.
Susan herself is a pleasant surprise, Luna was unsure how she might get on with the dogkin former slave. Yet the girl has a truly gentle soul, she is kind and caring in a way that reminds her of her own mother.
She quickly forces down the surge of emotions that threatens to rise at that memory.
Loosing track of her thoughts she looks over at Violet and notices that she seems to be deep in thought, although with strange emotions flashing across her face as she gazes off into nothing. Luna is confused as to what she is doing until she remembers that she has skills to upgrade!
Deciding that would be a better way to spend her time that mopping around, Luna settles down besides Violet and leans against her to begin doing the same.
She has 5 skills that are ready to upgrade and 5 upgrade tokens to use on them, Luna fully intends to use all 5!
Evasive Footwork lvl 20(MAX)
Dash lvl 20(MAX)
Multi Strike lvl 20(MAX)
Ice Strike lvl 20(MAX)
Spear Proficiency lvl 20(MAX)
Not one to get too stuck into the minutia Luna dives right in to see what she will get out of this.
[Upgrade token used on skill - Evasive Footwork.
Upgrade option available:
- Mesmerising Footwork
- Indomitable Footwork]
Two simple but solid options here, either go down the evasive and tricky route or change things up for a more solid stance. Luna predominantly likes to stay evasive and fast on her feet so logically she should go for the option that best suits that right? Yet she canny deny the appeal of having the skill to simply stand as an immovable wall that none can get past.
Luna smiles as she imagines that before shaking her head and making her decision.
[Skill Evasive Footwork lvl 20(MAX) - upgrades to - Mesmerising Footwork lvl 1]
For her second skill.
[Upgrade token used on skill - Dash.
Upgrade option available:
- Arctic Dash
- Illusory Dash
- Rapid Dash]
Three options now. The first seems like it would leave behind a layer of ice in her wake, it could definitely be useful but it seems quite limited in its use. Plus she can achieve similar effects with her existing skills. Now Illusory Dash really catches her eye, it would leave behind an afterimage of her in the place she was when first activating the skill. Combined that with her freshly upgraded footwork and Luna would become quite the tricky foe to track down in a fight.
Rapid Dash however, seems like just a straight upgrade of her existing skill, no real changes other than just increasing the overall speed of the skill. Again it seems like quite the obvious choice has been presented to her.
[Skill Dash lvl 20(MAX) - upgrades to - Illusory Dash lvl 1]
Happy with her first two upgrades Luna eagerly selects her third skill to be upgraded.
Upgrade token used on skill - Multi Strike.
Upgrade option available:
- Barrage of Blows
- Chain Stike
- Piercing Multi Strike]
So the first choice seems to just up the maximum amount of strikes unleashed during the skill. If she is feeling it right it will go from 3 rapid strikes into 6, so it is definitely a potent upgrade.
The second option however mixes things up, it seems less like an upgrade and more like a transformation. She will loose the rapid strikes of the skill but instead will be granted a kind of passive effect to each of her attacks. With Chain Strike every attack she lands on a singular foe in rapid succession will deal an ever increasing amount of damage. It would trade off instant damage for prolonged damage.
The final option keeps the skill basically the same but with an enhancement added to her piercing damage.
Luna is quite torn on which she prefers, she is definitely leaning towards the first two options but is struggling to decide which one exactly. So she takes a note out of Violet's book and thinks deeply in it for a solid 13 seconds before making a gut decision!
[Skill Multi Strike lvl 20(MAX) - upgrades to - Chain Strike lvl 1]
Now that the decision is made Luna just hopes that she won't come to regret it! But moving on to skill number 4!
[Upgrade token used on skill - Ice Strike.
Upgrade option available:
- Arctic Strike
- Ice Blade]
Back to two options here and she likes the sound of both of them! The first seems like more of a straight upgrade. It will work mostly the same except it will now carry an arctic chill to act as a way to limit her foes movement. Ice blade on the other hand will slightly change how the skill works, it will instead have 2 modes. The first will allow her to summon a weapon made of ice at will, and the second will allow her to coat any existing weapon in ice. She already kind of does the second thing but she has to continually supply mana to keep that effect active unlike this skill upgrade.
It's another tough decision to make but she thinks that she already know which she prefers.
[Skill Ice Strike lvl 20(MAX) - upgrades to - Ice Blade lvl 1]
The deciding factor came in on the fact that her spear is already supposed to imbue a chill into her foes to slow them down, yet she never really noticed this effect take root. So it seems quite underwhelming.
Either way she is down to her last skill.
[Upgrade token used on skill - Spear Proficiency.
Upgrade option available:
- Spear Mastery
- Weapon Proficiency]
Her final upgrade also only provides two choices, and what choices they are! She can either choose to solidify her path of the spear, or choose to embrace all weapons. The second options may seem like a bit of a downgrade as she would technically loose her spear proficiency, yet she would still have the muscle memory. So it really comes down to if she wants to stick with the spear or if she wants to embrace other weapons.
And given that Luna just gained the ability to forge any weapon out of ice… well the decision seems quite obvious.
[Skill Spear Proficiency lvl 20(MAX) - upgrades to - Weapon Proficiency lvl 1]
Luna sags a little bit after she completes her final skill upgrade, that felt like quite the ordeal! She is now throughly exhausted from overthinking everything there.
As she melts into the warm embrace of her companion she feels a mental poke her said companion. "Hey did you upgrade your skills?"
With her eyes closed a smile spreads on Luna's lips as she replies through their bond. "Yeah got some quite fun upgrades that should be fun to try out! How about you?"
Luna can feel the overwhelming excitement and happiness that radiates through the bond, both from hearing about how well Luna's upgrades went and at how excited Violet is about her own upgrades! "I'm glad! Mine went great! I can't wait to try them all out! Can we go fight something now? Please please please?!?"
Luna chuckles at her companions energy and can quite literally feel the dragon vibrating with excitement at the prospect of trying out her new skills. She does have to admit that she is quite eager to try out her own skills… but that would require moving. And that seems like quite the impossible task right at this moment!
"Can we wait till the morning? I am exhausted, plus you are super comfy right now! Please don't make me move!" She adds a bit of a pout into her mental voice there mixed with her genuine feeling of tiredness.
She feels a bit bad when she feels her companion deflate slightly, yet can still feel a warm feeling of contentment as she realises that Luna is in fact lying down on her at that moment. "Fine, we can relax for now. But in the morning we are going to fight something! No backing out!"
With a chuckle Luna readily agrees to the stated terms, and settles back in to enjoy relaxing with her companion. Violet too seems to settle in and soon extends a wing to cover the resting leopardkin in her warm embrace.