NOVEL NEXT Chapter 63: An Evolving Skillset
[Congratulations! You have placed 87th on the time trial leaderboard for solo challenges under level 5. Please see a class stone for additional details.]
Quintus frowned. The message made no sense. He was the first one to have attempted a solo challenge in this arena. How were there eighty-six others ahead of him?
He waved the text away as the sound of hurried footsteps padded across the sand. He turned in time to see the female [Healer] that they'd recruited running toward him, a group of medically-trained Legionnaires and the arena runners easily keeping pace with her. Eleonora was her name, if he remembered right.
Quintus slumped to the ground and sat as he waited for them to arrive. The Legionnaires came to a halt before him, immediately kneeling as they got to work.
"All right." The [Healer] girl wasn't even breathing heavily. Evidently, her time with the Legion had earned her enough levels to improve her conditioning somewhat. "Now. Practice [Heal] on the wound until it's not getting better, then we can resort to [Surgery]. Remember, focus on feelings of warmth and mending as you activate the skill. Picture everything stitching back together on its own…"
The men's hands glowed as they sent healing energy into Quintus's leg. Sure enough, it began to mend as though its natural healing had been sped up tenfold. Yet even then the process was still slower than when Eleonora herself did it. It seemed that this kind of magic was still one of those areas where the Legion struggled. A shortcoming remedied almost entirely once the surgeons took over.
"Thank you." He nodded as the men wrapped bandages around his leg. He flexed it slightly. Already it was in a far better state of repair than he would have possibly imagined. He tried to pull himself to his feet, finding that it could even support his weight once more. The medics around him didn't protest, so he figured it was all right.
"Thank you, Primus." One of the centurions in charge of the arena saluted. "Not only did you provide us some useful data, but you also gave the men quite the show! Your fight was magnificent."
Quintus chuckled. "Good. I quite enjoyed myself as well." He thought for a moment about the message that had appeared before him. "The System informed me that I have earned a spot on a leaderboard of some kind. One for solo combatants. Do you know anything about that?"
The centurion's eyes widened. "A leaderboard, sir? That's the first I've heard of anything like that…. May I ask where you placed, sir?"
"Eighty-seventh."
The man nodded. "I see. That is… strange, to say the least. I can vouch for the fact that you're the first solo combatant to have entered this arena. But perhaps there is more to this story than we suspected. If you learn more about this phenomenon, I would greatly appreciate if you would speak with us about it."
Quintus had no problem with that. It would be a valuable addition to their knowledge base, after all. Plus, the notification had indicated that he could find more details at a class stone, which gave him yet another excuse to visit one. He'd already planned on doing so, since he suspected that his efforts may have earned him some sort of rewards. But this just made it even easier to justify.
After getting the ok from the medics and a round of hearty congratulations from the onlookers, Quintus managed to extricate himself from the arena and head toward the town square. The rough-cut monolith of the class stone loomed before him, its surface glimmering in the sunlight. An occasional ripple of gold shimmered down its length as the line of Legionnaires arrayed before it took turns checking their stats and adjusting their skills.
Quintus stepped in line, content to wait like the rest of the men. Yet as soon as the first noticed him, he began to move aside respectfully. "Go right ahead, Primus. I can wait."
The others in line looked over, their eyebrows rising as they recognized the first centurion. They, too, moved aside, ushering him to the front of the line. His attempts to object went unheeded.
Shaking his head, Quintus thanked the men and obliged. He set his palm against the class stone and allowed its golden motes of light to flow up his arm. In moments, a wall of golden text appeared before him.
Information:
Name: Quintus
Age: 43 (XLIII)
Class: Legionnaire – Primus Pilus (Legendary)
Level: 4 (IV)
Experience: 1,529,763 / 2,400,000 (M̅D̅X̅X̅I̅X̅DCCLXIII/ MMC̅D̅)
Stats:
Strength: 22 (XXII)
Dexterity: 18 (XVIII)
Constitution: 17 (XVII)
Charisma: 15 (XV)
Wisdom: 13 (XIII)
Intelligence: 13 (XIII)
Free Points: 0 (0)
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Titles:
Born to Fight
Bonds of Brotherhood
Bane of Cats (III)
Bane of Spiders (II)
Bane of Ghouls (IV)
Boss Slayer (I)
Craftsman (III)
Blood on Your Hands (II)
Titanslayer
Warforged (I)
Crowd Favorite
Arena Champion (I)
Skills:
[Swordsmastery] (Rare) - Lvl 13 (Individual)
[Voice of Command] (Uncommon) - Lvl 32 (Individual)
[Heavy Blow] (Uncommon) - Lvl 29 (Individual)
[Battlefield Intuition] (Uncommon) - Lvl 37 (Individual)
[Sure Footing] (Common) - Lvl 121 (Individual)
[Warpath] (Uncommon) - Lvl 48 (Legion)
[Coordinated Bulwark] (Uncommon) - Lvl 45 (Legion)
[Unity] (Rare) - Lvl 8 (Cohort)
[Stab] (Common) - Lvl 152 (Century)
[Group Tactics] (Uncommon) - Lvl 74 (Contubernium)
He suppressed a smile of satisfaction at the results. It seemed that the plateau regarding his skill levels was no more. All of the ones he'd used had grown at least a little since his last check a few days ago.
Before doing anything else, he focused on the new titles he'd gained.
[Crowd Favorite: For the purpose of entertaining others, win a life or death battle in the arena with more than 100 members in the audience. +X% to Charisma and Strength when fighting in front of an audience, where X scales with the enthusiasm of the audience.]
The bout hadn't been expressly for the purpose of entertaining others, but he supposed that had been a part of it. He had never considered himself much of a gladiator. But evidently the System thought otherwise. Perhaps he should have expected as much, considering he'd stepped into colosseum willingly.
Either way, Quintus wouldn't say no to the title's effects. While charisma was not a stat that he used particularly often, strength certainly was. And though Legionnaires fought in groups, he had found himself fighting alone more times than he'd care to admit as of late. Perhaps the boost would come in handy again sometime.
Still, the benefit only lasted so long as he was in front of an audience. That meant it was fairly limited. The second achievement, however, was a little more interesting.
[Arena Champion (I): Place in the top 100 of any solo arena leaderboard. +40% to all physical stats when fighting solo.]
That made his eyebrows rise. Evidently, this leaderboard the System had referred to was not just a matter of pride. It came with benefits as well—significant ones. 40% was no small boon. In fact, it was one of the largest boosts that he could recall hearing about, though perhaps there were larger ones that he'd simply overlooked. Should he ever find himself caught out again like he had against the baron, this title would surely prove its worth in spades.
Considering that he'd earned the first tier of this achievement, Quintus couldn't help but wonder how many other tiers there were. Likely there would be even better rewards for placing in the top ten or even at the very top of the leaderboard.
With that done, he skimmed over the rest of his stat sheet to find that a new tab had appeared at the top—one labeled "Arena Standings". Evidently, placing on the leaderboard had made it available to him. Focusing on it, he watched as a list of a hundred different names scrolled past his vision, each with a different time next to it. None of the names were ones he recognized. But each one was certainly Roman in origin, if a little antiquated.
Skimming the list, he found himself somewhere near the bottom of the "Solo, Level 1-5" category. From the sheer volume of other entries, it seemed abundantly clear that they were not the first to use this arena. Perhaps the records of the Romans that preceded them had endured the test of time better than their civilization had.
The fact that a ranking system like this did exist made him immediately tempted to go back to the arena and try again. Perhaps he could improve his performance, rise up the rankings, and earn a better title to boot. However, he decided against it. Though mostly healed, his wounds would take a few days to completely disappear, not to mention that the bout had taken quite a lot out of him. Besides, he had duties to attend to. He'd still make it a point to report to the centurions about it though.
Setting that aside for the moment, Quintus turned back to his own stats. It was the moment of truth. Holding his breath, he focused on the skills section and waited.
[You have new skill evolutions available. View available evolutions? WARNING: After viewing, unassigned evolutions will be permanently lost!]
He let out a long breath of relief. Finally. After waiting so long, he'd finally evolved something. That alone would have made the arena bout worth it. Suppressing his eagerness, Quintus accepted the prompt and looked over the new offerings.
Available Skill Evolutions:
[Heavy Blow] (Uncommon) -> [Rend] (Rare)
[Stab] (Common) -> [Tear] (Rare)
[Group Tactics] (Uncommon) -> [Coordinated Offense] (Rare)
His eyes widened. Three evolutions at once was more than he'd dared to hope for. What's more, they were some of the skills he'd had for the longest time. He'd almost gotten to the point where he'd given up and considered replacing them. He silently thanked his past self for sticking it out just a little longer.
The first two seemed relatively straightforward. [Rend] and [Tear] both seemed like simple improvements over the original skills, if not particularly descriptive. Still, Quintus didn't mind. They were straightforward skills with a straightforward purpose—violence.
The third one was a little bit different, however. [Coordinated Offense] seemed different than a strict upgrade of [Group Tactics]. Instead, it seemed like a fundamental change in the direction of the skill. A more aggressive one, to be exact.
It made some amount of sense, considering how he'd strongarmed the skill into doing something it wasn't meant for. Still, he wondered if it would build on that understanding of his opponents' intent like he'd been attempting to do with the original skill.
He shrugged inwardly. Regardless of whether or not he thought the skill was a good one, he'd be a fool not to accept it. Without waiting any longer, Quintus slotted all three skills.
[Congratulations! You have assigned the skill [Rend] (Rare) - Lvl 0.]
[Congratulations! You have assigned the skill [Tear] (Rare) - Lvl 0.]
[Congratulations! You have assigned the skill [Coordinated Offense] (Rare) - Lvl 0.]
The last two skills would necessarily replace their predecessors for his entire century and contubernium, respectively. But that was all right. Quintus had the authority to do so, and granting his men another pair of rare skills would certainly be worth the trade—if not now, then in a few weeks once they'd gotten acclimated to them.
Satisfied, Quintus lifted his palm from the class stone and stepped back. The only thing that could have made this better was an evolution of [Sure Footing]. Although that skill in particular he hadn't put to use in particularly novel ways during his arena bout. Perhaps he would need to look into that.
Turning away from the class stone, he headed back toward the command center. He'd spent long enough indulging his own desire for battle and action. Now, it was finally time to get back to work. He could only hope that Gaius would return soon and take the reins back from him.