NOVEL NEXT Chapter 119: The Climb
The hundreds of seabirds that called the sheer cliff home were less than pleased at his presence. Leif couldn’t really blame them, especially considering the damage he had done during his fall. But that didn’t stop being constantly swooped by dozens of the angry creatures at a time from being quite annoying.
His aura, or perhaps nature, seemed to mollify the majority of the birds, his presence pacifying them. Unfortunately a majority of the winged beasts being mostly impartial to his existence wasn’t much of a comfort when being constantly swooped, battered, pecked and screeched at by the minority.
To make matters worse, a good portion of the seabirds that had taken issue with him having crash landed into their homes were evolved. Harsh winds battered at him, beak and claw tore at the golden shield that protected not just him, but his clothes. Not for the first time he internally complained about how small the spatial ring he had looted was, the small drawer sized space being already filled to capacity with what few belongings he possessed.
Leif's arms reached up to grasp the shallow ridge above him, then his conjured limbs pulled him up. Progress was slow, and it was slowed further when the seabirds started to assault the golden arms he was relying on. Pain slowly built as his soul began to strain from skill overuse, before long he would need to rely on his physical attributes.
He ignored the birds, focusing entirely on the climb. Then a massive surge of wind crashed into him, his shield flickered, absorbing the attack but the stone around and above him was less fortunate. The rocky cliff-face crumbled under his weight, and Leif fell, scrambling to regain his handholds.
The spray of ocean waves meeting rock splashed against his back, the water below only a handful of metres away. Leif cursed under his breath, the sound coming out more like a hiss of anger than any actual words. I’m not going to make it at this rate. He thought, the ache in his soul growing by the second. Above the circling seabirds let out cries of triumph, their calls seeming to mock his misfortune.
He needed a new plan, somewhere to recover and hopefully wait out the ire of the cliff's residents. There seemed to be a small gap some thirty metres to his left, a place where the sheer stone wall had been carved into over centuries by wind and waves. Taking one final glance upwards, Leif began to make his way towards it. Moving horizontally was far easier than vertically, but doing so didn’t take him further away from the rising tide’s clutches.
At one point he sensed the presence of something in the waters below, but when he looked down he couldn’t see anything. The water gradually rose, the crest of waves partially submerged his legs every time they met the cliff. Soaked entirely through he finally reached the gap, only to have his hopes sink.
There was no ledge, nor cave to take shelter in. Instead it was a fairly narrow crack that only got wider the closer to the sea it was. Leif wedged himself inside, digging into the stone with his clawed hands, lodging his legs in such a way that he wouldn’t fall. The seabirds seemed to lose interest with their target mostly out of reach, so he let [Amber Aegis] finally drop along with his conjured limbs.
The strain of skill overuse immediately lessened, but he would need to rest before making another attempt at scaling the cliff.
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The sun was setting when Leif pulled himself bodily over the edge of the cliff, the sea was lit by a vibrant cascade of gold, red and pink. Bright blue motes of light skimmed the water's surface before spiralling up into the clouds above. He unsteadily got to his feet, taking a few shaky steps forward before gaining his balance.
He glanced around looking for the merfey’s corpse, he ended up smelling it before he saw it. Dozens of seabirds fought over the remains, their beaks tearing into exposed sections of flesh that his battle with the thing earlier in the day had revealed. As he approached the birds took off in a squawking mess of feathers.
Where’s the mana shard? He thought, carefully stepping around a pile of half eaten serpent guts. Did one of the birds find and absorb it?
The monster's head hung limply over the side of the cliff, its malevolent yellow eyes having been plucked out and eaten. Leif grabbed the merfey’s body and dragged it away from the edge, it was incredibly heavy but the effort wasn’t too great. Something blue twinkled where it was embedded between two limestone rocks, the mana shard having been wedged under the corpse.
Leif let out a sigh of relief and picked it up. The shard was far larger than the shards he normally got his hands on, but he had seen this grade before. It was a medium grade mana shard, a full tier higher than the low grade shards monsters above level twenty five, but below level fifty manifested upon death. He knew it was valuable, perhaps more valuable sold than absorbed, but he was in the process of merging his skills down to the recommended number, and, truth be told, he felt like having a little reward for his recent struggles.
Would you like to consume this mana catalyst to increase current skill fusion progress?
Fusion of skills [Aura of Recovery] and [Aura of Nobility] 12/100%
Y/N?
He accepted the prompt, causing the shard to dissolve into streams of blue liquid that flowed into his arm. It was like an icy river pouring into his body and travelling towards his chest, the sensation felt amazing.
Leif patted the merfey’s corpse, running his hand along its scaled tail. “Good fight, you almost took me with you.” He said.
He sat there for over an hour, watching as the brilliant radiance of the sunset faded away, and the cracked surface of season crested the horizon. The face of the celestial body was fragmented and cracked, much like the bloody lines streaking between the merfey’s shattered scales.
Moonlight shimmered in the darkening waters below, pale white and crimson red blending together within the waves. To the east the lights of Ahle-ho illuminated the sea in a similar manner, the flickering lights of the distant city being cast out into the sea. It was hard to make out exact details from so far away, but to Leif the city looked like it was partially built into the cliffside, massive structures jutting out at like towers that were built on the wrong axis.
He checked his skill fusion progress, seeing just what a medium grade shard had done for him.
Fusion of skills [Aura of Recovery] and [Aura of Nobility] 41/100%
Leif let out a breath of satisfaction, the shard had saved him several weeks of waiting. Being at the level fifty bottleneck he could no longer level up, new skills wouldn’t be available until after he regained the ability to level up. After he passed the advancement trial his maximum number of normal classes would likely increase to four, but he didn’t know how he felt about diving into a brand new class.
From level one to ten a class would give him five total skills, another five if he levelled from eleven to twenty. There was something to be said about constantly gaining new abilities, but Leif was also cognisant of the fact he would constantly be battling against his maximum number of skills in order to not suffer a massive experience penalty.
It struck Leif that due to his nature, he actually had one more class than humans at the same level. Humans started with a maximum of two classes, gaining their third after level twenty five. His maximum was currently three, but he also had a monster class. No wonder I’m constantly pushing against the skill limit, I’ve been getting more skills than normal. He knew from his time with the academy expedition that classes offered skills every five levels after reaching tier three.
People at my level would likely have a class pushing the high twenties by this point, maybe they would have two classes at exactly level twenty five if they had limited themselves to only two classes.
He summoned the promotion seal from his spatial ring, flipping the intricate metallic and gemstone object over so that its surface reflected the night sky as it spun.
Would you like to consume this promotion item to increase one or more of your classes from tier 1 to tier 2?
Classes available for promotion: [Brawler]!
Classes available for merge: [Brawler] and [Adept], [Brawler] and [Attuned: Life], [Adept] and [Attuned: Life]!
Warning! Merging classes will not grant new skills or attributes based on combined level!
Warning! The options available when promoting classes by merging two tier 1 classes will be less than promoting a level capped tier 1 class!
Warning! You are vulnerable during the promotion process!
Leif read over the system prompts, flipping the promotion item once again to make them disappear. There were choices to make, and now was likely the best time to make them. But I’ll wait until I’m somewhere safe. He thought, before standing and marching away from the sea.