System Change

After looking over his stats for a few minutes, Derek had a general idea of what he wanted to do. Vitality and Endurance would always be his go to stats, but with the mana costs of his void skills, Wisdom was going to be a must if he ever wanted to be able to use them consistently. He was not sure how much Intelligence modified the strength of the skills, but everything he used void on seemed to die almost instantly, so Intelligence was the least of his worries.

After getting the Award for raising his Endurance and Vitality to 500, he did want to have all of his stats at 500, eventually. He actually almost had enough stat points to do it now, but he was still missing a few.

The first thing he did was use 140 points to increase his Strength to 500. The feeling, just like when he initially reached it with Vitality, was a rush. It felt like his Strength was on a whole new level. In fact, when he looked down, the armor he was wearing was tight on him, and his muscles felt much more taut than before. He sensed that if needed, he could use an explosive amount of strength.

Next, he used 240 points to raise his Dexterity. The explosive power remained from his Strength, but with the Dexterity, his body size shrunk back to his old size, albeit much more toned. He would still be able to erupt with great strength, but now, he felt that he could control it much better. Derek shuffled from one foot to the other, like a boxer would. He could not imagine the speed at which he would now be able to run.

He noticed the notification he had expected to pop up was there. He ignored it for now and spent more of his stat points. He used 235 points to bring his Wisdom to 450. His mind felt clearer overall, but he definitely did not feel the whole new level that bringing a stat up to 500 brought with it.

Finally, with his stat points settled, he brought up the notification.

You have succeeded in increasing both your Strength and Dexterity to 500 points.

New Award Earned

Derek moved to the next message.

Offensive Powerhouse

You look to finish the fight in the shortest time possible. One hit kills are your normal. In order to maintain your explosive ways, you have focused your stat points on strictly offensive stats. You will be awarded with the following:

Two Offensive Skills (Please Choose)

Note: This is a one-time Award and cannot be upgraded.

Derek had been waiting for this ever since the previous Award. Because of his lack of offensive class skills, offensive skills were what he felt he needed most. Unable to wait any longer, he focused on the offensive skills.

Current Available Skill Points: 11

Note: One skill point is required to unlock any of the skills below. If you do not have any skill points, you may choose to unlock a skill at a later date.

Available Offensive Skills

Augment Projectile

Enhanced Strike

Glass Cannon

Lightning Pierce

Mastery (Choose your weapon)

Multi-Strike

Phantom Blade

Rapid Movement

Sweeping Slash

Whirlwind

Derek looked over the list of skills available.

Augment Projectile was an ability that let him increase the strength of a projectile weapon. Using it would allow a dagger or arrow to fly faster, farther, and would also increase its penetrating power. Derek had been using projectiles often lately, but they would never be a part of his main focus, so he dismissed the skill.

Enhanced Strike seemed like his previous Heavy Blow skill. It focused his attack into a single strike, increasing his damage. He had not been missing Heavy Blow very much, so the only reason he would get this skill would be the possibility of the two skills combining.

Glass Cannon was very interesting. The skill would bring his Endurance down to 10, effectively eliminating his Stamina and non-gear defense. Afterward, the skill would distribute half of his Endurance to Strength and half to Dexterity.

Lightning Pierce was an instantaneous skill. It was more based on Dexterity than Strength. The skill would project him and his weapon forward at an insane speed. The skill moved in a straight line and it would take some time getting used to attacking at the same time. Derek could see how someone without a high Dexterity would never be able to adapt to the skill.

Mastery was a passive skill, just like a Weapons Mastery skill. What Derek liked was the fact that the bonus would stack on top of his Heavy Weapons Mastery skill. He also wondered if the skill would combine with his old Glaive Mastery skill. His previous mastery skill had combined with Glaive Mastery earlier, so he did not expect to get lucky and being able to combine it twice.

Multi-Strike was one of the skills that Derek was interested in. It was a pretty basic skill. When activated, a strike would hit twice. It would be like stabbing someone in the exact same spot two times. Even though it was basic, with his attack and Strength, the strike would be devastating. And, as the skill leveled, the cost would decrease, and the possibility of more strikes would be added. He favored this skill greatly over Enhanced Strike, even with the possible skill combination.

Phantom Blade was a feint type of attack. He could see its uses for speed type fighters, but for him, it was not very useful. It projected an attack towards an opponent when you attacked, which left it up to the enemy to try to figure out which attack was real.

Rapid Movement was nice. It increased all movement while in combat. It was very much like Haste, but it was a passive skill. When it recognized that the user was in combat, the buffs would automatically activate. How it recognized when one was in combat, Derek did not know. He guessed that it was based on the user’s mindset. The overall increases in movement were not near as much as Haste, but, being a passive skill, there was no cooldown and the ability was always active.

Sweeping Slash seemed to be just like his Wide Sweep skill. It was actually the skill that Derek was missing the most. When he used the skill, it would project a crescent like blade one meter out from his weapon. Of course, that would increase as the skill leveled, as would the damage inflicted. It was a perfect area of effect skill for someone like him.

Finally, Whirlwind was a skill sort of like Sweeping Slash. But instead of the half circle in front of him, it would attack the full 360 degrees. After the attack, a residual attack would circle around him for five more seconds. It was a nice skill, it would be great if he were surrounded by enemies.

After breaking down the pros and cons of each skill, Derek narrowed it down to Mastery, Multi-Strike

, Rapid Movement, and Sweeping Slash. Luckily, he would be able to choose two of the skills. After a bit more consideration, Sweeping Slash was a must for him. It may not be the best skill of the bunch, but it was a skill he was used to and it should start out at a higher level.

Soon, Derek eliminated Rapid Movement from the list. He just had not needed to move any faster than he already did, and with his new stats, he did not even know how much his movement had increased. He figured that it was already more than enough for his fighting style.

This left his choices down to Mastery and Multi-Strike. The extra mastery for using his weapon would be great, but at the same time, his Strength and Dexterity was already super high. Not to mention that his Heavy Weapons Mastery was already very close to reaching level 20. Multi-Strike would be a outrageously powerful single target skill. If he could combine the skill with Channel Void or Sweeping Slash, he could not imagine the devastation that could be wrought by it.

After minutes of debating himself, Derek let out a sigh and selected Sweeping Slash and Multi-Strike. He confirmed his choices.

Sweeping Slash Learned Successfully.

Skill Points Remaining: 10

Derek nodded.

Multi-Strike Learned Successfully.

Skill Points Remaining: 9

Soon, a tinge of pain flashed in his head, and a notification popped up in his vision.

Dormant skill similar to Sweeping Slash found…

Merging skills…

Skills successfully merged...

The pain was not even a distraction anymore. He opened up his notification to see how his new skill had leveled.

Congratulations

Sweeping Slash has reached level 18

He nodded. Happy with the skill combination. He viewed the skill in its entirety.

Sweeping Slash

Your slash creates an arc in front of you, damaging enemies up to 9 meters in front of you, causing damage up to 90% of your normal attack. Level the skill to increase damage and range and reduce cost and cooldown.

Cost: 160 Mana

Cooldown: 30 Seconds

Derek smiled. He wondered if he would be able to augment his glaive with void before activating Multi-Strike then using Sweeping Slash. He could not help but let out a little chuckle. He looked at his other skill.

Multi-Strike

Upon activation, your next attack will be dealt twice. Level the skill to increase the amount of attacks and reduce cooldown.

Cost: 500 Mana

Cooldown: 10 Minutes

Derek was content with his new status. He was prepared to go run the new undying dungeon. For the final time before heading to the dungeon, he checked his new status.

Status

Name

Derek Hunt

Age

29

Level

41

Experience

4458/10,500

Class

Champion of the Void (Epic)

Race

Human (Modified)

Health

5250

Mana

4500

Stamina

5150

Defense

51 (Armor + 0)

Attack

100 (Weapon + 0)

Stats

Strength

500

Dexterity

500

Endurance

515

Vitality

525

Intelligence

220

Wisdom

450

Stat Points Remaining

3

Skills

Channel Void

Level 6

Channel the Void through your body, into attacks or defenses.

Cure Toxin

Level 4

Removes poisons and toxins.

Dismantle

Level 12

Increase ability to dismantle deceased organic life forms.

Greater Meditation

Level 2

Enter meditative state to increase recovery.

Heavy Weapons Mastery

Level 18

Increase damage with heavy weapons.

Identify

Level 14

Appraise objects or entities.

Magic Resistance

Level 8

Increase natural magic resistance by 1.5% per level.

Multi-Strike

Level 1

Your next attack hits twice.

Rejuvenation

Level 9

Restores 45% HP over 30 seconds.

Sweeping Slash

Level 18

Project a slash in front of you.

Void Call

Level 2

Call out to the Void.

Void Sense

Level 2

Sense the void.

Void Shift

Level 3

Become one with and move within the void.

Skill Points Remaining

9

Skill Upgrade Points Remaining

4

Awards

Greater Giant Slayer, Jack of All, Lesser Dungeon Explorer, Lesser Slayer of the Unknown, Meat Shield, Lesser Explorer, Offensive Powerhouse

Derek closed the window and nodded. “Let’s go.”