NOVEL NEXT Chapter 261: Luck really is a skill
Ronan was really glad the stupid monsters hadn't decided to kill him in bed. It meant he could stay on the exceptionally comfortable futuristic mattress for the five minutes he had left until he was transported to stage 3.
The only downside to the nightmare difficulty tutorial was that there was a severe lack of elite enemies. He wanted to cultivate. Then again, it was possible he would find some in stage 3. The difficulty spiked rapidly in the more challenging tutorials.
Instead all he had to entertain himself were the two endless treasury tokens. They were only epic rarity, but he was hoping that his new class and his thousands of points in luck might give him some truly incredible items. Maybe some overpowered legacy grimoires or amazing cultivation arts.
[Endless Treasury Token (Epic)] x2 has been consumed!
You have received [Legacy Grimoire 153AO6 (Epic)]!
Legacy Grimoire 153AO6 (Epic)
Formed upon the death of a sapient being, legacy grimoires allow the one who consumes them to gain knowledge, talent, stats, mastery, or potentially even skills from the deceased.
You have received [Dynamic Flow Mystic Energy Art (Epic)]!
Dynamic Flow Mystic Energy Art (Epic)
It is unknown who created this mystic energy cultivation art, but its potency is irrefutable. All energy originates from particular nodes in the body and must travel to another point in order to complete the desired task. Mana and stamina are used for skills, and even health points must shift to maintain the vitality of a being. Unless one is born or made perfect, there are countless inefficiencies present along the path of any given energy flow. Rather than instructing the user of this art on a particular method of cycling any given energy, it involves the redirection of the paths themselves, creating a dynamic-reactive energy system that always seeks the path of least resistance to its destination.
Ronan let out a low whistle. He was sure there were objectively better items he could have received, but the cultivation art was exactly what he needed. It had been a while since he reached perfect proficiency in the Nine Mouths Delta, and obtaining a higher rarity cultivation art would help increase the rate at which he cultivated his energy.
Not to mention that another art would eventually increase the potency of artful accumulation. That skill was the kind that only grew more powerful with time and the number of cultivation arts he mastered.
The legacy grimoire was a toss-up. It could be an incredible grimoire that gave him a skill or trait, but it might also be a useless one. Perhaps it was the records of a master chef and Ronan would get an epic cooking skill—amazing in theory, but useless in combat. He barely even needed to eat.
There was only one way to find out. Ronan used the grimoire, hoping it would be something worthwhile. When he saw the first parts of the memories locked within, a smile appeared on his face.
He watched a towering warrior standing in the middle of an opposing army. The warrior was alone, all of her allies having been slain. She towered over the majority of her foes. The exact heights were hard to understand from the perspective Ronan had, but she was at least three metres tall.
In her hands she held an enormous warhammer. One side of the head was a flat slab of metal that was stained in blood and had pieces of flesh stuck to it. The other side was fashioned into a spike and had an equally generous coating of gore and viscera. It was clear the warrior had been fighting this battle for a long time.
The enemy forces numbered in the thousands; a sea of armoured foes that stretched towards the horizon with no apparent end. Despite the unbelievable odds stacked against her, the warrior did not falter as she stepped towards the next wave of charging opponents.
With a fierce yell that embodied her fury, she swung the hammer as though it weighed less than a broom. The flat side of the hammer tore through the air, glowing red as it smashed into a man's temple and turned his head into a red mist. The swing continued, obliterating another five enemies before its momentum was finally halted, buried in the ribcage of the seventh unfortunate foe.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Ronan heard a hearty laugh from the warrior whose perspective he was embodying. Even amongst the carnage and almost certain death, she seemed not to care. "Where is the challenge!? I wish to die in battle, not from the exhaustion of slaughtering lambs!" The warrior's roar echoed across the battlefield, and in the distance Ronan heard another laugh, mirroring the warrior's own.
"So be it! I shall give you what you desire, orken scum!" Something soared into the air in the distance, a blurry shape resembling a missile. It flew so fast Ronan had a difficult time following it. Then a cloud of reddish dirt blew into the air a few metres in front of the warrior.
When it cleared, it revealed a human that almost matched the towering warrior for size. He was over two metres, wearing heavy plate armour and carrying a tower shield and a morningstar.
The new arrival's armour, shield, and weapon all seemed to glow with a golden radiance. His face was not visible through the helmet he wore—all that could be seen was a pair of golden eyes glowing behind the visor.
The warrior didn't say a word. Ronan felt her taking a subtle step backwards and shifting her stance. The next moment her hammer was already tearing through the air towards her new opponent.
Without sound the man raised his shield and took the hammer-blow. He was barely knocked back a centimetre, but the clang of metal on metal rang loud in the warrior's ears. Ronan could feel her arms tremble, but he wasn't sure if it was excitement or the backlash of her strike. Her next words made it clear.
"It seems you did not speak in vain, large human! A true opponent finally reveals themselves. Let our clash ring to the limits of the cosmos! Let Orkarax watch with glee as one of his children returns to the fold, stained in the blood of a million foes!" She whipped the hammer back as though it were a rapier, before spinning it and slamming it down over her head, spike-first, into the shield.
The memory started to blur and shatter at that point, but Ronan was desperate to keep watching. The strength the warrior displayed and her sheer thrill at the prospect of a real challenge mirrored his own tenacity. He wanted to witness more; to learn more from a greater expert.
Unfortunately the system was a cruel instructor and tore him from the grimoire. He simply lay on the mattress staring into space for a moment, letting everything he had just lived through sink into his memory.
I want to have one iteration like that. Fighting an endless horde of enemies and dying against an unbeatable foe. I'm sorry for cursing you, system. I'll forgive you a little if you give me more tutorials like the frost giant one. He sighed, stepping off the mattress and stretching.
Only once he was done did Ronan look at the notification that had appeared as the grimoire ejected him from its contents. His jaw dropped. He did a double take. Fuck me, I guess luck really is a skill.
Legacy Grimoire 153AO6 (Epic) has been consumed!
You have obtained the skill [Battle Frenzy (Epic)]!
You have unlocked [Blunt Weapons] Mastery!
[Club I], [Mace III], and [Hammer I] Mastery have been assimilated into [Blunt Weapons I] Mastery!
+526 [Blunt Weapons] Mastery!
You have reached the mastery cap for [Blunt Weapons] x5!
Blunt Weapons I has evolved to Blunt Weapons VI!
Deal more damage when striking with a blunt weapon. Gain mastery over blunt weapons faster. Weight penalties when wielding blunt weapons are reduced. Deal 2x damage when striking with a blunt weapon. When landing a successful blow with a blunt weapon, gain a 25% chance to apply a cascading bleeding effect for 11% of the strike's damage. When landing a successful blow to a vital area with a blunt weapon, gain a 50% chance to apply a concussion or stunning effect for [Strength^0.125] seconds.
Ronan once again thanked the fates and inwardly sang the praises of the divine power of the luck stat. That was the greatest legacy grimoire he'd ever used. Even the one that opened his eyes to sorcery hadn't been as impactful in a single moment as 153AO6 had been.
A skill, a 'higher' form of mastery, and then five bloody tiers in said mastery. It was fantastic. More than that, even having the chance to watch such a thrilling battle was worth the luck investment.
Before he got carried away, Ronan pulled up his latest epic skill to read what it actually did. It might come with severe drawbacks. Thankfully, it seemed pretty decent.
Battle Frenzy (Epic): The battle-thirst of Orkarax runs in your veins, compelling you to seek out greater and more terrifying challenges. If you run from your blood-destiny, only calamity awaits. An Orken that turns from a fight is one not worthy of remaining alive. The greater the challenge, the more you will be empowered to defeat it.
Okay, not as ideal as I had hoped. Who the hell is Orkarax? The warrior shouted that name during the battle. Some sort of god for her people? Is this even a skill a human is supposed to have? Many thoughts ran through Ronan's head, most of them nervous.
Despite that, the only way to truly find out if the skill was a boon or a curse would be to see how it actually worked. Thankfully, the countdown was close to running out and he would be heading to stage 3 of the nightmare tutorial for the first time when it did. Let's see what you've got in store for me this time, system.