The thought was neutral, oddly detached as he swung the limp hand from the thin tendrils holding it. At first, he thought he was in shock, a not unfamiliar experience from both his time as a miner and in the militia. But he was clear-headed, and lowered the arm, aligning it on his lap with the same practiced detachment as placing a broken beam on his worktable. He then took out the health potion he partially drank earlier.
"Try to take control of the healing," the same voice from the wall was back. "Direct it to your arm, so that the effect is not wasted on less important things."
Axl frowned and looked more closely, finally seeing a spider barely larger than his palm on a stone, looking at him.
"You're from Nox?" he asked, his voice coarse and uneven.
"Yeps! I've been sent over to give you the reward from your quest. But you should wait to choose that until you sort yourself out. There's no real hurry on my side, don't worry."
Axl eyed the small creature suspiciously, as [Mana Shroud] showed it was a tight pinprick of Mana, a creature clearly in the F grade, but its Mana flow was strange, sluggish in how it coursed through, oddly undirected. A problem for later, and he turned back to his arm.
It was still bleeding, but not nearly as much as he expected, the pain about the same as the far shallower injuries he got fighting Olkan, which was strange. But he'd take it, and he slowly sipped the healing potion. Somehow, the liquid's potency was far more vivid to his Skill than before, and he effortlessly corralled it to his arm.
With a snap of pain, the bone reattached, and the muscle started to regrow around it, the sight oddly hypnotic. But the liquid ran out barely as the process got started, so he downed the second vial, this time trying to fully extract as much efficiency as possible from the liquid. He directed the energy into re-linking the main stretches of muscle and reconnecting the nerves, not bothering with filling in all the gaps in muscle or the skin above it.
He expected a surge of pain when the nerves started feeling his hand again, but it was only a brief series of pinpricks as he was slowly able to open and close his fist again. Not closing it too tightly, of course, but the hand was usable, and all the bleeding stopped. The wound still looked dramatic, but it was at least stable.
"I'd heard that your Mana control was good, but this is crazy," the little spider said, sounding amused. "I'd have thought you have a glyphic class if I didn't see you fight just now.
"Oh?" Axl looked up at the eight eyes that seemed to dominate most of the small creature's face. "And who did you hear that from, exactly?"
"The entire nest is abuzz with the wolfpack's invasion, of course! It’s the most exciting thing to happen in years. I have a nestmate that saw your fight with the elf too, but I thought he was messing with me when he said a level one elf beat one almost twenty levels above him! "
"Well, there is some exaggeration there, since I didn't beat him."
The spider waved a tiny forepaw in the air. "Yeah, yeah, this isn’t a System assessment, no need to get hung up on the technicalities. My name’s Moxlin, by the way, we all have a part of mommy's name in ours, but this one was still free even if it had two whole letters next to each other, because the previous Moxlin died very badly, so her name was considered unlucky, but I really like it."
"I'm Roken," Axl replied, starting to get exhausted by the spider's manic energy. Still, if she was so willing to keep talking, he might as well get some more information. But he didn't forget how safe it felt to get information out from Olkan, too. Not to mention that this was an F-graded creature and he was injured, so this could be an even more dangerous situation than before. At the very least, she'd report any important information back to Nox, if the spider lady wasn't actively listening. Now that he thought about it, she absolutely was.
"So what were you saying about boons?" he asked.
"Ah, yes, well, defeating an enemy so much higher leveled than you certainly skyrocketed your levels, that crazy wolf being at least level 22 for the extended cap. I'd guess you made it at least to the boundary to late G-grade in one fell swoop, maybe even the level cap if you have a common class! Exciting!"
"What's the level cap?" he asked, fairly confident that a nobody like Roken didn't know this either, and it didn’t reveal anything unique from his Status screen.
"Depends on the class, all common and uncommon ones have it at level 20, but they can be higher if you fulfill some requirements. But I don't know much about that, my class is an Uncommon crafting class, and I managed to push it to level 22 before evolving, and that was really tough, I barely made it. If you wanted to push the cap, I'd be careful, it might just get you stuck instead, and you'd be left with a belly full of regret that you didn't manage to continue in your cultivation path by being too greedy."
Axl nodded, memorizing every scrap of information this spider was so willingly dishing out.
"So you're an artisan? Why are you here, isn’t it dangerous for you to be outside your nest?"
"Pffft," the spider somehow managed to make the sound without lips and give the impression of rolling her eyes. "This is well inside mommy's sphere of influence, so there's really nothing dangerous left, at least not in the F-grade."
He frowned at this tidbit, the implication being there were still threats at his grade, so he turned to look to both ends of his narrow corridor, able to see and sense far more than before. Each stitch of vine and stone was clearly visible, almost starkly so, even without [Mana Shroud]. He could also hear the sounds from the pack still prowling the lake's shores with unusual precision, even make out individual creatures in the distance. This was likely due to his Attributes increasing with the level-up, and Axl became eager to hurry to the point.
"What were you saying about boons again?"
"Ah, right, sorry, I got distracted, that happens sometimes. Every several levels, the Deep System gives you a reward based on how you got them, called boons. You can cash them in one at a time or combine them for something better. But it’s a gamble, sometimes a single boon can get you over the hump on some bottleneck or difficulty, or even keep you alive, so you might not even get to a hoarded boon. It's also worse to keep a boon for a long time then cash it in without combining it, so it's not great to just keep them if you don’t plan for a combination. But it's almost always better to combine them if you can, and you certainly should, since you got at least two of them at once!"
"Did you combine yours?" Axl asked, trying to sound casual.
"Not the first one, since I was struggling to find what craft I should focus on at the time, but I did with the next two."
"So you got a boon every seven levels?"
"Yeps! Why I pushed to level beyond my cap, so I could get another boon before ascending, but then I got thirsty and wanted for another level, and that almost did me in."
"I'll take a few moments to look at my own boons. Is that fine?"
"Of course! You probably even have an Achievement for what you did here, it'll be great! I'll just wait here looking at the wall to give you some privacy."
The little spider then turned around, face almost touching the stone in front of her. It seemed like a ridiculous gesture, since obviously she'd be able to detect things with high Perception or a Skill even if facing the other way. Not to mention that Nox probably had him under a microscope.
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Still, Axl turned to his Status and was simultaneously overjoyed and disappointed by what he saw.
Name: Xel-389b (Roken)
Level: 16
Class: Usurpation of Balance (Rare)
Core: (none)
Lineage: Water Elf (G)
Attributes
Strength: 98
Endurance: 98
Agility: 98
Perception: 98
Intelligence: 98
Wisdom: 98
Charisma: 98
Luck: 98
Free Points: 0
Free Boons: 4
Dao: Glimpse of Lightning
Skills: Mana Shroud (Rare, Proficiency G.3), Mind-Soul Bulwark (Rare)
Titles: Last Human of Luna (Terrania), Oocile's Chosen (Oocile), Marked Prey (Predatorial Conclave)
Quests: Establish the Terrania Nexus (Terrania), Void Tribute (Nox of the Void), Provenance Trial (Nox of the Void, updated)
Achievements (Consumed = 2): Karmic Enmity (Vikam Elves), Class Rebirth, Earliest Rebirth, Grand Slayer, Grand Awakening (Consumable)
First, there was a profound relief that his Terrania Nexus quest had no updates, meaning he lost no time in his frantic scramble to survive. That felt like the biggest gain, in fact. He also was quietly satisfied that [Mana Shroud]'s proficiency rose to three, reflecting that strange state of empowerment he managed to induce at the end of the battle with Puppy.
The minor disappointment was that he only got two achievements from all this, Grand Slayer and Grand Awakening, and that his level was only sixteen. This was a far call from the level twenty cap that Moxlin predicted he'd get to, and probably meant his class was harder to level than most. Not a huge deal, and probably still very much worth the extra benefit of having a Rare class, but it was still a concern given how apparently easy it was to get bottlenecked in your progress.
Olkan mentioned it as well, and it was apparently what did in Oocile himself. Even Moxlin mentioned it in her rambling explanation. It seemed like he'd have to be extra careful of that risk. Did it just mean he got no Karmic Energy when killing? Or that meditative cultivation simply was too slow? But he didn't dare ask the spider more about that, since it could reveal too much about his Rare class.
The biggest positive was, of course, the sheer extent that his Attributes grew, going from just over a dozen in each to almost a hundred. Only 45 of those points came from his class, as well, with almost the same amount coming from his Achievements and Titles. Hopefully, this meant that he was particularly powerful for his level, but he couldn't be sure, since he absolutely wouldn't ask the spider about that.
He first turned to his boons, wanting to do that first before acting on any of his Achievements or Nox's quest, since there was apparently a ticking clock for cashing in those gains. He was also quite pleased that he got four of them, meaning that he got one every four levels, almost twice as frequently as Moxlin got hers.
>>Combine boons? Yes/No
Seemed simple enough, so Axl just accepted, and felt a slight pressure throughout his body, as if a slender blade chopped at him from the inside every stitch of his flesh. It was barely a moment, and it was gone.
>>Attributes activated: Vitality (Bodily Regeneration) and Mentality (Inner Mana stores)
Axl raised an eyebrow and reopened the Attributes section of his Status.
Attributes
Strength: 98
Endurance: 98
Agility: 98
Vitality: 98
Mentality: 98
Perception: 98
Intelligence: 98
Wisdom: 98
Charisma: 98
Luck: 98
Free Points: 0
Free Boons: 0
Two more have been joined to the list, raising the number of his Attributes from eight to ten. He immediately realized this was quite a great reward given his class, since it added a flat number of points to all his Attributes with each level. But what did it mean before? That he simply didn't have Vitality and now he did?
Axl turned to his injured arm and felt his regeneration drastically pick up as he focused on it, willing the tissue to re-knit and reform, almost like he did with the healing potion. It would still take hours for it to restore the damage fully, but he seemed to understand what was going on. An Attribute not on your Status would act in a passive state at the lowest it can, and he imagined that if he didn't have Strength, he wouldn't be able to tense his muscles to their maximum, but only flex up to some floor level of tension.
But this wasn’t some insane advantage, since even before getting the Attribute, what would have been a mortal injury that would have him reeling in shock and bleeding out in seconds was something that could be largely taken care of by two potions. He only wondered how the baseline was calculated for somebody who didn't have even values on all their Attributes. Would it be the lowest value? Some calculation based on the level? This felt like an important question, since it would greatly inform how much more powerful he'd be compared to the more specialized classes.
Next, he turned to his two new Achievements.
>>Grand Slayer (Stable):
>>Kill a Karmic Creature level 25 or higher while still level 1
>>+15 to all Attributes, +1.5% to all Attributes
>>Grand Awakening (Consumable):
>>Gain 15 levels at once when entering G grade
>>Choice of Skill
The first one was self-explanatory, a large boost to his Attributes that would help him out immediately with the flat bonus and long-term with the percentage. He noted that neither was as good as his titles, Oocile's Chosen boosting his Attributes by his level number, while Last Human of Luna gave a whopping 10% to his Attributes. Somehow, it seemed like Titles were straight-up better, but he figured there had to be more to that.
It also seemed like each Title was linked to a subsystem, even the one that triggered the hunt, so maybe those had to be powered by that specific subsystem, not the Deep System. Axl couldn’t help but grin at the thought of being a costly expense to that venting wolf's subsystem just by surviving his hunt.
He also noticed that his new consumable Achievement was a better version of his old one, Awakening Flood, which he got when first getting implanted in Roken's body. That one he was able to consume to give him a mental skill, which was upgraded by Terrania to give him [Mind-Soul Bulwark], but Grand Awakening notably had no indication it was being given by a subsystem. Maybe that was the real upgrade for the higher tier Achievement, that it would be the true System giving out the reward.
Not waiting any longer, he consumed the Achievement, and was somewhat relieved to see that Terrania didn't offer a chance to upgrade it, which he hoped meant the neuromorph thought there wasn't a need. But it could also be that Terrania didn't have access to something given off by the Deep System.
>>Drill Strike (Uncommon)
>>Entwine Mana into an attack of high momentum and piercing potential. Scales with Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom.
>>Solarian Sacrifice (Uncommon)
>>Consume part of your body to greatly empower an attack or skill. Scales with average of all Attributes.
>>Aquatic Laser (Uncommon)
>>Produce a concentrated beam of water-attuned Mana. Potential scales with lineage and connection to water.
The options stirred conflicting emotions in Axl. On the one hand, he was overjoyed that they were so strongly influenced by his previous life back in Luna, that this true System could tap into his real body and the life there to incorporate concepts such as lasers, and even mention Sol.
But he was certainly not enthusiastic about how the System offered him something that deepened his connection to being a water-elf, nor that it thought he was some sort of masochist. Still, the two later options seemed strong as all hell, [Solarian Sacrifice]'s scaling synergizing perfectly with his class, and he guessed even [Aquatic Laser] would be powerful, given how attuned he was to the lake's water when he dove in.
Rationally, those were the ideal options, one an attack of last resort that made use of his class, the other a powerful ranged attack that would fix a huge deficiency in his current fighting posture. [Drill Strike], on the other hand, was clearly only a short-range attack, and while it scaled with four Attributes, making some use of his balanced Attributes, it wouldn’t be as strong a choice.
But even despite all that, the very nature of the Skill called out to him. He'd used a drill for most of his life outside the pod. There was the massive drill at the front of his rig to dig deep into inert lunar rock, the hand-operated drillgun to pry out precious lunar fulger, even the tiny finger drills he used for Mana inscription.
He found himself drawn to that entwinement, the slender lines forming a spire into a fine point, always in motion and in balance. It was such an elegant use of Mana, to braid it in this way, the idea never occurred to him before, and was now so plainly clear. Two strands against each other, then pressed upwards. Carving out a bridge between the Earth and the Heavens.
Something stirred at his soul, the simple construction of [Mind-Soul Bulwark] glowing in his chest, as if trying to restrain something from within. It shuddered, but instead of weakened, it felt empowered, the small marble glowing with the ineffable feeling he got at his Dao Vision, the very nature of lightning blooming in a flash.
Another Skill was listed in addition to the other three, and Axl smiled as he made his choice.
>>Attuned Drill Strike (Rare)
>>Entwine the fabric of reality into an attack of high momentum and piercing potential. Scales with the lowest value of all Attributes.