Landing on the first floor, Horace was unsure which was worse - the fact he still vividly remembered the burning feeling or the frustration of being back on the first floor.
Thankfully his stats looked much healthier now - the lowest being Perception at 9. What surprised him the most was however what he saw under Skills, where instead of three skills there were four.
Time Dragon Bloodline [Passive, Soulbound] - The Blood of Dragons courses through the user's veins. The user gains +1 bonus to Endurance each level up, along with 2 additional free points per level up. Additionally the user gains 50% more XP from enemies.
His eyes caught on Soulbound first. He roughly knew what that meant with items - the one it was bound to couldn't have it stolen away by others, being able to recall it. Eldritch Warriors were mostly known for this as they could earn the ability to enchant a weapon, binding it to them. In theory that meant he wouldn't lose this skill no matter what. He also presumed that if he retained it, it would automatically upgrade.
"Okay... The suffering was worth it." He mumbled as his eyes caught on the fact his Advanced Arcane Explosion was still there. Luck seemed to favour him today. "Apart from the fact I'm stuck in a Nightmare because of a small mistake." He grumbled before turning to his enemy, the Abyssal Goblin.
Their fight was much simpler - Horace somehow retained all the active skills, which along with the fact he had ground out proficiencies allowed him to fight as if he still had most passives - the only missing one being Lingering Mana, which he couldn't get the hang of at all.
Its head rolled on the ground within seconds, the familiar chime sounding in his ears.
You have earned a total of 28,500 XP by defeating an enemy with a significantly higher level than you.
Time Dragon Bloodline has granted you an additional 14,500 XP.
He took a deep breath as he distributed his stats. He really wanted to get Arcane Swordsman again - it would upgrade some of his skills, namely Arcane Explosion. However he also knew there was a chance of unlocking a Unique class.
Unique classes were without a doubt the best classes. However they required multiple things, one being consumption of an Elixir or Affinity Tuner. Elixirs tended to grant special stats or sometimes skills. Affinity Tuners injected a special type of mana into the person, granting them affinity with it. Of course he knew only people like Terence Oran, with his family's backing, could get them normally. But possibly the system had recognised whatever the Architect gave him as one such item.
"Well. No use wondering." He sighed and confirmed his stats.
[Strength: 11 → 27]
[Agility: 15 → 27]
[Endurance: 20 → 27]
[Intelligence: 20 → 30]
[Perception: 9 → 20]
He breathed deeply as he felt the power in his body shift, heavily. Fifty-six stat points, not counting the eight bonus ones he got into Endurance, meant that right now he had an average of roughly twenty-five across his stats at level nine. This made him very happy - after all he could say without any issues that he was now the strongest in his class, once you also accounted for the proficiencies.
The second floor was far too easy - he nearly matched the wolf in strength and easily overtook it in every other stat. His improved Perception also allowed him to glimpse the bastard's stats in a higher-equal-lower comparison, which was useful.
After defeating it and gaining a hearty thirty-one thousand and fifty points he was faced with the class selection screen again. Unfortunately Arcane Swordsman wasn't there.
But there was something very interesting.
[ARCANE HEXBLADE]
He didn't know what this class was - after all his school had barely covered the Arcane Swordsman, only using it as an example, given that the well-known Grey Wolf was one and had been able to become a general under the Wolf Totem.
However he knew of a Hex class, that being the Hex Mage - a Debuff type Magic Class whose main choice of debuffs were curses.
He selected it. After all he had a pretty sizeable ability to deal damage, so gaining the ability to inflict curses would be useful. Blinding those elven bastards would be deeply cathartic.
With a ding his stats and skills upgraded, netting him one new passive and two new active skills.
Hexblade Harvest [Passive] Whenever the user kills a creature, they heal up to 50% of damage dealt within the last minute.
Hexblade Weapon [Active] Cost 1-10 Mana. Allows the user to create a [Soulbound] weapon out of their own mana. This weapon can take any form while also being capable of changing its form. Additionally this weapon leaves behind Corrupted Mana, dealing damage per second equal to 1/5th of the user's Intelligence, which is stackable up to five times. Cost scales with size of weapon.
Alternatively a weapon can be enchanted with this skill. This weapon can be stored in a subspace when not in use and recalled at a cost of 1 Mana.
Hexblade's Curse [Active] Cost 20 Mana. Marks a target with the curse of the Hexblade. The marked target takes double the damage of Hexblade Weapon and can take double the stacks from it. Additionally one of the target's abilities is [Cursed].
He breathed out as he finished reading them. The first thing he noted was that none of his other skills had upgraded or changed. Which wasn't an issue right now. The second thing was that... they were good. Undoubtedly strong - mainly once you considered the fact he had his proficiencies on top of this. It would also solve one of his main issues - that being his sword chipping easily against higher level monsters. Not to mention being able to curse one of their abilities.
He also had a theory - if, by some miracle, he gained a good enchanted weapon he could bring it into his subspace while dying and, if he retained that skill, summon it back out, as spaces like these were tied to the user's soul.
He assigned his stats quickly and found himself happy with everything.
[Strength: 27 → 30]
[Agility: 27 → 30]
[Endurance: 27 → 30]
[Intelligence: 30 → 36]
[Perception: 20 → 22]
It was, without a doubt, a nice spread. After that he enchanted the sword with Hexblade Weapon. He immediately noticed it was similar to Arcane Enchantment, however with one massive difference - somehow the skill corrupted the mana before applying it.
The next few floors were a breeze. The Ent could barely strike him and the damage-over-time allowed him to take it out easily, along with his explosion skill. The spiders were even easier - they could barely touch him and with Blade Dance the webs posed little risk. He also tested Blade Claymore when he got close. It was undeniably an interesting approach - after all it turned a defensive skill into a burst of damage.
Lastly, the Ogre. The big oaf had a nice curse on his Agility, which made him nothing more than a tankier Ent. He very much enjoyed beating it to the ground. He slit its ankles while it stumbled around like an oversized toddler, then inflicted minor wounds, enjoying how its body rotted. And before you call him a psychopath - try dying more than five times before saying anything.
And once again as it fell, time seemed to freeze. Horace grinned as he spoke, slightly off-timing, in a mocking echo of the voice that filled the chamber.
"So. Do you mind explaining why I noticed a temporal anomaly in the tower I created, child?"
"So. Do you mind explaining why I noticed a temporal anomaly in the tower I created, child?"
He might not have the ability to beat the shit out of this guy but he could very well annoy him. What was he going to do? Kill him?