ShanDeRad
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Chapter 25
🕑 Added 2024-04-20 17:55:44 +0000 UTCShaun learnt many things about his new skill over the next five days, the first being that advanced skills levelled much slower than the basic ones, he had only gained 2 levels in the skill and he had been using it constantly. The second thing he learnt was that with every level he gained in the skill the radius of his echo increased by another blast, so at level 4 he could feel up to 125 metres and at level 5 he could now get to 150. It was also very useful as he no longer had to scout ahead to prepare for monsters as he knew where they would be much further in advance. He was also able to use the skill to choose which tunnels to go down to get to more monsters. The last interesting thing about the skill was that the vibrations of the same type of monster were very similar, with the only difference being that it would be slightly stronger or weaker depending on its level.
His Affinity was something else entirely. Unlike his skills he didn’t get an immediate understanding of how it worked or what to do, it was something he was going to need to work on before he could instinctively use it. He ended up putting his AP into Soul and Intelligence, hoping that with these being higher that it would be easier to work with the Earth Affinity but it didn’t seem to help much. He had tried to break off a small part of the tunnel wall so he had something smaller to work with but it didn’t work and he was hesitant to put everything he had into it, as the last time he had done that he had collapsed an entire tunnel.
He had reached level 20 in his class 3 days prior after hunting down monsters for two days straight and as he had previously assumed he had gotten another opportunity to either upgrade or add another skill to his class from three available options.
*[Basic] Critical Weakness – A Rogue needs to know where and when to hit their target. This skill unlocks the basic ability to find a being's weak spot/s before entering a fight. Can not be used if already engaged in combat.*
*[Advanced] One with the Shadow – A Rogue is nothing without being able to move in the shadow’s unseen. This skill allows for an advanced understanding of how to move without being seen or heard. If attacking from Stealth offers a medium chance of dealing critical damage. Note: This skill is an upgrade on the [Basic] Stealth skill, this skill will replace the existing one.*
He had been offered this two previously and turned them down so that he could pick up the Dual Wielding skill, which looking back was the perfect choice, as if he hadn’t had picked up that skill and levelled it to the point he had he would not have come out the winner of the battle with the Alpha. The third skill he had to choose from was different from what he expected.
*[Basic] Empowered Strike – This skill allows for the ability to power up an attack with mana, dealing increased damage at a level dependent on the mana imbued into the strike. Can be used with all forms of weapons that make physical contact with a target.*
Although the advanced stealth skill was still something he wanted, having been able to upgrade one of his skills already on his own he was hesitant to pick it now. Instead, he had chosen the Empowered Strike skill, it let him use his mana in a fight and he figured it would be good practice, which in turn might help him use his affinity better.
With making it to level 20 he had also met the requirements of the Tutorials Stage 1 objectives. He had now hit level 10 in his Race, he had hoped for something special to occur but nothing happened, and he had also hit over 20,000 TE, an objective he had set for himself to do before finishing Stage 1.
Shaun concentrated on training his skills after that, making sure he was in the best position he could be in once Stage 1 finished, he had wasted a lot of time at the beginning of Stage 1 where he could have been out getting stronger but instead was held back by getting used to the changes that the System had bought, as well as having to stick with his old group. Now that he was alone he wanted to fully dedicate himself to being the best he could be, that meant levelling up everything he could and getting a better understanding of his Earth Affinity.
When there was only 3 days left before the countdown hit 0 and he decided to settle in to get some sleep in a small cavern he had come across. He was running a little low on water but he had enough to make it the next few days and food wasn’t an issue with all of the monster meat he had in his inventory. Once he had eaten and had his fill he turned to his daily Affinity training, he hadn’t been able to make it work on the rocks around him without making them start to shake and when he used both his Affinity and his Echo skill he could feel that the walls were built in a way that if he made one wrong move and tried to take out the wrong part of a wall to train with, that it would all come crumbling down around him.
Now instead of focusing on the rock he decided to focus on another part of his Affinity, metal. He put one of his daggers on the ground in front of him and focused on it like he did with the rock around him. He could feel it through his Affinity, but it was very different to what he had done before, it felt more unyielding, stronger than the surrounding cavern like its shape was set. He assumed that this was because the makeup of the metal was more densely packed together, whereas the rock was more malleable.
Shaun didn’t give up though, but he did change his approach. Rather than try and manipulate the metal he just tried to move it without trying to change its shape at all. He spent hours sitting on the ground just staring at the dagger telling it what to do in his mind, when that failed he started speaking out loud, feeling a bit foolish, but it wasn’t like anyone could hear him.
The next day he changed his approach, rather than trying to give the dagger orders he sat and closed his eyes, feeling out with his Affinity and connecting with it, it came slowly but he didn’t lose focus and continued exploring every inch of the dagger until he could form a perfect image in his mind of it laying on the ground in front of him. He felt the way that it was thickest in its centre and would slowly thin out until it got to its edges, he could feel the blades edges, the slight chips that had occurred from all of the fighting and the once sharp blade now slightly dulled from overuse and little maintenance.
Once he was confident that there was nothing else he would be able to uncover about the dagger he then started to try and push his mana at it, similar to what he would do when he was using his Empowered Strike, but instead of trying to power up the dagger he wanted to wrap it in a cocoon of his mana and then use that to move it around. He didn’t open his eyes when doing this, completely relying on his Affinity to sense if anything occurred. It took a while before anything started to happen and Shaun had to put a lot of his will towards making it move, but slowly he sensed it start to tremble. Not letting his excitement break his focus, he continued applying his will to the dagger, keeping up the stream of mana he was sending at it, slowly it started to rise into the air, a little at a time. The trembling didn’t stop, probably a lack of control on his side, but the fact that he had been able to raise it into the air at all was a great start to being able to use his Earth Affinity.
He didn’t go out in search of monsters to hunt after that, instead he would spend his day remaining practising moving the dagger. Every time his mana got low he would stop and reflect on what was working and the improvements he had made, once his mana got back up to full, he was regaining 30 mana every 10 minutes at this point, he started practising again. This is how he spent the next two days until he was on the final day of Stage 1, in this time he had improved significantly with being able to control the blade. When he was able to lift the dagger up within a few seconds without the trembling that he had experienced when he first started, he started practising moving the dagger around in the air, first up and down then side to side, changing the direction in which the point was facing.
When he could successfully do this he stood up in the middle of the cavern and practised moving the dagger around him, he could hold it above his shoulder, move it around his back and even sent it flying around the cavern.
When he was confident, he moved from picking the dagger off of the ground to withdrawing it from its sheath, this took a little more time to do then just rising it from where had previously placed it in front of him, as he had to make sure the dagger came out of its sheath from the right angle while not stabbing himself, but after some trial and error he could now pull a dagger out of its sheath and have it floating in the air beside him in a second.
Once he had a handle on the basics he moved on to practising attacks. This was more difficult than Shaun thought it would be, if he was standing still and concentrating he had no issue being able to send a dagger from its sheath straight at an imaginary monster that he pictured standing along the wall of the cavern, but when he incorporated doing this while moving it became significantly harder. Not giving up he continued his training and when he was ready he moved to training with his sword in hand at the same time as sending his dagger flying through the cavern.
It was difficult work and took more out of him than just physical training, having to strain his mind in two different directions, one on his Affinity and the other on fighting with his sword left him exhausted. But what he had accomplished was beyond what he had imagined. Having an affinity was a huge advantage on the others in the tutorial and he had been one of the first 10 to get one across every tutorial.
By the time he had finished practising for the day he had only a few hours left of Stage 1 and wanted to be in good shape, not knowing what would come next. He did a final check of the objectives wanting to make sure they really were all complete.
**Stage 1 objectives: 69,824 participants
3 hours remaining
Collect a total of 10,000 Tutorial essence (TE): 20,764 Collected - Complete
Reach level 10: Level 10 - Complete
Survive**
As expected all of the objectives showed as completed, he would have liked to train up his level to 11 but the trade off was worth it when he thought about how much he had improved with his Affinity. The amount of people left in the tutorial had dropped again and over 30% of the entire tutorial had died before the end of Stage 1 and considering that it wasn’t easy to get to Level 10 he didn’t expect the number of participants to move on to Stage 2 to be very high.
He got in a quick sleep and woke just in time to check himself over and make sure he had everything he needed on hand. Deciding that he would prepare for the worst he made sure to have his sword and a dagger in hand and two more dagger on his waist. Then he waited until he finally saw the notifications he had been expecting pop up in front of him.
*Tutorial Stage 1 Complete**
Congratulations on surviving Stage 1 of the tutorial citizens of Earth, the survival rate of this stage was 68.2%. For you to move forward you needed to have completed all set objectives, only 17,967 have successfully moved forward to Stage 2 and will be given a reward for your performance in Stage 1. For those that managed to survive but did not meet the requirements to move forward, know in your heart that you have failed and will not join the ranks of those destined to become strong and rule. You will spend the remainder of the tutorial in the Stage 1 area.
The rankings of the tutorial leaderboard are as follows:
Nathan Alback
Sarah Duchaunt
Li Al Sal
Rodger Jacobs
Vivenne Grace
…………….
28. Shaun Clermont
……………..
For those moving to Stage 2 please prepare for immediate departure.
There was a lot to take in from that announcement, first over a thousand more people had died in the last few hours, probably pushing as hard as they could to meet the objectives and ended up dying in the process. Second was that only around 18,000 people made it to Stage 2, that was less than a third of the remaining people alive in the tutorial, Shaun actually expected less if he was honest. Looking at the leaderboard he was at number 28 which was disappointing, he had hoped he would be higher, although without a profession he was solely relying on his class for race levels. Looking through the list he saw Alan, the ruler of Ruin, in the high teens and could also see Trevor, Michael, Gabe and Eric as well as a few others on the list much further down.
*Transportation to Stage 2 commencing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Good luck.*
