37: Finally Getting Out
As soon as they got the chance to calm down and assess everything that had occurred, Aidan opened up his notifications to see the options he would learn for his Level 15 Class ability.
But before that, he received a rather surprising notification:
You have gained a title!
“Smartass II”
You raised your Intelligence attribute to 25. You’re becoming increasingly aware how important knowledge can be!
+2 Intelligence
To his utter shock, he gained another two attribute points to his main stat just like that. He wondered before whether increasing them would give him the same stats, but it gave him double than what he got before.
Considering how the titles are listed, it was possible that he might get another title upgrade if he pushed his Intelligence to 50. It would most likely increase it by 3 if his guess was accurate.
For now, he put aside as he got to the meat and potatoes of this notification session.
You have reached Level 15. Here are the choices you can pick from:
-Magic Arrow
-Cold Area
-Hot Area
-Magic Focus
Unlike the last time, there were only four options, but that was still one option more than the first ability choice he made. As usual, he read up the descriptions and jotted down their main point.
Magic Arrow felt like an upgrade to the Magic Missile from before. It was a straightforward attack where the ability would launch a projectile shaped like an arrow. It had a higher chance to pierce the target, giving it that good old defense-piercing trait that any nerd would love to have in their arsenal.
Once again, it was rather moot as he just created an attack that literally blew a hole into a strong monster’s head whose defenses were top-notch. He wondered whether these Magic Arrows were the same as Haley’s bow enchantment. He was starting to see a pattern as to how a beginner mage’s abilities closely resemble basic enchantments on equipment.
In other words, they weren’t worthy to learn if he could just make up the spell with equipment, and since he made the buckler similar to the Magic Barrier himself, he could just even make the damn thing.
Following that, Cold Area and Hot Area were interesting. Rather than being attacking spells that deal area-of-effect damage, they are actually supportive abilities that gradually cool down or heat up respectively across a small field, possibly with the caster being at the center.
For a moment he thought about picking one of these, particularly the Cold Area as he often didn’t like the heat, but quickly recognized the pointlessness of it all. With his control, he can just adjust the temperature with his Craft spell, though he might have to experiment a little bit to make sure he doesn’t accidentally boil or freeze himself.
Thus he went into the last possible ability he might actually choose. He pulled up the description one more time to see what it did.
Magic Focus (Copper)
Internally sharpen a spell’s infrastructure, gradually increasing the spell’s potency and accuracy. The spell absorbs the mana particles around itself, creating a stable foundation that allows it to stand against potential threats that might cause it to destabilize. Has an increased chance of surviving stronger negations the higher your Intelligence Attribute is.
It was a rather lengthy description, but it pretty much means one thing. It was another buff Ability. He was starting to see another pattern showing up.
The other abilities he could have learned were just potential options he could choose as a mage, with the rare few being supportive or helpful abilities that keep their main spells focused. He could easily imagine a noobie mage picking one of the elemental attacks as their base, and depending on their circumstances, continue to pick other spell attacks to have variety, or end up picking one of these supportive abilities to help them.
A Mage is essentially an all-rounder who can easily specialize into a given element, perhaps entering into a path that the Class itself would recognize. He wasn’t quite sure whether the Class the system gave him would eventually learn like it was some sort of artificial intelligence, but he could definitely see the Class sending more abilities down their way that might tailor to the choices they already made beforehand.
If he were to have picked Ember Shot, a fire elemental attack spell, and Hot Area just now, he might be led down a path to that of a fire mage, and vice versa if he chose Water Spout and Cold Area to be a water or ice mage. It might even be possible that Aidan’s earlier choices have already affected what kind of abilities he might learn, with only possibly learning a single attack spell in his current list.
It’s possible that by Level 20, the Class would only give me supportive options, or maybe force me to learn more attacking spells that might work differently than my spells. That might be cool, but I’m already doing a pretty good job in the spells department.
Magic Focus didn’t seem like a rather flashy ability to have, but he can easily imagine his spells becoming harder to take down and being extremely useful. If his air shot spell didn’t work as planned, it was possible that the siblings might not even be alive to enjoy this cooling down period.
When he thought about being the only one coming out of this dungeon alive, his heart ached. Even if he was alive, doing so at the sacrifice of the others who helped him so much would give him a nasty taste in his mouth that might never go away.
“I-I leveled up a lot,” Haley said, breaking the small silence between them. “But I never want to go through that again.”
“Well, if you want to level up some more, you’re gonna have to keep fighting stronger monsters than the one we just faced,” Van said, a small smile on his lips as he was still giddy from his own level-ups.
“I think I’m fine just being at Level 16 then…” Haley muttered.
Damn, she’s still higher level than me?
He wasn’t a competitive man, but it still kinda hurt that he was still the lowest level among the group. Standing up to his feet, he stretched his arms wide into the air.
“Alright… I think it’s time to end this run. What’d you guys think?”
“I second that,” Van said, raising his hand.
“Third!” Haley put her own hand up in response.
“Alright,” Aidan chuckled. “Let’s see if we can get out of this hellhole.”
…..
Getting out of said hellhole was a lot more difficult than he made it out to be. First off, they were somewhere so deep within the second floor of the dungeon that it was considered the extra layer attached to it, hence why they hadn’t received any notifications regarding the level recommendations.
While there were plenty of treasures to be found, the siblings, Haley in particular, wanted nothing more than to leave. Since they had already gotten their main objective cleared, Aidan wasn’t going to force her to stay any longer to find extra treasures for themselves, even if they could share in its spoils.
That got Van to see him in a better light, as he seemed a lot more talkative on their way back out of the second floor. They discussed plenty of things, including how they planned on spreading their stats from all the levels they received from the Dweller Prime.
Even Haley seemed keen on speaking about it, proving to Aidan that they managed to get close enough to talk about these kinds of things. That’s when Aidan decided to drop some knowledge on how to spread their stats, hoping to get some advice in return.
“It’s not a bad idea to focus on your physical stats,” Van stated, keeping himself in front as the front-liner for the party. “Like you expect, keeping a healthy body is essential for diving dungeons and other dangerous places if you want to level up some more. Half the time, it’s the environment that kills the adventurer, not the monsters themselves.”
They had thankfully gone above the extra layer once Aidan figured out the pathway that led upwards through a spiraling path, the crystals that lit up their surroundings becoming less and less frequent. Thanks to that, darkness shrouded their environment. That’s when they got their trusty torch to light up their path, eventually heading back out into the second floor before they jumped into that pit to get away from the Prime.
It would then go into the pattern of Aidan figuring out the best places to avoid the monsters and taking the shortest paths, though oftentimes Aidan wished he could take his Harmonious Shortsword out to take out some monsters in the distance. He kept it sheathed, not wishing to bring his party into unnecessary fights.
“But Van, Aidan’s a Mage,” Haley suggested. “I think the only reason we survived at all is because he kept putting points into Intelligence. Wouldn’t it be better for him to focus on his main stat?”
“Haley, that’s the reason why you weren’t able to keep up with the fights we had,” Van said. It wasn’t a chiding tone, though Haley didn’t look that much better upon hearing it. “You haven’t focused any of your points into Intelligence, right? So your Intellect and Perception are pretty low. I understand not wishing to up your Wisdom because you don’t use much mana, but having a higher mind stat would help a lot in situations where you’re out of your epth. At the same time, a Mage that only focuses on Intelligence would end up faltering or getting hurt easily.
“Besides, his Class literally gives him a free Intelligence point every level on top of his free points. That’s already covering a lot of ground for a mage like him.”
Aidan nodded, seeing that he had piled up a lot of free points thanks to these levels, but still didn’t think on raising his main stat due to how absurdly high it already is.
“What about equipment?” Aidan mentioned, bringing up his Arcane Ring on his finger. “What if I just up my physical stats with equipment that I can wear?”
“You shouldn’t expect to find equipment that ups your stats like we did so easily,” Van muttered, though his hand floated over his chest armor in clear gratefulness. “Normally those things are hard to find, and are extremely expensive to buy even for veteran adventurers. Relying on equipment to make up for the stats you lack is good, but what happens if it breaks during combat? You’ll end up losing the stats that you’re relying on to survive.”
Aidan didn’t think about that. It would be the same as when your equipment loses durability in a video game. He could always fix the equipment, just as how he fixed his sword, but having them break during combat and end up losing essential stats could potentially end his life if he gets unlucky.
“So keeping your stats balanced is better?” Haley asked. “That sounds like a great way to get stuck and never get anywhere.”
“That’s why it’s important to keep training yourself and get more experience,” Van lectured. He had the air of someone teaching a small class as he went on. “The more you get used to your own body, the more you recognize which stats are important to increase and which ones should be left for later. I’ll even say that while increasing Vitality will help you live longer, it’s pointless if you end up beheaded if you’re too slow, or end up getting crushed by a great weight if you’re too weak. In the end, it’s better to understand what role you prefer to do, and how well you can perform that role.”
“Mmh… well, I definitely don’t like to fight,” Haley admitted. “I guess I’ll increase my Intelligence? Maybe getting some more Perception might help me find some good treasures.”
“Don’t forget Agility,” Aidan mentioned. “You can always just run away if things look bad.”
“That’s true,” Haley beamed. “That sounds like the stat for me.”
Hearing that made Aidan assured of himself as he opened up his status page.
His Intelligence attribute was absolutely monstrous compared to his other stats, and considering everything they talked about, he considered where exactly to put his free points now.
Right now, he was Level 15, and gained another new ability. Their latest dungeon dive proved that physical stats are just as important to keep up, and hearing Van’s take only solidified the idea of having a balanced state all throughout, not just trying to make one stat stand out more than others, no matter how valuable that one is for his build.
He thought about putting all of his points into Agility, his second highest attribute, so that he could get his second Speedster title, but he restrained himself. He will eventually get that title at some point, so there was no reason to jump head first into the stat without planning for the immediate future.
So, he decided to keep increasing his lagging stats, basically putting them into all the lower stats. His Agility got a decent boost, but so did his Endurance and even Charisma, because having that stat being so low kinda hurt him a little.
Charisma was just a stat meant to make him likeable, but he did have a store to run, and he didn’t plan on being in combat for the rest of his life. He liked the idea of finding someone to settle down with eventually, after all.
That did increase his Vitality as well, so that was better in the end. He pulled up his status screen, just as the party managed to break through to the first floor and were swiftly heading towards the entrance.
Name: Aidan Munez
Race: Humanoid (Spirit Variant)
Talent: Path of Harmony
Class: Mage
Level: 15
HP: 130/130
MP: 370/370
STR: 16
(Might 14, Toughness 22, Endurance 14)
INT: 34
(Intellect 31, Wisdom 32+5, Perception 30+5)
AGI: 22
(Speed 20, Reflex 20, Dexterity 28)
VIT: 16
(Lifeforce 13, Vigor 22, Charisma 13)
Points: 0 AP, 0 SP
He came back out stronger than ever before, with new spells under his belt plus a few treasures he was glad to find. He definitely planned on going back to the dungeon again for some more levels.
With just his sword, of course.