[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 75: Level Up!

The relaxing warmth of the Sacred Tree’s spring was more than enough of an argument to stay put while Sam went through his notifications.

First up was the conflict quest.

Conflict Defense Quest (Complete): Hellspawn

Monster Waves: 5/5

Embroiled in a blood feud against Islegardians that has spanned Ages and further empowered by a god seeking to maneuver against you and your Incarnate companion, hellsent oni are assaulting this Sacred Tree’s last bastion and its guardian Sage when they are at their most vulnerable.

However, these monsters are not of this world. Slay the Shamans summoning their brethren to battle and destroy what tethers these invaders to this dimension to claim victory.

Objectives:

Defeat the remaining waves of hellsent without either the Sacred Tree falling to the oni’s flames or the Sage Raiko being slaughtered/captured. (Complete)

Destroy all dimensional anchorstones. (Complete)

Slay all boss monsters. (Complete)

Immense Job, Path and Skyshard Experience are awarded upon victory, collected from all monster waves.

Conflict Modifiers:

+4 Monster Level (God’s bane)

Dimensional Tears

Ambient Chaos

Sam still had bonus points and assorted new abilities to choose from his previous levels. Something he couldn’t do while he had been in combat.

And now, after the completion of this latest quest, he gained whatever the Shard considered “Immense Job, Path, and Skyshard Experience”.

The surge of power was incredible. It filled him with the same feeling of purposeful excitement that leveling up always did.

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 10.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Strength Talent

+1 Arcane Talent | +1 Vigor Talent

The Void within responds to the harrowing call from Beyond.

You gain [Void: Smother].

[Void: Smother]

(Magical Art) (F-Class)

(★Common)

As your control over the Void within you improves, you are able to designate an area that inhibits the proper functioning flow of mana, reducing the effectiveness of the mana type you designate. Grants a minuscule bonus to the effect of Strength, Insight, Arcane, and Vigor when using [Void: Smother].

Mana Cost: Varies

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 11.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Strength Talent

+1 Arcane Talent | +1 Vigor Talent

Level Up!

Your [Voidknight] Legend has reached Level 9.

+2 to all Stats

+1 to all Talents

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 12.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Strength Talent

+1 Arcane Talent | +1 Vigor Talent

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 13.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Strength Talent

+1 Arcane Talent | +1 Vigor Talent

Level Up!

Your [Swordsman] Job has reached Level 17.

+4 Strength | +4 Vigor | +2 Agility | +2 Dexterity

+2 Bonus Points

Level Up!

Your [Voidknight] Legend has reached Level 10.

+2 to all Stats

+1 to all Talents

Level Up!

Your [Swordsman] Job has reached Level 18.

+4 Strength | +4 Vigor | +2 Agility | +2 Dexterity

+2 Bonus Points

Level Up!

Your [Void] Path has reached Level 14.

+1 Insight Talent | +1 Strength Talent

+1 Arcane Talent | +1 Vigor Talent

Sam could hardly keep his jaw from dropping to his chest. He had known he was gaining levels hand over fist through the mass-killing of the Shaman’s minions, but adding the fight against Raiko and the quest just blew his expectations out of the water.

So many level ups!

He was almost afraid to look at his Status, worried that somehow it was all some sort of mix-up and some clerk in an ill-fitting suit would show up and explain that he really only gained half of a level at that.

Ridiculous, but so was his atmospheric rise in strength from engaging in wholesale battle.

I should join more wars, he thought to himself. That’s what I’m the Incarnate of, after all!

With that mountain of Experience dumped on him from completing from the conflict defense quest, his newly attained Voidknight Legend polished off the single digit levels and moved up into the more respectable double digits.

So satisfying.

It wasn’t easy increasing Legends, but now with his Void Path and Swordsman Job going up sharply, it was beginning to shape up.

All those Talent points further increased the power of his stats. The Talents from Voidknight were equally spread across physical and magical stats too, unlike his Void Path that specialized in only a select few.

If he had any complaints, it was that his Path was nowhere near as potent as his Legend. That didn’t use to be the case, as Sam valued Talents rather highly.

They were excellent for long-term gains. And Sam was all about the long-term.

He wasn’t going to cannibalize his growth for some short burst of strength. He’d seen it done on Earth where there weren’t any levels to speak of, and he could imagine it happening here all too easily.

Maybe that’s just how Paths were, but the comparison only held up if it was level versus level. His Path actually granted him more Talents overall if it was 3 Path levels versus 1 Legend level.

Not to mention his Path actually gave him abilities. That new [Void: Smother] Art looked amazing on paper. He would have to try it out to see how it fared in practice, but he had high hopes for it.

Being able to directly diminish a type of mana had an incredibly vast array of possibilities. And being able to put a zone of [Smother] between himself and a mage would further reduce the weaknesses inherent in all melee fighters.

Still, his Legend used to be Adventurer, and that was significantly weaker than his current Voidknight. So it might be possible that his Path could evolve into a more potent form in the future, granting even more per level.

If there were Second Order Paths, he either hadn’t done enough to gain one, or Void was simply exempt from the typical progression. Either way, he was stuck with it for now and he couldn’t be too broken up about it, considering how amazing it was so far.

And that was just barely 10 levels into the Path. He had to remember that, despite gaining a combined total of over 32 levels in both his Job and Path, he was still at the very beginning of his journey.

The fabled Copper Rank was somewhere out there, though Sam had no idea at what level—if any—he would gain it. From what little Raiko could tell him, it seemed like a large jump in power. Something he had a hard time wrapping his head around.

But the way she told it, there were people before the apocalypse that could lift buildings with one hand. And while Sam knew he was strong, he wasn’t anywhere near that strong. He couldn’t even fathom that level of strength.

As it was, Sam had needed both Void mana and his bloodline to complete the conflict quest. And really, to gain the Voidknight Legend at all.

Even without that quest completed, slaying the three shaman boss monsters, all their summons and the rest of the hellsent catapulted him forward in levels. So many, in fact, that he hadn’t been able to properly keep track of it all while the fighting was ongoing.

But at present, recovering in relative safety amongst friends, Sam certainly could.

He wondered how much everyone else grew.

He hoped Komachi’s [Pocket Healer] title gave her a larger portion of the EXP he earned, if not a full percentage of the rewards.

Experience seemed to be largely participation based, and even depended on being in a Party too, but there were more factors than that. The [Pocket Healer] title was one such example, where hiding in Sam’s armor boosted Experience for his cat.

Not to mention, the rest of his friends likely had a similar conflict defense quest. It was all too possible more quests were picked up around the event, further dishing out Experience for others.

With the levels done, Sam went over his Swordsman skills, abilities, and traits, eager to see how he improved.

There were… a lot.

Your [Armor Foundation] Skill has reached (★ Common II).

Your [Rally] Ability has reached (★ Common I).

Your [Swordsmanship Foundation] Skill has reached (★Common IV).

Your [Battle Tactics] Skill has reached (★ Common I).

Your [Max HP Up] Trait has reached (☆ Primitive II).

Your [Power Stance] has reached (★ Common IV).

[Power Stance]

(Sword) (F-Class)

(★Common IV)

A simple but aggressive stance that builds stacks of [Fury], providing you with the opportunity to enhance your attacks at the cost of [Fury] stacks. Through your force of will, you have altered this Stance to fit your fighting style. You may now generate [Fury] for any normal attack, unleashing your built-up [Fury] on one of the Power Arts listed below, augmenting them depending on the amount of [Fury] expended.

Maximum [Fury] Stacks: 3

Power Arts:

[Shockwave], [Whirling Slash], [Reaping the Willows]

Satisfying increases all around for Swordsman, especially my [Swordsmanship Foundation], Sam thought, feeling a sense of pride in his accomplishments.

And the change to [Power Stance] was nice to see confirmed in writing. The fact that he could change something the Shard awarded him hinted at much greater flexibility than he ever thought possible.

As if recognizing the skill improvements, or maybe just from the rest, more knowledge percolated into his head.

Handling swords in a more brutal way that better suited his style, tapping into the unique mana movement pattern for [Rally], attacking in armor and managing tactics were all just a little bit clearer to Sam.

His [Rolling Strikes] tactic was relatively new, but he had used it to great effect during the conflict quest, so it made sense that it would level up his [Battle Tactics] to Common from Primitive.

But his [Max HP Up] trait was gained at the same time as [Battle Tactics] and hadn’t leveled up to Common.

He wasn’t too sure how the trait progressed. Maybe just from getting hit repeatedly? Or receiving huge amounts of damage and actually surviving?

A lot of that sure went around during the battle.

It wasn’t that long ago that mostly everything he had was Primitive rarity anyway, aside from his bloodline and the Hidden God’s Greater Blessing.

I feel like I’m forgetting something. I’ll just check my status soon, he thought, oddly looking forward to seeing all his skills, traits, and abilities together.

Sam turned his attention back to the Shardscript for his Path’s arts.

Your [Void: Scour] Art has reached (★ Common II).

Your [Void: Surge] Art has reached (☆ Primitive II).

Finally, there was his favorite Incarnate trait. It had enhanced substantially. Little wonder since almost everything he did used [Heavy Weapon Handling].

Your [Heavy Weapon Handling] Trait has reached (★☆ Uncommon III).

He found himself wishing there were some Profession skills and the like to go over. It’d be so much faster to raise his Legend if he had a Profession. He could only assume it had alternative methods of accruing Experience. Ones that didn’t require him to put his life on the line.

Soon, Sam promised himself.

Once everything else was squared away, he would focus on trying to find a Profession that he could take up. Whether it was just by going out with an axe and chopping down a thousand trees to get Lumberjack or beating on rocks with a pickaxe, he’d get it done.

It was the only progression pillar that he hadn’t touched yet, and while he doubted he would be the first to get a Profession, he didn’t want to be left behind.

If you could craft something and gain EXP, and those Profession levels gave you stats along with more Legend levels, Sam could see how you could boost yourself quite decently without ever setting foot into a monster’s lair.

He, however, intended to do both.

Focus up, Hunter, he reminded himself. He still had a slew of bonus points to spend, didn’t he?

Seeing as his abilities hadn’t gained any new permutations or anything, the last thing for him to go over were his stats.

Popping open his Status, Sam tried not to choke on the slice of pizza he was eating.

“You good, Sam?” Matt asked from nearby.

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely, banging on his chest with a fist. “Just surprised at some notifications.”

“You gotta poop?” Komachi asked nonchalantly.

“No, Komachi. Do you?”

“What if I already did?” she said in challenge, squinting.

“I don’t see any floaters in the pool, so I’m going to have to call your bluff on that one, you ol’ big loaf.”

Sam’s HP was over a thousand. He had no idea when that happened.

He could still remember clearly when he first hit 3-digits. Now he was at 4-digits and climbing rapidly.

It was insane.

Sam remembered hardly getting more than a point or two of HP per point of Vigor, now he was gaining huge chunks of HP each level it seemed.

Is this the power of Talents, or am I missing something else?