[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 39: The Joys of Breaking

Red and silver sparks of Fire and Metal mana flashed across Sam’s claymore as he tore it from his [Biting Sheath]. Though faint, he could sense the presence of that mana in the air. And even that each one was different and distinct.

With a surge of mana through his arms, joined by an accompanying rush of adrenaline, those sparks turned to molten globules that splattered against the stone monster.

He was aiming for its breastplate, considering that was a larger and therefore easier target, but he actually managed a lucky hit against its head.

Its helm of molded stone turned brittle and cracked, revealing a rough framework within.

Huh, these sparks are pretty effective.

Still moving, he took advantage of as much of his forward momentum as he could by carrying all that force into the downward two-handed swing of his blade.

His claymore demolished the statue’s head into powder, and carved through into its middle, ending up partway down.

Since that blow didn’t cleave the statue cleanly in two, he ripped his greatsword out and the rest of it fell to pieces.

You defeat the [Forgotten Pantheon Statue (Level 9)].

You gain additional Experience for slaying a Decent Challenge monster.

Many more statues joined the fray, as if enraged by the destruction of one of their own.

Sam twisted about and brought his claymore up to block a blow that sent him skidding across the rubble-strewn floor, the “bones” of previous kills.

Komachi sent out a blast of mana as Sam whipped his blade around. The answering stroke severed the reaching clawed hand of a statue, and Sam took out half of a beatific statue’s face on the backswing.

He fell into himself, moving his tired and fatigued muscles without thinking of where to strike next. There was no need. With so many living statues come to claw the flesh from his bones that wherever he swung his sword, he found an enemy waiting.

Like a beast backed into a corner, Sam snarled and swung his blade back and forth. When he could spare a moment, he used [Scour] to negate an errant spell from one of the many enemies outside of the ring of his immediate vicinity.

Laying about with his sword, Sam shattered the snarling visage of a gargoyle, then pivoted on the balls of his feet and thrust the pommel into the coyly grinning face of a statuesque woman, who promptly crumbled to the ground.

He hardly had to think about using his Breaker bloodline anymore. Though the [Breaker Questbook] hadn’t made any mention of his bloodline improving, every few hits with his claymore shattered the stony creatures around him until he was alone in the fractured hall, choked with dust and debris.

A small impish stone creature seemed to realize its imminent demise and turned tail to run, but Sam wasn’t about to let it warn any creatures ahead.

He started to lunge after it, but realized the futility of it. The impish statue was far smaller and faster than he was, and it already had a sizeable lead.

I hope this works, he thought to himself as he lifted his claymore with both hands over his head and arched his back. With every muscle snapping in concert, Sam threw the blade overhead toward the imp’s back.

It flew through the air like a buzz saw and rather than spear into the creature’s back like he had hoped, it cleaved through the poor thing without even bothering to stop. It kept going for a few yards before clattering to the ground.

Taking a deep breath, Sam wiped the sweat and blood from his brow while Komachi cast [Regen] on him again, keeping the stacks high.

He wasn’t invulnerable. Being up close to so many creatures had knocked his HP around like a yo-yo, but it had also allowed him to cull a surprising number of them.

Looking both ways up and down the hall, Sam limped over to his sword, picking up any loot from the creatures along the way. Each had a type of mana core, presumably since they were all some sort of golemesque creation.

Among the other loot were some [Carved Stone Chunks] and almost a dozen [Grey Crystals]. The chunks were crafting materials with Stone mana and the crystals were some sort of resource drained of mana affinity. Useful for later, maybe, so he put them into his Inventory.

Once Sam had his [Charred Claymore] back in its sheath, he sat down and tallied his winnings.

“Grinding in games never felt so draining,” Sam muttered aloud. Then he thought about it a moment and corrected himself, “Physically draining, that is.”

“Those were just boring video games on a flat screen,” Komachi said. “This is real.”

Sam nodded and proceeded to look through his new notifications. One thing was certain, the amount of Experience he needed to level up was getting greater with each new level.

The upside was that Komachi’s Cleric was closing the gap. Being a lower level than his Fighter, it was that much easier for her to level up from these monsters. Plus, these were likely considered of a difficulty higher to her than the Decent Challenge they were for him.

“I killed over a dozen of those damned things,” he said, looking at the notifications.

The really odd thing about the creatures was that they were remarkably sturdy to both typical magic and physical attacks. Only when Sam tapped into his bloodline was he able to shatter them with relative ease.

It took a great deal of concentration to do, but in the end, he realized one truth: they weren’t strong. This wasn’t a dungeon with very high level creatures making it impossible to progress. They weren’t far off from his level, in fact.

The sole exception being the Stellar Warden.

But any other person fighting them would have an incredibly hard time dealing with them, especially at his level bracket. Even Sam would have struggled without Komachi to heal him back to full.

Why would there be a place like this? It was almost as if it was designed for an Incarnate like Sam to conquer this place, like some sort of trial.

Then again, it didn’t specify which type of Incarnate was allowed into the Dark Vault. Would somebody like Raiko be able to do what he was doing?

Recalling back to the fight with the [Stellar Warden], Sam didn’t think so. Most of her attacks were distractions at best. That thing had been built like a tank compared to these creatures. Sam was smashing the statues in the rest of the Dark Vault like Link in a house full of promising-looking pots.

Level Up!

Your [Fighter] Job has reached Level 9.

+2 Strength | +2 Vigor

+1 Agility

+1 Bonus Point

Sam tossed the bonus point into Arcane to bring it up in line with his Insight then looked over his sheet and frowned. Something wasn’t adding up.

[Status]

Name: Samuel Hunter

Race: Human

Legend: [Adventurer (Lv.3 - Unranked)]

Job: [Fighter (Lv.9 - Unranked)]

Path: [Void (Lv.2 - Unranked)]

Profession: [N/A (Lv.0 - Unranked)]

Health(HP): [87/139]

Mana(MP): [22/53]

Attunements

[Void Mana] (F-Class Apocalypse Gate) (★★★★Legendary IV)

Affinities

[Fire Mana] (F-Class) (★Common I)

[Metal Mana] (F-Class) (☆Primitive)

Physical Stats

Strength(STR): 32 (+4)

Dexterity(DEX): 20 (+1)

Agility(AGI): 18

Vigor(VIG): 34 (+4)

Awareness(AWR): 10 (+1)

Magical Stats

Arcane(ARC): 10

Control(CTL): 6

Resonance(RSN): 11

Mind(MND): 12

Insight(INS): 10

It was slight, but Sam would have missed it if he hadn’t just recently spent some time looking at his status sheet. He had gained 3 points of Strength instead of the expected 2.

Every level of Fighter gave him 2 Strength, 2 Vigor, 1 Agility, and 1 extra point to spend as he chose. He should have been at a base of 31 Strength, not 32.

He tried looking up at his titles and even his equipment… but nothing stood out until he remembered his Path.

When he looked in depth at his status sheet, he could see that he had a total of 2 Strength talents, but he still didn’t know what that was. It wasn’t a straight addition of stats, that much was certain.

But perhaps it was influencing the stat somehow.

With what he knew from his bloodline, he had a small boost to both Strength and Vigor. How much was it again?

Sam, who had no head for math usually, found himself pulling up the information in record time. “Just five percent to each, huh?” he muttered aloud.

“Komachi?” Komachi asked, peering up at him from the safety of the dented armor.

“Just thinking aloud,” Sam assured her.

Muttering to himself and wishing he had a pen and paper to work this out, Sam finally figured out what was going on. Or, at least, narrowed down what talents did.

“I might be smarter, but I still don’t get math.” Her eyes drifted apart. “…I do really like it when numbah go up though.”

“Me too, Komachi. Me too.”

Talents, Sam figured out, must add roughly 1% more of the base stat per point. If not 1%, then some equally small number because his bloodline currently was giving him just a bit over 1 point of Strength.

Working backward, that would mean that his 2 Strength talents were giving him somewhere just under 1 point of Strength, enough that, combined with his bloodline, it added up to another point altogether.

So my base Strength is actually 30, he realized. Add on my bloodline’s 5% and that gives me 1.5 Strength, and my Strength Talent must be giving me at least half a point to make it 2 bonus points.

Which would make sense if each Strength Talent was a single percentage bonus. So instead of having just 5% extra to his Strength and Vigor, he actually had around 7%.

And that was about as far as Sam decided to go with it.

What it meant in the end was that talents were weak for now but would be absolutely bonkers broken in the future with hundreds of stat points at his disposal.

And that meant that he needed to spend more time trying to get his Path leveled up. With each level granting him an additional 1% more to Strength, Vigor, Arcane, and Insight, it would be invaluable to his growth later on.

Even now, pushing him just one stat point higher could be the difference between living and dying.

“All right,” Sam said, pushing himself up to his feet. “Time to see what’s at the end of this hall.”

As it turned out, not much.

Most of the monsters had rushed him earlier on and he only had to dispatch one or two on his way.

It was getting easier and easier to use his bloodline properly. He didn’t even need to visualize the weak points every time, especially if the creature was already damaged or weakened in some way.

With a thought, Sam could open himself to the Breaker power flowing within him and send it into his claymore.

The force of the Breaker-infused weapon hitting the non-living creatures was like taking a sledgehammer to ceramic. They shattered with obscene force, spilling their loot to the ground in the process.

Sam picked up a couple more [Faded Mana Cores], [Grey Crystals], and [Carved Stone Chunks] that the statues dropped.

By the time he finished stuffing his loot into his Inventory, Sam found himself face-to-face with his next challenge.

A barrier of shimmering metallic-gray energy.

Sam pushed against the barrier of hazy energy, testing its strength. He met just enough resistance to keep him back. Komachi swatted it with a paw, which bounced off like hitting rubber.

He fought all the way down here. He wasn’t going to turn back just because some wall of energy was keeping him out.

“There could be treasure in there,” he muttered. Not that he could see through it.

“Could also be a big ol’ monster.”

“…waiting to be let out.” Sam’s face lit up. “Some ancient terrible evil that is basically built to crush anybody and everybody who doesn’t have the ability to shatter stone with a swing of their fist. Oh, I’m looking forward to this. This monster has no idea what it’s in for.”