Zagrinth

Chapter 35 – Dungeon Delver

The closer Luke got to the dungeon, the faster the [Dungeon Key] pulsed with mana. It felt strange being able to sense mana outside his body. It was almost like his ability to sense shadows.

Wait, maybe that’s what I’ve been doing this entire time. Sensing the mana in shadows, Luke wondered.

It was difficult to discern the difference. As he strained his senses, there did seem to be a subtle similarity.

However, the longer he concentrated on the mana...

Chapter 34 – Upgrade

Now that he had a moment to breathe, Luke spent his free points between Wisdom, Willpower, and Endurance. The first two because his new echo ability relied heavily on them, and the latter because he was constantly scraping the bottom of his stamina.

With his free points set, Luke took another look at his status and was pleased by his recent gains.

Even though he was still trapped underground, his power was growing by leaps and bounds. He wasn’t stagnating at all. Ho...

Chapter 33 – Bloodline Marks

Luke struggled to decide between the two Thief skills. One started at unusual-rarity tier, while the other was at uncommon-rarity tier.

That was a massive divide in power.

It should have been a trivial decision, but he was exhausted. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept in a bed. Or ate a hot meal. The last few days felt like a fever dream, one moment blurring into the next.

He looked up at Glenn, who was wreathed in a thin nimbus of power. Luke guessed...

Chapter 32 – Enemy Mine II

“We make a good team,” Glenn told Luke as another one of the blighted creatures fell to Luke’s onslaught.

He was breathing harder than Glenn was. Both of them reeked, and the fighting was never ending. But together, they were able to make steady progress.

The creatures that tossed the bowls of burning liquid were a priority that Glenn took out with extreme prejudice. Meanwhile, Luke took out the high level ghouls, barbarians, and brutes that leapt, fell, or clim...

Chapter 31 – Enemy Mine

Glenn gingerly stepped forward onto a rickety platform in the gloam filled darkness lit by pinpricks of warm light. Torches on various distant scaffolds were perched over the darkness that seemed to go on forever in all directions.

There was no light elsewhere, suggesting that he was still underground. The space was so expansive that Glenn struggled with the concept of an underground area so vast it seemed like an open plain.

Albeit one with gruesome creatures, some h...

Chapter 30 – The Blighted

Glenn stepped away from the edge of the cylindrical hole and shivered. He could hardly see, even though his night vision was better than most. As an Archer, he seemed to have exceptional eyesight beyond what the starter skills would suggest.

He had barely been able to see Jimmy, let alone reach out and grab him as he clung to that beam with soul-frightening desperation.

“What am I going to do,” he muttered to himself. His bow had miraculously survived, but his dag...

Chapter 29 – Poison Eater

Luke watched the Company Shop while his wounds were closing and the poison in his veins was clearing out.

He waited several long seconds before the items began to disappear. Their tiny floating numbers shrunk with a startlingly speed that only picked up as people with less Fate entered the shop.

Predictably, stat potions were wiped out within seconds. Then the dungeon keys, followed by pretty much every usable consumable that was in limited supply.

Luke had no i...

Chapter 28 – Shopping Spree

It was the first concrete evidence he had of Fate playing a direct role in this new world. While a second per Fate didn’t seem like much, Luke doubted there were many people with more Fate than him.

Which meant he finally had an advantage other people lacked.

Luke had less than a minute to peruse the so-called Company Shop, a place he could spend his hard-earned LP to gain items that hopefully would be useful.

Right now, all he was worried about was w...

Chapter 27 – Aftermath

They had been so close, and then that bloodthirsty idiot, Gretchen, had ruined it all. The Rogue was no better than theirs despite his disturbing ability to blend into the darkness of the room.

Eventually, they would have flushed him out!

Now, tumbling end-over-end, Jimmy had to admit that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

He had seen the battered remains of his charges. That left only Glenn and himself.

The Archer was falling alongside h...

Chapter 26 – Sewer Surfin’ II

Unsurprisingly, flowing sewer waters lit on fire didn’t smell any less rank or foul.

If not for the choking smell, the patches of burning water, and the fact that Luke was being chased by two psychopathic assassins on a tide of decaying–and apparently inflammable–water, with a wound in his calf, he might have enjoyed himself.

The spillway sharply tilted down and Luke tipped over with it. Another arrow streaked over his shoulder just as he dropped in. That probab...

Chapter 25 – Sewer Surfin’

Jimmy didn’t like the large room. The pool of light their lantern cast marked them out as easy targets, but nothing had attacked them yet.

Worse, there were still no monsters. It was eerie and unnatural. This was the System’s multiverse and all that junk. There ought to be some monsters crawling around. Jimmy didn’t like that one bit.

Glenn was still tracking the Rogue, but he was getting confused. Their target kept moving, and though Glenn could tell the direct...

Chapter 24 – New Threats

Luke had hoped he’d be in the top 100 at least.

It was clear that there were some serious contenders out there who did nothing but farm monsters all day long. Which made him doubt the efficacy of what he was doing.

Unless there was some other trick to earning incredible amounts of LP rapidly.

As Luke thought about it further, he grew confident that there had to be a way. He was held back by his coworkers for some time, but it must go further than that.

H...

Chapter 23 – Fancy Meeting You Here II

Luke dropped a throwing knife into his hand. He used his [Lacerate] and [Barrage] skills in quick succession, then let the knife fly.

The blades doubled up to 4, each of them copying the [Lacerate] effect without–and this was the important part–costing any more stamina than it would for a single throwing knife.

He smirked darkly beneath his deep cowl.

Even accounting for the stamina cost of using [Barrage], Luke found that he came ahead by a good margin on s...

Chapter 22 – Fancy Meeting You Here

Shaking his head, Luke pushed to his feet and turned to his status to apply his saved up free points. He had been so busy fighting monsters and testing out his bloodline that he kept putting it off.

With his class evolution now in full play, he had a better idea of what he would need. And since nothing gave mana or stamina, those were the two areas he felt he needed the greatest improvement.

Damage output wasn’t immensely important if he could continue killing monst...

Chapter 21 – We Evolve II

The fact that each class had a different amount of awarded stats per level was interesting. Without any means of rating the power of these classes, such as level or rarity tier, that was really the only means by which he could establish a baseline.

Luke wondered if he picked a class that gave lower stats, would that reduce how much future classes gave, or were the awarded stats a roundabout means of declaring rarity?

Oddly enough, Luke found himself relaxing. Perhaps for the first...

Chapter 20 – We Evolve

Sitting with his back to the cool dark stone, Luke was pleased to find that the earlier class skills he had declined to take were still there.

You have Rogue skills to select.

[Novice Stealth (Common)]

(Rogue Class Skill)

Blend into the environment to hide your presence, reducing the sound of your actions and the chance for other entities to detect you. While under the effects of Stealth, sneak...