50 Pieces of the Puzzle (2/2)

I laughed, a slow, mocking kind of laugh. I pointed at the slugs, ”You wanna know why I can fight those monsters and you can't?”

The grandma frowned, but stayed silent. I continued, ”Because I spend my time fiddling with my status screen instead of trying to help people. This is something you should already know. You have to help yourself before you can help other people.”

I pointed at the sad group, ”How in the fuck are any of you supposed to help anyone? You can't, because you can't even help yourselves. That weakness of yours, it’s a convenient excuse. I know I sure as hell can't just say Oh well. I'm too weak to do anything. Better wait till someone saves me.”

She blinked a few times before speaking, ”You're just like those things back there. A monster.

I spread out my arms, ”Have you looked around lately? This isn't the place for people anymore. Only monsters survive. Either die or get with the program.”

She turned away, her feelings hurt. I swallowed my spite before holding up my palms,

”Look, alright. Sorry. Tough times call for tough words. I'm just tired of hearing excuses and being blamed for other people's problems. Just because I'm strong doesn't mean I have to save people. Just because you're weak doesn't mean I have save you.”

I pointed towards a staircase, ”Anyways, I'm done talking about it. I'm escorting you guys out of here. Once you're in the first room of the bunker, stay still and quiet. A minion of this guy named Torix will save you.”

I walked them out of the room. They kept quiet now, only a few whispers coming out here or there. Most of the whispers were prayers or thanks. Out of them all, I think only the grandma was ungrateful. She just so happened to be the only one speaking is all. Maybe seeing the man break down made her react off stress. Maybe that had been her husband. I didn’t know.

Those thoughts tumbled in my head until we reached the entrance to the bunker. I waved a hand behind me as I walked back towards the cave, leaving them there as I said,

”Good luck out there.”

As I walked off, one of the women whispered, ”Thank you.”

The simple gesture planted a smile on my face, so I paced towards the entrance of the cave. Making sure I didn't miss any monsters, I reached the opening again. Several slugs crawled out of the cave, but most of them returned to the depths of their cave. Surging with the ascendant mana, I slammed my fists together.

I sprinted before jumping into the room, landing with a booming echo on the ground. Cutting on oppression, the slugs turned towards me in succession. I grinned along with my armor. A slug nearby slinked towards me, more of a lunge than a crawl. I bent backwards to the side, dodging one of the jutting horns.

I grabbed the horn as it retracted and jumped back. The horn tore from the creature while I avoided another spear with leap backwards. As the new horn retracted back, I dashed forwards and pierced the creature's maw with the ripped out horn in hand.

The horn punctured the slug, stabbing through creature. Another spear stabbed towards me, drilling towards my head. I leaned my head sideways while lifting my right arm. The spear went right between my arm and head. Before it pulled back, I slammed my fist down. Leveraging the spear on my shoulder, my hand snapped it.

The slug pulled back, but I followed. It lunged towards me, but I sidestepped towards the right of monster. As it's head pulled back, I stabbed the monster with the snapped horn and pulled back. The horn sliced the monster's head in half, killing it. After a few more stabs for good measure, a spine from my armor absorbed the ambient mana in the creature.

By now, two more slugs neared me. Before they caught me though, I tore out a few more spears from their dead brother. A few tosses later, and one of the slugs died before reaching me.

Skill Gained! Spear Mastery(lvl 1) - You throw and wield spears like a part of your own body. +2% to spear throw speed. +1% to spear handling power and speed.

I grinned before dashing towards the other slug monster. Shooting out another horn, I leaned to my left. Using the momentum behind the movement, I smashed a left hook into the horn. It shattered before leaning towards my right, dodging another spear.

I swiveled a crushing right hook into the next horn, snapping it. The monster squealed in anguish, pulling back again. I dashed forward. Again, the dumbass slug tried to swallow me. I stomped my front foot into the ground and turned my shoulders, smashing its face with another right hook.

The slug fell sideways, tumbling over before I stomped the monster's head with my heel. The blue blood splattered in every direction, covering my face. I turned back towards the next slug. There was none.

The others had escaped into their cavern. Even the dumbest animals won't charge into death I supposed. Regardless, I opened my status screen and found myself having leveled 12 times. I also noticed a pool of tree points from the dungeon cores I had earlier. That combined with my new skills gave me just enough tree points to unlock the last tier of Genesis of Potential. Boy was it a big one.

Force your thoughts into reality. Tear down the whoever and whatever stands before you. Live up to the potential of your kind. +4 extra level 100 perks(7 max | 1 remaining.) Increases the dungeon attribute and skill cap by 100%. (from 1/4 of total level to 1/2 of total level. EG, if level 100, you may absorb 50 attribute and skill points instead of 25 total.) Raises mythical skill cap by one(5 Total).

The mythical skill cap was already over my head, especially considering the difficulty involved with getting one. The other bonuses were just a plethora of raw stats. In a single word, beautiful. Once I got back to Kessiah and Torix, I'd get another boost. I looked forward to it.

With the tree finally finished, my other options for skill trees opened. I'd forgotten them it had been such a long time.

[II Vicious(Beat an enemy 40 levels higher than you in combat lasting over an hour, Death's Dance, Scorn, and Desperation over level 25)(0/50)]

[III Fighter(Kill an enemy 40 levels over you)(0/50)]

[Cosmic Soul(Obtain level three different soul related skills before level 500, ascendent unlocked before level 500, and willpower over 250 before level 500)(0/500)]

[I Invincible(Take over 10,000 points of damage, with capped resistance in the damage type, and live)(0/250)]

[Fearless(Battle an enemy over 1,000 levels above you and live)(0/250)]

I had quite a few choices in my hands. My initial thoughts were to go with the highest number tree, Cosmic Soul. I decided against that once I checked out the bonus of vicious and fighter. Vicious gave me 5% more damage. The fighter tree gave me a multiplier to my bonus physical damage.

Either of those would be invaluable right now, especially the damage bonus. Despite being such a high level with high stats, I would notice the difference something like that would make immediately.

With that in mind, I put the rest of my 13 remaining points into vicious.

Rip them apart with your hands. Maul them with your rage. Despise them. Use that hatred as fuel for fire. +2% damage.

For such a small investment, it was a solid bonus. Hopefully unlocking boundless storm didn't mess with my ability to get further down the vicious line. If so, that would be painful.

For now though, I just needed to decide on my next levelling perk. It was a choice of either luck or perception. Charisma was out since my armor reduced it so much. Maybe that was why the last few groups of people had been so disagreeable. I didn't really know.

What I did know was that luck gave me a bit more health, but perception was something I could take advantage of. I mean, you can't abuse luck. It's risky to put your life in the hands of something so intangible. Perception would allow me to better use runes, use my senses better, and get a bit more of that precognition ability.

So far, it had made a difference only once or twice. That could change whenever I made a new rune or saw a bullet piercing my skull, letting me move before it killed me. That made my decision easier, especially with how important the runes were to my effectiveness. Understanding the runic language would let me understand things that may otherwise be unknowable.

With that in mind, I crunched a few numbers in my head real fast. Intelligence helped with stuff like that. If I kept putting points into constitution, it would take another 673 levels before I finally got enough points for the perception perk. In other words, fuck that.

Sure, putting so many points into constitution paid off quite a bit with dexterity. I doubt having over 1500 constitution would be worth it though. That would throw my build way out of balance. With that in mind, I put all 28 points into perception. I checked out my status screen then.

Level 508

Strength 252.6 | Constitution 562.1 | Endurance 567

Dexterity 100 | Willpower 270 | Intelligence 101.4

Charisma 30.1 | Luck 54.5 | Perception 82

Daniel Hillside Totals Regen Buffs/Debuffs

Health 34,780/34,7800 6484/min Oppression Damage- 10,000+30%hp/min

Stamina 13,525/13,525 220/sec Elemental Res - 97.5%

Harbinger of Cataclysm 234,872,985 / 256,000,000 69.4/per min(conduit) Plasma Res - 97.5%

Phys Dam Reduction - 97.5% Rad Res - 97.5%

Phys Dam Bonus - 3359% Mental Res - 97.5%

Total Damage Bonus 7% Boundless Storm

The vicious bonus popped up again, reminding me I had the tree. I guess it was a way of letting me track my progress with trees. Either way, it was helpful.

With my status handled, I cracked my neck and walked into the cave. After crushing a few more slugs, my armor would upgrade and I would gain enough levels for the perception perk. Life was good. By the time I got deeper into the cave, life took a turn, like a dive into cold, deep water.

I went into those dark depths with a smile.