novelraw Chapter 11 : Chapter 11
Chapter 11 : Chapter 11
Chapter 11
【System Notice: Your level has reached Level 1. You have gained +5 free attribute points and +1 skill point. You may now proceed to the “Temple of the Creator God” to unlock your skill tree.】
Lightning froze for a moment when he heard the system notification. At the moment, the only skills he could use were 【Mining】, 【Woodcutting】, and 【Gathering】, but magical mining was simply too much fun.
From initially refusing brick-hauling tasks and wanting only to cause trouble, to later becoming so absorbed in labor quests that he could not stop himself, only the time of a single quest had passed.
The experience bar from level 0 to 1 was not long at all—only one hundred points. After handing in a few completed quests, he leveled up smoothly.
“Let’s go, go, go, go, go! We can finally get skills! I can’t wait anymore!” Night Arbiter rubbed his hands together impatiently.
Ten Billion Volts and Lightning immediately stored their stones in their spatial backpacks and dashed excitedly toward the Temple of the Creator God.
If even a skill like 【Mining】 was this fun, then would not actual magical skills be even more enjoyable?
A major reason they had worked so seriously was precisely so they could level up quickly, obtain skills, and begin their glorious gaming lives of stylish spellcasting.
The 【Temple of the Creator God】 stood right behind the spawn point—or rather, the spawn point itself was merely the temple square of the Temple of the Creator God.
In this world, faith possessed power, and gods truly existed. Thus, even though the temple had already fallen into disrepair, it still retained an extremely terrifying power.
After selecting Tata Village as the beginner village, Lanoss had used the Temple of the Creator God there as a transit hub to circulate magic power more quickly. Centered on the temple, every region within a radius of fifty kilometers had already been incorporated into the Magic Network.
That was also the area in which players were allowed to move. Once they ran beyond it, they would be blocked by an invisible wall.
The players adapted well to this setting.
The square in front of the temple was where believers used to gather and pray. As one of humanity’s former great metropolises, this place had once seen a daily flow of over three million people, with a maximum capacity of five million at a time.
Even if all five million had appeared together in this square, which seemed only about as large as the Bird’s Nest Stadium, there would not have been the slightest crowding. The reason, naturally, was the spatial magic array beneath the square.
But after a thousand years had passed, without sufficient power to nourish it, the magic array had been damaged almost beyond repair. Lanoss had only managed, by patching pieces together as best he could, to create a spatial magic array that would let two hundred thousand people gather without feeling crowded.
At present, however, the game was still in closed beta, and the total number of players was only one hundred. So for quite some time yet, there was no need to worry about the spawn point becoming overcrowded.
When Lightning had first entered the game, he had been so stunned by its realism that all of his attention had been fixed on the immediate surroundings, and so he had not noticed that building at all—the one that, at a glance, inspired a sense of peace and tranquility.
The 【Temple of the Creator God】, too, could not escape the invasion of the Void Demons. But people who were profoundly devout toward the Creator would always begin repairing the temple as soon as they recovered enough strength to do so.
Still, under conditions of extreme resource scarcity, what they could accomplish was very limited.
The current temple was merely a sacred and solemn shell. It had no magic array formations, no magical crystal decorations, and barely any gold or silver to be seen.
Yet in the eyes of the players, the impact of this temple was already overwhelming.
Broken again and again, then repaired again and again, the temple was steeped in the weight of history. The traces left by divine power gave it a majesty and tenderness wholly unlike any other structure.
The moment one entered the temple, it felt as though one had returned to a mother’s embrace.
One moment Lightning had still been discussing what sort of skill build he wanted to choose. The next, when he raised his head and saw the statue at the center of the temple, he lost the power of speech.
It was a man who could not be described merely as handsome or beautiful. He sat upon a divine throne, his right hand supporting his head, as though resting, yet also as though listening to the troubles of all living beings—tolerant and gentle.
Before such a being, even the usually unrestrained livestream comments fell silent for a long time. Yet the number of people in the stream continued to surge upward at a frantic rate.
Lightning, who had always made mischief the centerpiece of his broadcasts, could not summon even the slightest irreverent thought. Not until the system notification rang in his ear.
【System Notice: The merciful Creator grants every child a gentle hope. May they be strong, and may they press forward with courage. You have received “Divine Blessing.” Skill Points +1. All Attributes +5 for two hours.】
Lightning: “!!!”
Lightning was stunned. Even though he knew this was all part of the game designers’ setup, he was still shocked by how generous the buff was.
After all, leveling up only gave five attribute points. Gaining +5 to all attributes at once was equivalent to jumping five levels in a single step. Even if it only lasted two hours, a potion in the apothecary that increased Strength by five points for one hour still cost one silver coin. Rounded off, this was basically ten silver coins given away for free.
At the early stage, earning copper through labor quests was no easy task. They had worked themselves half to death just to scrape together a silver coin, and then had spent it all on food.
Coming back to himself, Lightning adjusted his livestream camera to point at the divine statue, then opened his skill tree interface as quickly as possible.
The players had already chosen their classes while creating their characters, but those classes were broad categories only. Their formal class advancement would not happen until level 10.
That meant that among the first-tier spells available to mages from levels 1 to 10 were skills from elemental mages, arcane mages, and warlocks alike.
The difficulty of using first-tier spells was not high, so all first-tier skills were treated as “universal skills.” Even if someone learned a first-tier arcane mage skill and later advanced into an elemental mage, they could still continue using it. They simply would not receive most of the specialized bonuses granted by their class advancement.
Lightning intended to play an elemental mage. Arcane mages were more adaptable. In a certain sense, they could even be called all-purpose mages. But when it came to damage output and sheer spectacle, elemental mages still held the advantage.
The shortcomings of elemental mages were obvious, but their strengths were equally clear—high damage, many area-of-effect attacks, and handsome spell effects.
Handsome!!!
Power might only matter for a single version update, but style was eternal.
He had already missed the chance to spend money on character customization and carve himself into a peerless handsome devil, so when it came to class choice, he absolutely could not afford to make another mistake.
If anyone had the greatest right to speak when it came to sheer coolness, it was the elemental mage.
Yet as Lightning looked at the skill list before him, his heart pounded with excitement while simultaneously aching so badly he could barely breathe.
The skill tree list had been drafted by Saliel and the others—legendary figures with over a thousand years of combat experience—before being handed to Lanoss.
One had to understand that legends like Saliel were the top frontline combatants of this plane. They had participated in countless improvements and summaries of real combat strategies and skill arrangements from levels 0 to 100.
What they handed to Lanoss was already a complete system. But as a god, Lanoss’s understanding of power was something they could not hope to match. By modifying a few skill models, he could achieve even better results.
Still, those improved versions of skills were not given to the players directly. Their final perfected effects had to be unlocked layer by layer through proficiency or skill points.
Simply put, the game was encouraging players to grind.
But the results were good. It increased the game’s fun, extended its lifespan, and allowed Lanoss to squeeze a bit more magic power out of the players.
Lanoss was very satisfied with this skill design.
Lightning, however, was not entirely pleased.
There were a total of one hundred and twenty first-tier skills displayed on the list, and only then did Lightning realize that his skill bar did not have any fixed skill slots limiting how many abilities he could learn.
In other words, as long as he had enough skill points, he could learn every single skill.
The problem was that skill points were hard to obtain.
At present, Lightning had only two skill points. That was enough to buy only the lowest-level skills, things like Fireball, Wind Blade, and Water Arrow. Even slightly more impressive skills like Flame Storm were beyond his reach.
Although all of them were first-tier skills, skills still had subdivisions. A stronger area-of-effect skill required five skill points just to learn, and upgrading it was even harder.
The only currently known ways to obtain skill points were leveling up and receiving blessings inside the temple.
It was not yet clear whether skill points would increase alongside level growth, nor whether temple blessings could be obtained repeatedly.
That meant his skill choices had to be made with great care.
Since Lightning had already decided to play an elemental mage, he directly filtered out arcane skills and warlock skills.
【Fireball】
Tier: First-Tier Magic
Skill Effect: Condenses magic power into a fireball that can be thrown.
Casting Range: 20 meters
Duration: 5 seconds
Mana Cost: 5
Cast Time: 1 second
Cooldown: 1 second
Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)
Required Skill Points: 1
...
【Frost Breath】
Tier: First-Tier Magic
Skill Effect: Deals frost damage to all enemies within a 10-meter radius and applies a Speed -20% effect, with a 10% chance to inflict continuous freezing damage.
Casting Range: 50 meters
Duration: 60 seconds
Mana Cost: 120
Cast Time: 6 seconds
Cooldown: 50 seconds
Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)
Required Skill Points: 5
【Lightning Cyclone】
Tier: First-Tier Magic
Skill Effect: Deals lightning damage to all enemies within a 15-meter radius and inflicts continuous paralysis damage.
Casting Range: 50 meters
Duration: 60 seconds
Mana Cost: 150
Cast Time: 6 seconds
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Proficiency: Beginner (0/100)
Required Skill Points: 5
Lightning’s reason told him that the best choice right now was the fire-element 【Fireball】 paired with the wind-element 【Vortex】.
Or else the water-element 【Water Mist】 paired with the lightning-element 【Electric Net】.
Those four skills all cost only one skill point each.
And yet his gaze simply could not move away from the few skill names at the very bottom of the first-tier magic list.
Should he choose low-level, high-damage skills for quick monster-killing and fast leveling, or save up and directly buy the strongest—and most stylish—damage skill among the first-tier spells?
It was a difficult choice.
Reason told him that maintaining an advantage in the early game was important, but the childish, theatrical part of his soul kept doing everything it could to obstruct that rational decision.