novelraw Book 3 Chapter 18: Arid Wasteland (3)
Book 3 Chapter 18: Arid Wasteland (3)
Rylan pulled his blade out of a dead Giant Sandworm’s carcass. It was pristine, untainted by the blood that had evaporated because of his energy. He looked up at the blue sky. After staring at the clouds for a second, he lowered his gaze to look around him.
Dozens of dead Sandworms lay all around him. Some had their bodies sliced apart and shredded, while others had been charred black and were in the middle of disappearing in the breeze in the form of ashes. Body parts and ruined organs could be seen everywhere, and the sand was marred by greenish patches of congealed blood, but not nearly as much as the number of corpses suggested. It was a grim picture, but Rylan didn’t even blink. He only sheathed Silver Twilight and looked to the right, right at the pyramid at the heart of the desert.
It was much closer than before, allowing him to truly see how big it was. The pyramid was over fifty meters tall with a wide base, standing as an enormous monument in the very middle of the Dungeon. Even from this distance, he could feel the vibrations in the sand.
It’s surrounded by Sandworms.
It was also his next destination.
Getting inside will be a bit annoying.
Rylan sighed to himself and jumped off the Sandworm’s carcass, but instead of falling, he only stood in the air as if it were solid ground. After beholding the carnage around him one last time, he shot toward the pyramid. The distance between him and the place of battle widened by the second, until it was entirely left behind.
As he ran with Snowstorm, Rylan brought up his Status Window.
Status Window
Name: Rylan Flameheart
Level: 83
Race: Human (D)
Class: Aetheric Dreamblade
Profession: none.
Trait: Determined
Stats
Strength: 541
Agility: 534
Endurance: 545
Body: 542
Intelligence: 589
Wisdom: 575
Aura: 126
Free Points: 115
Active Skills
Magic Missile (F), Magic Shield (F), Stormcaller Sword Style (S), Mountainpeak Swordsmanship (A), Second Imperial Swordsmanship (B), Sharpgale Sword Style (A), Earthsplitter Swordsmanship (A), Falling Snow Steps (A), Setting Sun Sword Style (S) Earth Grab (F), Earth Spikes (E), Firebolt (F), Wind Blades (F), Water Bullets (F), Gust (F), Ray of Frost (F), Water Sphere (D), Fireball (D), Frost Lance (D), Rupture (D), Tide (D), Fire Ring (D), Lesser Lightning (D), Frost (E), Fire Spear (D).
Passive Skills
Mana Core (Fourth Circle), Sword Handling (E), Stamina (E), Blade Affinity (D), Focused Impact (D), Overpower (D), Balance (E), Cutting Edge (D), Persistence (D), Mana Resonance (C), Faster Casting (D), Lionheart (C), Efficient Reserves (D), Silent Casting (E), Mental Fortitude (D), Keen Focus (C), Sharpened Mind (C), Dual Casting (D), Flow (C), Circulation (C), Sharp Edge (D), Blooming Growth (C), Swordsman’s Senses (C), Harmonic Reverie.
Hybrid Skills
Sword Mastery (Master), Mana Cultivation (Advanced), Magic Swordsmanship (Intermediate), Aura Casting (Beginner).
Aspect
Harmony of Twin Lives.
Titles
Experienced Mage; Reincarnator; Swordmaster; Master Monster Slayer; Hard-working; Duelist; Bladedancer; Swordseeker; Battlemage; Dedicated Student; Warrior; Resilient Swordsman; Fighting Maniac; Moonlight’s Eternal Promise; A New Path; The Flower of Possibility.
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Rylan nodded to himself as he analyzed his Status Window. First, he looked at his Level. Despite killing so many Sandworms on his own, it hadn’t increased by much.
As expected, the XP requirements after the second Class Evolution are pretty steep.
It was likely part of the reason why higher-Circle Mages were so rare. It wasn’t only a matter of knowledge. Many of them would still need to kill monsters consistently and frequently to Level up well enough. Still, that didn’t matter to him. Since he was solo hunting, his Level would increase quickly enough. He just didn’t know if he was growing fast enough to deal with the Empire. Rylan furrowed his brow and moved on.
His stats hadn’t changed much, since he hadn’t Leveled up a lot. However, that didn’t go for his Aura stat.
It more than tripled.
Aura was a special stat. While both Intelligence and Wisdom indirectly affected the power of his Mana Cultivation, the Aura stat was directly related to how much Aura he could use and its power. As the physical representation of someone’s life force and willpower, it was much harder to increase than mana, even when using Free Points.
An increase of a single Aura point costs four Free Points.
That was why his Class was such a massive boon. Every Level, it increased not only his ordinary stats, but his Aura as well. Rylan clenched his fist, circulating his Aura. The power coursed through him, flooding his body and mind like a tidal wave, making him faster and stronger. The increase to the Aura stat was extremely noticeable and translated into clearly higher combat power. He grinned.
As for his Skills, they hadn’t changed much, the most notable shift being Harmonic Reverie, which had evolved from Dreams of Transcendence.
I really need to learn some Fourth Circle spells, or even more Third Circle spells.
It would be a priority as soon as he returned to Ceotha.
Aura Casting had also been added, and Magic Swordsmanship had gone from Beginner to Intermediate. Rylan smiled to himself. Finally, there was only a single new Title in his Status Window. He willed its information to appear in front of him.
[Title
The Flower of Possibility: the seed of possibility has bloomed, allowing for the new path that you seek to progress. It represents everything you are and everything you can be. The path is long, but it is also extremely bright. Your genius hasn’t gone unnoticed.
* Increases the integration of Aura Casting and Mana Cultivation.
* Increases the effectiveness of Magic Swordsmanship.
* Slightly diminishes Aether’s burden on your mind, body, and soul.]
It’s similar to the A New Path Title.
Just like it, this Title diminished Aether’s burden on him. However, it also increased his two most important Skills and empowered Magic Swordsmanship. Overall, it was a great Title with no downsides.
Still smiling, Rylan dismissed his Status Window and continued to run.
I’ll work on getting new Skills once I’m more familiar with the Setting Sun Sword Style again.
Thankfully, there were many opponents he could sharpen his edge against. As if on cue, the sand to his right erupted to reveal a lunging Sandworm. Rylan only unsheathed Silver Twilight and swung it, circulating his mana and Aura at top speed.
Setting Sun Sword Style, First Movement: Sunset’s Glow.
The omnidirectional wave of fiery Aura crashed against the Sandworm, consuming it entirely as it was still in mid-air and blazing with fierceness. In the end, the monster turned to ashes before it even hit the ground. Rylan marched on, unbothered.
I can now use a good number of Sword Arts before running out of energy.
Now that he had two energy pools to draw from, his endurance had massively increased. It was good news, especially because he didn’t know if he would need to go to war. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Rylan continued to run toward the pyramid.
More of the Sandworms burst out of the dunes, but he easily dealt with all of them, even when they came in groups. He was now perfectly used to their movements and knew what they could and couldn’t do; dealing with them was a simple matter, especially because he’d Leveled up and increased his Aura stat so much.
Finally, Rylan arrived in front of the pyramid’s entrance. It was a large square, around eight meters in height and a few meters in width, on one of the pyramid’s sides. Before the archway and in front of a Sandworm carcass, Rylan pushed his Mana Cultivation and Aura to their limits, then sharpened his hearing. From deep within the pyramid, he could hear faint voices. He sighed.
“Things were going too well to be true,” he mumbled to himself. He’d considered it his great fortune that he hadn’t come across any people during the twelve days he’d spent in the Dungeon, but it seemed that all good things came to an end. “Nothing to do about it, I guess.”
Not bothering to sheathe his sword, Rylan strode inside the pyramid, right into a relatively narrow hallway. The torches on the walls lit up automatically, revealing a long corridor. Pictures and engravings decorated the walls, depicting different scenes. Some were nothing but birds flying through the sky, while others were of humanoid, tall figures with animalistic features. Rylan raised his eyebrow at those, but walked through the corridor anyway.
Suddenly, he heard something click. The sound was faint, but his senses screamed at him at the same time. He immediately stopped walking and stood in place. A heartbeat later, an arrow went right through where his head would have been. With his sharp eyes, Rylan watched it go through a hole in the opposite wall and disappear.
Oh, so that’s what this pyramid is about.
He had never been a fan of traps. Rylan sighed and cracked his neck. There was no reason to play the building’s game. A moment later, he shot forward with Snowstorm. Several clicks rang out, but he easily avoided all the projectiles. Spikes rose from the floor, but he simply leaped over them while slapping away several arrows in mid-air with his sword. Blades fell from the ceiling, but they were either shattered or avoided.
In the end, Rylan burst forth from the corridor’s opposite end right into an immense room. His gaze automatically went to the battle in front of him, then to the monster that was clearly the Boss.
…Curious creature.