Chapter 16: Kindled

[Attune has reached Level 20. Special exemption granted. L1 Hex Branch Abilities has been improved to Level 5]

―

[Your Root Abilities have exceeded your Level by an entire Tier. You have been awarded the Title "Magic Elite"]

―

Title: Magic Elite

Type: Contingent

Description: A level beyond your peers. Your comprehension of your Root Abilities is well beyond that which your level dictates and you have been awarded as such.

[+10 Mind. +5 Levels to L1 Branch Abilities.]

―

Name: Jaxir Chance

Class: Magic

Level: 2

Alignment: Bad

Experience: 31/400

Coins: 543

==

Marks: Jester

Titles: Magic Elite

==

HP: 70/70

MP: 237/300

==

Core Stats

Body: 6 (+2)

Mind: 30 (+10)

Free Points: 0

==

Abilities

Body: N/A

Mind: Cast (Lv20); Channel (Lv20); Attune (Lv20); Wither (Lv5); Bind (Lv5); Fracture (Lv5)

==

Divine Abilities: Encore; Luck of the Draw

Divinity Points: 0

―

"Oh, cool. But why does it say only one Tier? Is a full 20 Levels considered one Tier? Or do they not start counting until Level 10?"

Jaxir felt lighter, and also like a lot more energy was rolling through him. The increased Mind Stat seemed to not only increase his MP by 100, but it also did a lot of things in the background as well.

He had never seen a game with just two stats before. Usually there was an array of them like wisdom and intelligence, or constitution and strength. But here, everything was folded into two neat categories.

So when Mind improved, Jaxir could think faster, react faster, cast faster, and even his spells became more powerful.

Obviously, the higher level you were, the more difficult it would become to keep your Root Abilities so much higher. But now that Jaxir could feel it, he couldn’t help but smile.

If there was this sort of reward for his Root Abilities, what about his L1 Hex Abilities? If he raised them to Level 20 too, was there a title even higher than Magic Elite?

His eyes glowed. He really wanted to know.

Jaxir looked over toward the bear’s corpse, but this time, there was no item.

"Lame."

Despite his words, the eagerness in Jaxir’s eyes painted a completely different story. What he wanted most now was to test out his new strength. Now that he had 300 MP, maybe he could start casting his L1 Hexes with more frequency.

But it still seemed like a waste against the foxes. They had so little HP and his Hexes could only target one at a time even if they appeared in groups.

"I haven’t cast Wither before yet. Maybe I should try that out."

Jaxir entered the hallway to find the foxes standing in groups of five.

He blinked.

They blinked back at him.

"Well this is just getting a little ridiculous now. How many of them am I supposed to fight at the same―."

The foxes rushed him.

Jaxir poured mana into the Twinkle Shield and sent out a ripple.

The foxes yelped.

[-5]

[-5]

[-5]

[-5]

[-5]

Jaxir was a bit surprised. This wasn’t supposed to do damage, but they had been pushed out with so much force this time that they received some impact damage.

"Nice."

Jaxir decided to play around a bit. He raised his staff and cast Wither. His lips moved quickly, but the chant was already shorter than it had been at Level 1.

They were already rushing at him by the time he finished, but he just barely managed it.

A crackle of crimson lightning descended in a swirl of what looked like dried, shattered leaves. Jaxir immediately lost 25 MP.

"This is a little harder to control."

Bind came out of their shadows, and Fracture enveloped their entire body. But Wither struck down and had to be pretty precise.

If Jaxir had cast it at Level 1, he might have actually missed. But being at Level 5, he had some added control and caught the reins before he lost it.

~[-5]~

~[-5]~

~[-5]~

~[-5]~

~[-4]~

The fox’s HP rapidly shrank, but unlike normal, it was like the bar above its head itself was being eaten away at.

And it happened much quicker than expected. The description of Wither said it was supposed to happen slowly, but it felt like the fox was almost instantly crippled.

The only problem was that Wither couldn’t kill it. It had gone down to 1 HP, and it couldn’t move, but other than that, it was just sitting there waiting for death.

Jaxir turned his attention to the others and made quick work of them before finally finishing the last off.

It was useful, but Wither was definitely best used against enemies with larger pools of HP, and preferably ones who lost stat points or became crippled as they grew closer to 0 HP too.

Jaxir continued and it wasn’t long before he ran into another group of five, and then another.

It felt endless, and he couldn’t help but start to wonder how large this Dungeon was and how it compared to the weaker difficulties.

Then he ran into a dead end.

"Oh... I guess I went the wrong way," Jaxir chuckled, remembering the fork in the road at the beginning.

He doubled all the way back, ended up on the first path he had entered, then went left this time before starting up his clinical massacre once more.

Every battle he fought, he learned a little bit more. But even with 300 MP, his mana recovering even faster, and Attune at Level 20, he couldn’t cast a ton of L1 Abilities so progress was slow.

By the time he found himself standing in front of tall bronze doors with nine crystals that looked like rotating miniature white dwarf stars, he had only managed to get them all to Level 6.

"This must be where the final boss is."

Jaxir took a glance at his HP. He had managed to make it back to full, but his MP was lacking right now, so he decided to wait it out.

When he finally did get back to full MP as well, he took a breath and stepped forward.

For some reason, he was feeling a little bit jittery. It wasn’t out of nervousness, but excitement, like he was anticipating something good.

One of his hands still held two Vestigem Cards, the other holding his staff while the Twinkle Shield hovered before him. The Dungeon hadn’t had any other rewards...

So now it was time to go and take the rest himself.

The doors creaked open, and before Jaxir even stepped in, he saw the beast.

It was easily double the size of the other twinkle twinkle bears he had seen. Its fur was as black as night, but its paws were a beautiful radiant silver.

An equally silver crown hovered in pieces of diamond-shape metal around its head.

It slumbered, its body moving rhythmically.

―

Name: Twinkle Twinkle Bear King

Level: 5

HP: 5000/5000

―

Jaxir whistled.

The bear shifted.

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[The King has been roused early]

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[The fury of a King has been stoked]

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[The King has sensed the breath of its son’s death in the air and has been further enraged]

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[Rare Instance Triggered]

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Name: Twinkle Twinkle Bear King (Kindled)

Level: 5

HP: 50,000/50,000

―

Jaxir blinked... "Son? Which one was that?"

That was when Jaxir recalled that only one of the bears had given him treasures in return for killing it. Was that really a coincidence?

No. Apparently not.

Jaxir had no idea what he had stumbled into. There was only a 5% chance of the Twinkle Twinkle Bear King’s son appearing in the Nightmare Dungeon. And only when it was hibernation season would there be a further 5% chance that should one kill the King’s son before reaching the boss room that a Rare Instance would be triggered.

When this occurred, the boss of the Twinkle Twinkle Dungeon would go from an unranked boss to a Kindled Boss... a creature whose Divinity had been sparked.

The King stood, its movements causing the earth to shake as though the entire cave system might come falling down on their heads.

It looked at Jaxir and roared.

"Well, shit."

A wind swept Jaxir into the boss room and the doors slammed shut with a heavy BOOM.