~~~~
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
~~~~
Xai pushed away the two floating pieces of paper. And allocated his two free stat points into Vitality and Endurance. First on the account that he was out of breath from the fight he just had, and the fact that one of the three dead leopards around him had landed a blow on his shoulder.
The wound wasn't awfully deep, it would heal on its own in time. But it still hurt like hell and stained his sleeve.
In the past half hour, he'd ascended the mountain more; roughly halfway. He was almost to the edge of the forest where he'd eventually need to scale a rather treacherous cliffside. Technically there were cliffs on another section of the mountain that would have offered a quicker route, but Xai didn't trust himself to not fall to his death.
Xai left the corpses of the leopards behind as he continued.
He cursed under his breath at the pain pulsing through his shoulder. If he'd known his afternoon would be climbing a mountain and fighting wild beasts, he would have brought his medical pouch. He really missed not having some ointment to rub on the wound.
As he walked he began to hear shouting in the distance. If it were anyone else, he would have passed them by but he knew that voice.
"Liang," Xai whispered to himself as he bolted toward the direction of the screams.
Xai quickly came to a clearing to see Liang fighting a large boar with his bare hands. His two sabers lay scattered across the clearing.
Xai quickly scanned over Liang and the boar's level. Liang rested at level 16 whilst the boar's was 25.
While he knew Liang was a capable fighter, and that the beasts seemed relatively easy to kill even, by lower-level opponents, he wasn't going to just watch his friend potentially get injured.
Xai dashed forward towards the side of the boar and held his blade forward. The tip of Xai's sword pierced the boar's thick hide with little resistance, being driven halfway into the boar.
The beast squealed and quickly moved from the direction of the pain to face Xai.
Liang, who had both his fists raised against the boar, alit with a smile. "Xai? Can't believe you made it all the way here so fast."
"Go pick your blades up, I'll distract the beast," Xai spoke, not taking his eyes from the boar as it looked between the two cultivators.
"Why? I set them over there for a reason." Laing retorted.
Xai raised a brow and looked at his friend. "Why?"
He didn't get a reply as the boar snarled and charged toward Xai. The boar was fast for its size- standing nearly 5 feet tall- but it wasn't as fast as the leopard's had been.
Xai leapt to the side away from the boar as he set a slash across its face. He took a few extra steps back as the boar shook the blood from its face.
"Cause, using my sabers is too easy," Liang shouted and he ran forward and slammed his foot into the boar's face causing the massive beast to stumble back several steps. "I've already killed two of these things, one of them was without my blades."
"He's going to get himself killed," Xai muttered to himself.
The boar squealed before snorting and charging forward at Liang.
Xai was about to rush forward to shove his friend out of the way, but instead, Liang just braced himself. As the boar approached Liang grabbed its tusks in his hands and began pushing the boar's head upwards. Liang slid across the grass for several feet before the boar was finally halted. Liang continued to push the boar's head upwards, now managing to lift its front legs off the ground.
Xai took the opportunity and ran forward, thrusting the tip of his blade into the beast's neck.
The boar squealed and thrashed, prying itself out of Liang's grip before slamming its head into Xai's torso. Xai was sent sprawling onto his back.
The boar approached the downed cultivator, his blade still hilt deep through the beast's neck. The boar put its head down and charged forwards at Xai.
Xai tried to scramble to his feet. But a chain suddenly wrapped around his arm and flung him to the side, out of the way of the raging boar.
Xai finally got to his feet as the chain uncoiled from his arm. From the treeline, Xai caught a glimpse of a white-haired woman walking into the clearing.
"Why are you two wasting your time fighting a boar?" Toya asked. She spun her chain at her side, ready to fling it at something if the need arose.
"Oh, hey Toya," Liang shouted as he ran up towards the boar and punched it in the nose.
"Pick up your damn blades!" Xai shouted.
"Pick up your blade?" Liang shouted as he stepped back from a swing up the boar's tusk. He then quickly stepped forward, grabbed the hilt of Xai's sword, and pulled it from the boar's neck before tossing the weapon to its owner.
Xai caught his weapon and flicked some of the blood from it into the grass. "That's not what I said." He muttered.
Stolen novel; please report.
Xai ran forward again this time leaping into the air and cutting across the beast's back. He then rolled to the side as he landed when the boar tried to kick him with its hind legs.
He took several steps back as the boar looked around itself trying to assess who would be the easiest opponent. Blood matted both its face and hide. One of its eyes seems to have been swollen over by one of Liang's strikes.
"This boar seems very annoying to take down," Xai stated.
Liang shrugged as he stepped aside from a swing of the boar's head. "They aren't that bad. They're slow. Also," Liang turned to Toya. "Are you just going to watch?"
"I'm waiting." She called back.
"For what?" Liang asked as he dodged another blow.
Xai stepped aside from another kick of the boar's hind legs as he swung downward at its hamstring. The blade cut cleanly through the hide of the boar's leg, cutting seamlessly through its muscle.
The boar let out another squeal- cut off by a punch from Liang- as its injured leg fell to a knee.
"Like now," Toya shouted as she ran forward. She spun her chain and shot it toward one of Liang's sabers on the ground. The chain wrapped around the handle of the weapon as she spun the chain again, now with the large blade at its end. She arced the blade up with the chain before bringing it downward like an axe onto the boar's skull.
The beast let out a sound between a squeal and a groan before finally falling limp.
Several pieces of paper flashed before Xai.
~~~~
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
***
[You have 7 unspent stat points]
***
[Level 20 reached]
[You have 1 skill reward of rank 'F']
[You meet the requirements for 3 skills]
[Select one of the following skills to acquire]
- Swordsman (F)
- Analyze (F)
- Focused Strike (F)
~~~~
Xai spread his 7 points to each of his stats, except 'charm'. He still didn't know why it was so high. As his stats increased, a small tingling sensation raced across his body. His senses seemed slightly sharper. He felt he could move slightly faster; hit harder. It was all very slight, but noticeable.
Xai glanced at his two allies as they both stared into thin air, supposedly at their own stat pages. Liang now rested at level 21. While Toya was only at level 14.
"Did you not level up from the boar, Toya?"
The white-haired woman's gaze snapped towards Xai. "Hm? No, I got several. Was even granted a skill at level 10."
Xai looked back to Toya's level, double-checking he had read it right. "What level were you at before the boar was killed?"
"Just 6."
"6?!" Liang shouted. "What did you fight coming up here? A rabbit?"
"Monkey actually. Near the cliffs. I threw it off."
Xai and Liang looked at each other.
Liang just shrugged. "Oh whatever, I'm the highest level of us three anyway. So I'll lead us now while we are all together."
Xai chuckled. "Levels aren't everything Liang." He gestured his blade to the boar's corpse. "We just killed a level 25 boar. Plus you're only a single level above me." Xai stated, putting his sword back in its scabbard.
Liang grunted and began picking up his sabers, starting with the one lodged within the boar's skull.
Xai looked at the one slip of paper that he had yet to wave away; his skills.
"What skills have you both chosen? In fact, what are your stats?" Xai asked.
The three then proceeded to exchange their stats.
"How did you manage to obtain 42 strength?" Toya asked, looking incredulously at Liang.
"Partly a skill, stat points, and having started with 20," Laing explained.
"What skill?" Xai asked, partly hoping it was one he could obtain.
"'Strong Man'. For every level, I get 1 point of strength. I also just got another called 'Durable' I haven't looked at that though."
"I think I may choose 'Acrobat' then. It gives me 1 dexterity per level." Toya stated waving her hand through the air, presumably swiping her translucent piece of paper from her view.
"My options are 'Swordsmanship'- I had that option at level 10- 'Analyze' and 'Focused Strike'," Xai said.
"Swordsmanship sounds useful. What does it do?" Toya responded.
Xai was about to respond. But he paused when he realized he never even looked at the description of the skill. After mentally slapping himself for his idiocy he glanced at the slip of paper in his periphery as another roll of script appeared.
~~~~
[Swordmanship (F)]
[Description: The skill to wield any and all forms of swords and blades. From the lightest of rapiers to the heaviest of great swords, swordsmanship affects them all. Grants a small bonus to the effectiveness of Strength and Dexterity when wielding a sword, as well as granting basic swordsmanship knowledge]
~~~~
Xai rolled his eyes. Of course, it was more than just knowledge of how to swing a sword. Though, now that he remembered he could he opened the descriptions of the other two skills he could obtain.
~~~~
[Analyze (F)]
[Description: Grants basic information about an item within 5 feet of the user. This skill does not affect items of rank 'E' or above.]
***
[Focused Strike (F)]
[Description: Grants sight of a single target's weak point for a short amount of time. The weak spot often changes location due to positioning and movement.]
~~~~
The other two skills weren't quite as enticing. While 'Focused Strike' seemed useful, 'Swordmanship' was more so. Especially due to the fact it was his weapon of choice, and he saw no reason to switch now. Plus, if he needed to, he could choose another of the skills at level 30.
As Xai's 'swordmanship' skill entered his status he felt a well of knowledge surge into his mind. Much of it he already knew. Just more bits of knowledge he'd been taught being pushed to the front of his mind. But others were new, very slight variations of how he'd been taught to swing a blade. He noticed slight differences in what was being forced into his head, and what he actually did while fighting. His feet being part of an inch out of place. His hips being an inch lower than they needed to be. But most of all, he felt a shift in his physical capabilities as he drew his blade to test out the new fragments of knowledge. He felt lighter; stronger.
While Liang and Toya spoke amongst themselves, Xai walked over to a tree with particularly low-hanging branches. Xai took a stance before going through his practiced slashes and stabs. For the most part, the specific attacks weren't used often in combat, if at all, but existed to make sure his form was proper for any true attack he would make. He aimed his swings at the branches and stabs at the trunk of the tree. Most of the branches were cut cleanly from the tree, only leaving the thicker ones hanging by a few strands of wood. His stabs pierced several inches into the tree, some of the stronger stabs even pierced a full foot into the trunk.
Once his practice swings had concluded- and the tree sufficiently stripped of many of its lower branches- Xai returned to his group. Several minutes later, they continued their ascent.
***
Higher up, within the dense forests of the mountain, a junior cultivator of the Silver Mist sect trembled at the beast before him.
He and four others had pushed ahead as fast as they could. They'd assumed there may have been some form of reward for the first to reach the sect hall. Even so, they still managed to slay quite a few beasts along the way. Many of them had been between levels 8 and 14 when it attacked.
They heard its growl first. But as they turned it lunged at the closest to it, ramming its fist completely through their torso. Another of the cultivators ran in to strike it with their saber, but it hardly even pierced the creature's hide before they too were beaten to a pulp.
The rest ran, but the beast was too fast for any of them. The final cultivator- and the fasted of any of the others- now leaned against a tree. A wound on their side bled down their leg and onto the roots of the tree below as their bone stuck from skin. The last thing the cultivator saw was the level of the beast as it brought its fist downward.
[Level 61 (F)]
