Chapter 6: Soul Power

Esos, Guardian of the Forest [Lvl. ???]

Locke closed the first observation menu and opened a new one. It still showed the golden named monster. Not only did it have a golden name, but it had a proper name, and a title. One had to understand that in Vellon Online, the color grades were very significant. White being the lowest, then violet, indigo, emerald, gold, amber, ruby, and finally black, being the strongest.

The strength difference between these grades wasn't simply just raw power. In fact, once an NPC reached amber grade, they were generally weaker physically than gold grades. However, their intelligence skyrockets and they are able to use tactics and strategy.

Locke pondered a way to get past this. The cave system continued on for a long time, and the monsters were getting incrementally stronger. However, the potential loot from killing a gold grade would be astronomical. How was he going to kill it? Naturally with [Early Grave].

The cooldown of [Soul Anchor] was almost done, which meant he could start pushing deeper into the cave. Once he leveled, he could come back and check the guardians level. If he still could not inspect it, he would naturally keep leveling.

However, Locke was cowardly by nature. Even with a live saving skill, his constant deaths had conditioned him to fear confrontation. He would not try to kill the gold grade monster until he was certain. Locke went back through the cave system and tried to locate an area with the weakest monsters he could gain experience from.

Fortunately, none of the undead had respawned in any of the rooms he already cleared, so that meant this cave system was a non-instanced dungeon. Locke had read up on these and they are dungeons created by amber or higher grade NPCs. In other words, all of these undead are some NPCs subordinates or experiments.

...

Deeper in the cave system.

"Should I just give up after all?"

Locke mumbled to himself as he remained crouched. He had been observing the wandering corpses for the last half hour, but they didn't show any patterns or ever break off from their groups. He started to feel hopeless, and just as he was going to log off, he saw one of the wandering corpses stumble.

On its way back to the group, it walked right in front of Locke's hiding spot. He immediately slammed the hammer against its leg while activating his skill. He had since experimented and discovered the cripple effect was more effective when you struck at joints.

Bert's Crushing Blow!

-12

[Successfully crippled Wandering Corpse's leg.]

When he saw the notification, he smiled and attacked once more, at the head this time. A squishing sound like bursting a watermelon resounded out and the wandering corpse fell to the ground.

-9

[You have defeated Wandering Corpse Level 1: 21 xp, +1 copper coin, +2 soul chip.]

Locke sighed in relief. They were level 1. That means he should be able to fight this group. Locke's biggest worry was that they were level 2 or higher. He kept observing the monsters, but after a few minutes it seemed none realized their ally was killed.

The base damage of any attack is in a range of (AGI)-(STR). If Agility is higher than strength, the damage is still capped to strength, but the overflow is converted to critical damage when striking a vital area. Some skills will trigger a critical strike with a percentage or even automatically.

Locke's brain automatically went to work. Their health was at most 21 base on his last combat log. His damage range is 9-11 with the hammer, and crushing blow deals 2-3 base damage, so it would do between 11 and 14. Therefore, it would take him at most three attacks to kill, if he did minimum damage of 18 with two normal blows.

'I should do a few attacks with the wooden sword and try to figure out their health. Once I level, I have to allocate exactly enough points into strength to kill them in 1 hit.'

Fortunately, Locke was able to wield both the sword and hammer, so he did not lose the stat bonus. Although, attack bonuses were linked to the attacking weapon.

He waited patiently for the group that lost a member to come back around. They were left with two undead after his last fight. Once they crossed his ambush point, he quickly ran forward and struck with the sword.

-5

The corpses didn't wait around for him to beat them down as they swung their meaty fists down on his chest. Locke was able to block one with his sword, but the other landed with a thud.

-9

'Damn, how high is their strength? At this rate I'll be dead in 2 more hits.'

Locke activated his skill and slammed it down against the first undead. His only chance at this point was to reduce the enemies by one so he could dodge and block.

Bert's Crushing Blow!

-11

[You have defeated Wandering Corpse Level 1: 21 xp, +1 copper coin, +1 soul chip.]

Once his flank was cleared, Locke focused completely on dodging and blocking the other wandering corpse. He refused to get hit anymore times and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. After a few seconds, the Corpse made a mistake and one of its arms stayed outstretch after an attack. The cooldown of his skill had just come up and he immediately activated it.

Bert's Crushing Blow!

-7

Locke paid attention to the corpse's movements, not noticing the damage number. The skill guaranteed a stun, but the duration was random and he could only pay attention to the body language to figure out when it ended. He continued to strike while it was stunned, hoping to take it out.

-4

-5

He struck at it two more times before it shook off the stun. Locke was so focused on his attacks and dodging that he didn't realize it hadn't gone down yet. Blocking another hit, the wooden sword snapped as the durability hit 0 and part of the fist connected with his arm.

-4

Locke stepped back and tried to delay for another two seconds for the cooldown to be up, and as soon as the corpse caught up, he swung down, activating his skill mid-arc.

Bert's Crushing Blow!

-6

[You have defeated Wandering Corpse Level 2: 84 xp, +2 copper coin, +2 soul chip.]

Locke stared at the message with mouth agape. He looked at the combat log and realized he was too deeply immersed in combat to realize it survived twice as many hits. This is level suppression. The base stats of a monster won't go up much between levels, but there was an effect at every even difference.

When two levels higher than your opponent, you take half as much damage, and deal twice as much. This is why Locke was scared to face these unknown monsters at first. If they were level 2, he was done for. Now that he confirmed the log messages, he realized these patrol groups must have a level 2 leading them.

'Why are a bunch of monsters so organized? It's like they are part of an army. Maybe they were originally soldiers before they died and reanimated?'

Locke rested on the floor while munching on some hard biscuits. The only way to recover hit points was magic or food. Whenever you create a new character or die, you are given 10 biscuits, so Locke had plenty at the moment.

[Your body is overflowing with Death Energy, unable to regain hit points with food. New skill acquired]

Name: Lucky Skeleton

Class: Death Acolyte [Lvl. 0]

Status:

22/22 HP

16/16 SP

STR: 1 (3) AGI: 1 END: 2 (4) INT: 2 MYS: 4 LUK: 1

Skills: (New)Deathly Metabolism [Lvl. 1]; [Expand]

Details:

Deathly Metabolism [Lvl. 1]: Consume crystalized soul power to heal based on the quality of the soul. A maximum amount of souls may be ingested based on skill level and remnant will. Digestion: 8 hours.

----------------------

'Crystalized soul power? Isn't that the soul chip?'

Locke looked down at his inventory where 126 soul chips were stacked. Their appearance resembled fragments from breaking apart a crystal. Even after two months, no one knew what the use of soul chips were. Players began to assume that they were a form of micro-currency for things costing less than 1 copper. It was now standard to convert 10 soul chips into 1 copper.

A feeling of satisfaction overflowed within Locke. He felt the joy of being the first person to find a use for these seemingly useless items. Curious at their effect, he swallowed one.

[Soul Quality: Fragment; Will: 2%; HP +5]

The effect was almost instant. The small fragment melted in his mouth like a sugar cube and a cool sensation flowed into his chest. Locke immediately though of something, and got up. He started to walk around a bit leaving resting status and then swallowed another soul chip.

[...+5]

"These are practically healing potions for me!" Locke swallowed another one to fill up his hit points.

[...+5]

[You have consumed too much foreign soul power. Any more will begin to damage your native soul. Digestion: 8 hours.]

Locke was ecstatic. Even with an 8-hour cooldown, 3 soul chips for 15 hit points was ground breaking. He was certain people tried to eat them before, but it must be unique to his hidden class to acquire the skill. One had to realize that healing potions, which were common in other MMOs, were practically nonexistent in Vellon Online.

Locke had originally intended to become a healer to earn a good salary. Players paid a lot for healing and it would have given him a comfortable life. Now that he could heal himself for so much, he was completely aware of the value.

A single soul chip should be worth 1 silver if this ability became widespread!

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Pill_Guy

A lot of information this chapter, let me know if you like this style of numbers focused fighting, or if you guys like a more abstract summary of what is happening.

Note: This is in the writing contest so stones are appreciated

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