His feet landed on the floor once again, this time with a small clarity — goblins, while weak, stupid, and overall barely a threat on their own, had an annoying skill called Bloodlust. Their strength would increase based on damage dealt to their prey. "Great." He breathed out, mentally noting that he couldn't afford to get hit, even as his eyes met the goblin's face.
The protection circle vanished and this time he moved first. He knew how it would attack, so with a quick lunge he dodged off to the side, steering clear of its daggers. He slashed at its elbow as he passed — his sword cutting through muscle before meeting bone — and felt the arm go dead under the blade. He kept moving, using his momentum to push him past the goblin entirely, putting it between him and the wall.
The beast wheeled to face him, its disabled arm hanging loose. Its other arm swung wide as it turned, and he ducked under it, stepping back in close. He gripped the sword in both hands and drove a clean cut through the other elbow joint. The beast screamed.
He stepped back and gave it a moment — not out of mercy, just... vengeance. Both arms disabled below the elbow, daggers gone, the goblin could do nothing but snarl at him from the middle of the chamber, before dashing at him. He rolled his shoulders, shifted his grip, and slashed at its neck with his full momentum behind it, cutting deep.
At the same time he heard a ding from his system, followed by many more.
'You have earned a total of 28,500 XP by defeating an enemy with a significantly higher level than you.'
He breathed deeply and checked himself. No wounds — which made him very happy. What made him even happier was that he had earned another 40 stat points. But as he dismissed the XP and level-up notifications, something new greeted him.
You have gained [Minor Proficiency in Bastard Swords]
His breath caught as he opened his status.
[Horace Smith, Level 9, Classless]
Experience: 3,000 / 25,600
Strength — 6.5
Agility — 6.5
Endurance — 6
Intelligence — 6
Perception — 6
Unallocated Points Remaining: 40
Unique Skill: Time Dragon's Blessing
Upon death, regress to the earliest possible time in the realm the blessed one occupied at the moment of death, retaining 50% of stats and non-unique skills while keeping other benefits such as proficiencies.
Proficiencies
Bastard Sword [Minor]
He grinned and quickly allocated his stats, favouring Strength and Agility. This was an unexpected boon, mainly since he wasn't particularly good with a sword.
"Well, dying over and over does that for you." He sighed and confirmed his stat allocation.
[Strength: 6.5 → 15]
[Agility: 6.5 → 15]
[Endurance: 6 → 14]
[Intelligence: 6 → 14]
[Perception: 6 → 13]
His body shuddered, though this time it was less dramatic. He gripped his sword, wiped the blood from its blade on his shirt, then stepped over to the newly formed teleportation circle where the protective circle had been.
He felt weightless again as he appeared on the second floor. His eyes landed on the creature before him, then on its name.
[Abyssal Direwolf — Level 18]
He swallowed as he looked it over. It was massive — about chest height on him. Its black fur shimmered in the artificial light, its head disproportionately large, black foam gathering around its enormous teeth. Its paws moved it steadily around the chamber, its keen eyes watching him with unsettling intelligence.
"Great. A direwolf. At least it's not a kobold." He sighed as he thought through what he knew of direwolves.
They were fast, strong, and intelligent. They had an annoying skill that healed them when they consumed meat — which meant he had to be especially careful of those jaws.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, the protective circle flickered and disappeared. The wolf charged, its heavy body thundering across the floor toward him.
He dodged left, just barely, as it blew past and slammed into the wall behind him. It wasn't as fast as the goblin, thankfully, but the sheer mass of it was a different problem entirely. He whirled as the wolf scraped off the wall and rounded on him, its lips peeling back. He needed to close the distance before it built up speed again — so he charged, angling right to draw it into turning.
They met somewhere in the middle of the chamber. He planted his left foot, cut right, and slid the sword out to a one-handed grip for the extra reach, twisting into a stab at its shoulder as it lunged past him.
The blade skipped off the dense muscle and opened a gash across its chest instead. It let out a massive roar. Before he could reset his footing it had already wheeled, and its tail caught him across the ribs like a club.
He flew. Between the pain in his chest and the impact of his head against the wall, he didn't know which one killed him.
Landing on the first floor again was getting tedious. He finished quickly this time though — his proficiency carried over even as his stats decayed. He assigned his stats. He'd come to realise that Perception was largely useless right now — its main benefits were protection against ambushes and the ability to view an enemy's information, provided your Perception exceeded the enemy's level. In theory, if your Perception was a hundred times your enemy's level, you could see all of their information — and in the case of Sentient Races like Humans or Lizardfolk, even their Unique Skill.
None of that mattered here. Perception could only bring so much to the table, and he didn't want to invest in it. So he pressed allocate, his stats climbing again.
[Strength: 7.5 → 18]
[Agility: 7.5 → 17.5]
[Endurance: 7 → 15]
[Intelligence: 7 → 15]
[Perception: 6.5 → 10]
He sighed as the stats settled into him, then stepped into the teleportation circle. The room changed and his eyes met the grey gaze of the wolf.
"Okay. Watch the mouth, the paws, and the tail. Fucking fantastic." He cursed as the circle vanished.
He lunged to the side as it charged, letting it commit fully before cutting back in. He shifted to a one-handed grip on the bastard sword — the extra reach letting him slash across its front leg without getting inside the arc of its jaws — and felt the leg buckle beneath the strike. The wolf's momentum did the rest, pitching it onto its side with a heavy crash. He was on it immediately, driving the blade through its neck before it could find its feet.
"Its Endurance is terrible. Good to know." He commented to himself as the message came.
You have earned 20,700 XP by defeating an enemy with a higher level than yourself.
He frowned as he checked his status.
[Horace Smith, Level 9, Classless]
Experience: 23,700 / 25,600
Strength: 7.5 → 18
Agility: 7.5 → 17.5
Endurance: 7 → 15
Intelligence: 7 → 15
Perception: 6.5 → 10
Unique Skill: Time Dragon's Blessing
Upon death, regress to the earliest possible time in the realm the blessed one occupied at the moment of death, retaining 50% of stats and non-unique skills while keeping other benefits such as proficiencies.
Proficiencies
Bastard Sword [Minor]
"Damn." He cursed as he realised — because of his level the experience gain was diminished. And that meant he was stuck at level nine. "Okay. I have to clear one more floor with a little over forty stat points... Well, at least it scales. Slowly, but surely."
He muttered to himself before moving to the teleportation circle.