#023 – Ready to burn the world!
“–and then I realized the exit might be behind the entrance… which it was,” I finished explaining from my perch on one of the random benches all over the place.
GeorgeDoshington: lmao
GeorgeDoshington: you got owned
I scowled.
“Why am I even retelling you everything? Can’t you just go and watch the stream history yourself? Hmph…” I sniffed and lay down on the bench with a sigh.
Truth be told, I was still shaken about what had happened in there, but retelling it like a campfire story helped to make it feel less severe. I’ve had a few close calls already and I had intellectually known that this wasn’t a ga and I could die at any mont… but now it was finally sinking in.
And the idea of dying was terrifying.
GeorgeDoshington: but im lazy
I quickly shooed those thoughts away as I rolled my eyes at George.
“Anyway… In conclusion, I should invite more people to the group chat, so that I’m not stuck with just one person who will tell to go inside a dark room filled with a horde of monsters.”
JamieWasTaken3: hey
JamieWasTaken3: I didn’t know that would happen
“I an, I don’t bla you, but… Yeah, I think a second opinion never hurts,” I concluded, a bit morosely. “Anywho, what’s up, you two? I kinda don’t feel like continuing right away…”
I stayed in my position for quite so ti, occasionally checking around to make sure nothing would ambush , while chatting with the two trolls in chat about nothing in particular. About how their lives were going, about any noteworthy news from Earth I had missed, or about any new gas or updates that had co out in the few days I’d been stuck in this world.
It really helped to have a bit of normality even if a treacherous part of felt like it was all irrelevant stuff since I might never make it back to Earth…
“Anyway!” I suddenly shouted and slapped my hands on the bench while sitting up. “That nightmare back there wasn’t all for naught! Guess what, chat? I have a whole fifteen skill points now! And I can get one more from the coin, so sixteen in total!”
I grinned and rubbed my hands in anticipation.
“What should I get? There’s so many options now!”
GeorgeDoshington: self-destruct pls
JamieWasTaken3: yo what about that title
I completely ignored George and humd questioningly as I rembered the title.
“Oh yeah! I also got a new title! The first one I got since the reincarnation. Let’s see…”
Available titles:
Fire blessed (EQUIPPED)
Immolator
“Immolator… Sounds really edgy, but considering what you have to do to get it…”
Immolator:
You killed over 500 living beings or dungeon monsters using fire; And you killed 100 or more living beings or dungeon monsters in the span of ten seconds or less using fire.
Having this title equipped grants the wielder major fire resistance, increases the power of all fire-based attacks by 50%, and gives an [INNATE] skill ‘Immolate’.
“Wait, five hundred? I thought it was three hundred. These numbers just keep getting higher…”
At this point, I had no idea just how many monsters I had burned back there.
“Wait, this title seems amazing though! I’m already using fire as my main source of damage anyway so this is just a fifty percent damage boost!” I gushed. “And it also gives another fire skill? That’s aweso!”
I idly asked the system to explain the innate thing.
[INNATE] - This skill is tied to an item or a title. Equipping said item or title temporarily grants the skill without taking up skill slots until unequipped.
“Okay, that’s what I expected. Makes sense… Hold on, tied to an item? Doesn’t that break the system? I thought the point of the skill slots was so you were limited, but if you just get all the items with innate skills…” I mused, my gar mind kicking in.
JamieWasTaken3: how co the sword doesnt say it has innate skill?
I frowned and idly patted the sword’s hilt.
“Good question, actually… I guess the lightning stuff doesn’t count as a skill…? It’s kinda unfortunate since I can’t use it without craftsman…” I shrugged. “Anyway, what were we talking about…? Oh, yeah. The title! Are there even any disadvantages to equipping it…?”
I looked over the description once more and then glanced at my current title ‘Fire blessed’ before stopping and narrowing my eyes.
“Wait… Yes there is. Yes, there is a huge disadvantage to changing titles!” I yelled in indignance. “Look at this! ‘Having this title equipped allows the wielder access to tier 1 phoenix skills’. Both Fire breath and Flaguard are from the phoenix section! I almost completely screwed myself over!”
GeorgeDoshington: but if you dont swap youl never find out what that skill does
JamieWasTaken3: mb you keep the skills even if you swap tho
I grunted in annoyance.
Great. Instead of one terrible helper fairy, I now had two.
“Can I get an angel on my shoulder too? Why do I have to have two devils?” I said with a dry tone. “Right, I said I would invite more people, didn’t I? You two keep distracting ! Okay, who should I invite…?”
I briefly glanced at the normal stream chat and quickly gave up on catching anyone’s na, much less the na of soone who could be reasonable.
“...Never mind… Actually, how about you guys pick out so reasonable people to have us join here? Wait, no. You’ll just pick more trolls. Ugh…” I grunted. “Whatever. Skill points! What am I getting?”
After another brief check of my surroundings, I began opening up skill upgrade descriptions that I could afford all around and began planning.
“So I wanted Fusion… But I swapped Craftsman out and now it’s on cooldown. Dang it… I wish I swapped out Appraisal instead… Ah well. I can still hold on to six points for when the cooldown is up I guess. What else is there…?”
First, I looked at the upgrades for Appraisal.
Upgrade: Assess (1SP)
Upgrade: Inspiration (3SP)
Upgrade: Psychotry (9SP)
Assess - You can now use appraisal on living beings.
Inspiration - Appraising an item will now tell you about its possible uses. Uses more Intra.
Psychotry - You can now glean the rough history of the appraised object. Uses a moderate to large amount of Intra based on how old the object is.
“Inspiration would be nice and Psychotry might be cool but probably not that useful…”
JamieWasTaken3: isnt it useful for the quest?
I perked up.
“Oh yeah, you’re right. Secrets of the world. Figure out what happened to this world… Yeah, actually, Psychotry sounds like the perfect skill for that.” Then I stopped and frowned. “Wait, but… The reward for that quest is five points… and psychotry costs nine… What the heck? That’s not even worth it!”
I grumbled.
GeorgeDoshington: scamd lol
“I an, unless I do the side objectives and get sothing extra from it, I guess… Ugh, whatever. I think I’m gonna ignore psychotry for now.”
Next up, I looked at the Fire breath’s upgrades.
Upgrade: Fla bullet (3SP)
Upgrade: Extre temperature (5SP)
Upgrade: ga lungs (9SP)
Upgrade: Phoenix breath (80SP)
Fla bullet - Reshape your Fire breath into a stable projectile capable of traveling much further. One bullet uses double the Ether than a normal breath would.
Extre temperature - Fire breath’s temperature range ceiling is greatly increased. Higher temperature breath uses more Ether.
ga lungs - Triple the amount of fire you breathe per amount breathed. Ether usage scales appropriately.
I humd.
“Right, so… In simple terms, the first one gives a long-range option, the second one increases damage and Ether cost, and the third one increases the AOE and Ether cost… And then there is Phoenix breath which I’ll never afford. Hmm…”
Fla bullet gave more options, which was always good. The others… While increasing the damage or area of the breath was also useful, I didn’t think I could handle the extra Ether cost. I already ran out of Ether even with the regular Fire breath, after all. I would have to use anything stronger sparingly. And at that point, if I rarely even used it, was it really worth all the skill points?
Maybe if I got more of those Ether tickets and had more Ether to spare. Maybe then I could get these two upgrades without it feeling like a waste.
“I’ll think about the Fla bullet, I suppose… The rest doesn’t feel worth it.”
Finally, I looked at the upgrades for my newest skill, Flaguard, for the first ti.
Upgrade: Channel fire (3SP)
Upgrade: Living torch (5SP)
Upgrade: Eternal flas (9SP)
Upgrade: Self-destruct (11SP)
Channel fire: Channel the skill through a held item to empower it instead.
Living torch: Fire resistance is increased to fully withstand this skill for the duration of it.
Eternal flas: During Flaguard, half of resisted fire damage will heal you instead.
Self-destruct: Detonate yourself, causing an explosion of fire around you. Note: Fire resistance granted by Flaguard and Living torch doesn’t account for this sub-skill.
“Heh, I could make my sword fiery instead of zappy…” My eyes widened. “Oh! Living torch actually makes fully immune to the fire! I’m totally getting that one! No more burns from my own skill! Actually, because of the blessing, using Flaguard would then keep healing , wouldn’t it?”
I laughed.
“Synergy, chat! Things are starting to shape up now! I’m gonna be the lee fire healing tank!”
JamieWasTaken3: jeoff would be proud
I snorted.
“What else… Wow Eternal flas is just the blessing but worse. Not worth it at all… But I guess there’s a reason why the blessing is only temporary…”
I finally looked at the last available upgrade for the skill and scowled.
“I don’t like that there is literally a suicide button. Like… Yeah, I’m never getting the Self-destruct. I would be too tempted to push the button and it would probably kill . Or hurt really bad. Nope. Not happening.”
GeorgeDoshington: get iiiiit
GeorgeDoshington: go out in a blaze of gloooory
JamieWasTaken3: it sounds funny tho
I scowled at the evil fairy duo.
“You two are trying to get killed, aren’t you?” I asked in a dry tone. “Well, too bad! Not getting that last one. Screw you guys.”
With that, I closed the windows with upgrades I knew I definitely wouldn’t be getting and began thinking about the best combination of skills to get.
If I used the coin, that would give a total of sixteen skill points. And sixteen would be exactly enough to get Fla bullet and Extre temperature for Fire breath; and Channel fire and Living torch for Flaguard.
That sounded great on paper, but it ultimately ca down to the sa problem – not enough Ether. I needed more Ether if I wanted to effectively use all these upgrades. I might just ignore Extre temperature for now and get all the others. I could get it once I had more Ether to work with.
A stray thought had reaching into my backpack and pulling out the ticket I’d gotten from the secret chest. Now that I wasn’t in complete darkness, I could see that it was red and had black text saying ‘10%!’ on it, similar to the Ether ticket.
“Hmm… Yeah, I don’t know. I have yet to have any issues with Intra, and only Strear uses Tempor, so… The choice is obvious!”
Consu 1x Large power expansion ticket?
Y/N
I furrowed my brows at the lack of choice but ntally confird regardless.
Choose:
Ether/Intra/Tempor
“There we go. Ether, please!”
I confird once more and watched as the ticket turned into orange mist and seeped into my hands.
I nearly flinched away at the sudden energy I felt. It was similar to drinking the Refined ooze, just less violent.
“Okaaay… That was sothing. Now… Let’s get so upgrades.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: Nanaaaaa
“Ebiiiii! My savior!” I imdiately yelled as soon as I saw her ssage. “Those two demons are taunting to the dark side! Please save !”
KaiEbikoOfficial: whatt
KaiEbikoOfficial: what did they do
JamieWasTaken3: I did nothing im innocent
GeorgeDoshington: shhh dont interrupt she wants to co to the dark side
“Well, long story short… Jamie goaded into going to the locker. So I went inside, got sward by monsters, nearly died again, got achievents and a title for burning hundreds of them, got a secret chest with a pocket dinsion backpack, and now I have fifteen skill points to work with.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: ??????
KaiEbikoOfficial: neraly died again?!
KaiEbikoOfficial: are you okay?!
“I’m… fine. But yeah, it’s been intense. I’m glad you’re here now,” I murmured before pushing away the uneasy feelings and grinning. “But now I’m about to get so upgrades! It’s super exciting!”
KaiEbikoOfficial: okay I’ll have to watch the stream back
KaiEbikoOfficial: what kind of upgrades are we talking?
GeorgeDoshington: selfdesctruuuuct
“Shush, devil number two,” I grunted. “I think I’m getting… Fla bullet and then Channel fire and Living torch for Flaguard. That will cost eleven points and leave with four more… or five if I count the coin.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: I think I’m missing a lot of context
JamieWasTaken3: she got flaguard
“Yeah, I uh… Kind of panic-bought Flaguard and swapped it with Craftsman to save myself back in that dark room. I can’t shoot lightning anymore,” I explained and opened the Flaguard upgrades I was planning on getting just for Ebi to see.
KaiEbikoOfficial: right okay
KaiEbikoOfficial: fla bullet makes sense then
KaiEbikoOfficial: long range attack
“Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking.” I nodded. “Fla bullet for long range, and Flaguard and my sword for short range.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: alright I approve
KaiEbikoOfficial: not that you need my approval
KaiEbikoOfficial: you’re the pro gar here
I chuckled. “Not really, but thanks.”
JamieWasTaken3: no poll?
“I’m not gonna poll this…” I grumbled and shook my head. “How would I even poll it? Nah, you guys will get to vote in polls later. Right now, I’ll just get what I think I need.”
Purchase the [Fire breath] skill upgrade [Fla bullet] for 3 skill points?
Y/N
‘Fla bullet’ skill upgrade unlocked!
Purchase the [Flaguard] skill upgrade [Channel fire] for 3 skill points?
Y/N
‘Channel fire’ skill upgrade unlocked!
Purchase the [Flaguard] skill upgrade [Living torch] for 5 skill points?
Y/N
‘Living torch’ skill upgrade unlocked!
“Alright! Locked and loaded! Ti to destroy this stupid dungeon!” I said as I unsheathed my sword and dramatically pointed it to the sky.
Then I prodded the new ntal switch I’d gotten with the upgrades and let my hand light on fire – which didn’t burn at all anymore! – before it spread to the sword and enveloped it.
My eyes widened when so of the fire apparently seeped into the sword’s circuits and I saw small sparks of electricity crackle between the flas.
“I can still sort of use the lightning! Heck yes!” I cheered.
KaiEbikoOfficial: nice!
JamieWasTaken3: lightning fire sword!
GeorgeDoshington: sounds edgy lmao
Ignoring George, I strode forward into the locker-filled halls with renewed confidence.
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