Lucian had spotted a huge tree towering in the distance and decided that was his destination, he figured it would prove interesting. He rolled one his shoulder as he walked. It had been twenty minutes since that monster managed to send him into a wall and he was still sore. On the bright side, his Spirit had topped up at 50, and he was keeping an eye out for any more monsters as he looked around.

  He saw another of those bird monsters flying overhead, this one looked much larger than the last but thankfully it didn’t pay Lucian any mind as he ducked into an alley and waited for it to pass.

  It being larger could have meant a few things, “The one I killed might have just been small. Or it might not have been fully grown.” Lucian chuckled a little. “What luck, not running into a bigger one first. Well hopefully it won’t be too long before a bigger one isn’t a problem.” Lucian smiled as I slipped back out of the alley and kept walking along the road.

  As he continued towards the giant tree, he noted more and more trees around him. He was walking into a jungle that got denser and denser as he went. He had no doubt the huge tree on the horizon was at its center, that would only make sense.

  …

  The trees got denser and denser, and the pavement of the city gave way to dirt. Lucian looked around at the colorful plantlife. The first thought that came to his mind was “These are pretty. I wonder if any of them are poisonous…”

  As he examined a large pink flower he heard a rustling in the leaves nearby and stood upright. A large centipede scuttled out of the undergrowth towards him. It had a glossy black and purple shell and large sharp looking venom claws. Its antennae flicked back and forth and the centipede reared up like a snake ready to strike.

  Lucian pushed off the ground, leaping backwards as the monster dove towards where he stood a moment before and he activated [Manifest Weapon], forming the same blue longsword in his hands. A sizable chunk of his Spirit was funneled away into the skill, leaving him with 40.

  He spun the sword in his hands and took a few more small steps back from the monster. It reared up again and let out a clicking hiss as a fluid that Lucian assumed to be a venom of sorts beaded on the tips of its mandibles.

  Something about this thing made the hairs on Lucian’s neck stand on end. It might have been because it was a giant creepy crawly, or it might have been because Lucian instinctively felt that it was more dangerous than the last monster he fought.

  It lunged for him again, and Lucian brought his sword down to meet it.

  The spirit weapon impacted the monster’s chitinous armor and Lucian felt the blade slip sideways. “That isn’t good.”

  The impact from the attack redirected the lunge, causing it to narrowly miss Lucian - but the damage it did was negligible.

  Lucian took a few steps back and brought his sword up again, “The underside looks less defended - but it's a riskier target…” Lucian’s eyes passed over the creature’s length, looking for an alternative. “The plates are segmented… but that would be a small gap…” Lucian kept looking for an alternative to trying to hit its underside as he sidestepped another lunge.

  Lucian kicked off the ground and leapt over the monster as it swiveled to try and slam the side of its head into him, spinning on his heel as he landed on its other side - “Aim for the gap!” Lucian thrust his sword downwards at an angle, aiming for the gap between the chitin armor plates that lined its back.

  As he thrust downwards, he felt his sword stop early as a barrier of light sprung up around the monster, forming a second shell and deflecting his attack.

  Immediately, Lucian backed off. “Fuck. A skill? That would make sense. Why wouldn’t it have a skill?” As he retreated from his failed attack, Lucian felt another tug on his Spirit as his sword consumed another 2 points to keep itself active as he brought it back up into an on guard position and observed the monster’s barrier.

  The drain was slightly countered by his natural Spirit recovery, technically a net loss of only 1 Spirit per minute while [Manifest Weapon] was active.

  The second shell hovered a few inches away from the monster - it looked exactly the same as its actual shell segments except translucent. The barrier was semi circular, protecting the top and sides of the monster but not actually touching the ground, possibly so it didn’t block its own legs.

  “It doesn’t extend to the underside of the monster…” Lucian realized. “It's all in on its defensive position - designed to defend so long as its underside isn’t exposed…” Lucian realized with a groan that he would have to try the riskier approach. “It rears up when it attacks… I could try then…” Lucian adjusted his grip, bringing his sword lower, tip pointed up at an angle. Lucian took a breath and readied himself, “Come on then you overgrown bug…”

  As the monster reared up again to lunge once more, Lucian took the initiative and launched himself forward with a set of two long steps. He put all the force he could behind his sword, using his momentum to bolster the attack further.

  The monster and he met - and Lucian’s sword pierced through its less armored underside. He kept driving the blade forward until he felt the resistance of its armor preventing him from pushing all the way through it.

  The monster, of course, didn’t take this lying down. It was also using the lunge to attack - and managed to sink its venom claws into Lucian’s left shoulder.

  Lucian let go of his sword and brought his right fist upwards - landing a punch on the underside of the monster’s head, forcefully dislodging its bite seconds after it made contact.

  Lucian stepped back and pulled his sword away with him. Dark blue fluid flowed freely from the wound he had made. He felt a dull throbbing pain flare up where he was hit. “Fuck…” Its claws weren’t in him long and the physical damage they did wasn’t extreme, but he had seen the dripping liquid earlier. Lucian could only hope it was a small enough dose of a weak enough venom that he didn’t simply drop dead.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Lucian took a few more steps back as the monster’s body seemed to give out and it fell forward, its many legs twitching. It wasn’t actively moving any more as much as it was just thrashing around - no longer a threat unless he was stupid enough to sit down right next to it. He had struck it fairly high up on its body, closer to the head, and figured he hit something vital. The amount of its blood that pooled under it seemed to agree with him.

  He could count it as a silver lining that using his weapon in a more tactical way than just swinging wildly seemed to rank up [Manifested Proficiency]. It was also nice to have the knowledge that a skill’s rank wasn’t tied to its rarity but was rather a level specific to the skill. He had no doubt, though, that skill rarity was still a thing - but it was a passing thought.

  Lucian dismissed his weapon and leaned against a thick tree, sliding down it as he panted. He felt sluggish and tired. “Nasty… piece of work…” Lucian muttered as he flexed his shoulder - it didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would but it wasn’t pleasant either - not to mention the holes it had put in his hoodie. He blinked a few times, and took a moment to think, and pulled up his stats.

  Given that he felt mostly fine Lucian figured that the venom wouldn’t kill him. The venom seemed to be affecting his stats directly but not by very much, only 2 each, but with Lucian’s current stats that was nearly a 10% reduction to the affected stats. “Explains why I feel so slow all of a sudden… it’s weird though, that I’m more aware of the sudden decrease in my stats than the sudden increases brought by level ups.”

  As he sat there, the monster spasmed one last time before falling still - finally dying from its lack of blood. Lucian felt the momentary power of two level-ups flood his body.

  “Another 2 levels… nice. Oh, and a new skill?” Lucian let out a satisfied sigh.

  He was definitely still capable of getting up and walking around, but he wouldn’t want to encounter another monster until his stats were back to normal.

  So Lucian figured he had some time to figure out where he wanted to put his free points and check on what skills he could get as he waited for the venom to run its course.

  Lucian decided to check the skills available to him in case they impacted what stats he would choose to increase. He brought up the skill choices.

  He quickly disregarded [Bodyslam]. “While mobility is important, it doesn’t seem like my class is really designed to tank - nor do I want to slam myself against my enemies any more than I already am, especially not literally. I don't think I can tank much of that. Plus, it says momentum, so using it to move around normally could be a pain.”

  He thought that [Penetrating Strike] was a good choice. After all, the reason he was injured against the centipede was because he had to search for a weak spot rather than simply go through any existing armor. Admittedly, he figured that it wouldn’t do much against magical armor like that of the centipede’s skill since the skill said it was for physical defenses, but if his first attack had actually done anything then maybe the centipede wouldn’t have even gotten the chance to use that skill.

  For a similar reason, he disregarded [Firebolt]. While he felt a ranged option would be good to have - and probably needed eventually - he didn’t feel like [Firebolt] would be very effective against the armor that had stopped him before.

  The natural choice, then, would be [Penetrating Strike] to cover the weakness he had just discovered in his own fighting style. His class and race both scaled his ability to hit hard and move fast, so he figured he should lean into that. He chose [Penetrating Strike].

  Lucian felt the new information fill his mind and felt a subtle change settle within his chest. With his skill chosen and received, he directed his attention to his available free points of which he had 6.

  “Again, Constitution would probably be smart, but that's no fun. Stick with the plan, lean into my strengths. Better to simply never get hit and deal a lot of damage.”

  He put all 3 of the free points into Strength, bringing it up to 32, and the other 3 points into Agility, bringing it up to 37.

  The increased Strength and Agility brought his maximum Spirit up to 54.

  He felt the brief adjustment as his stats increased, and let out a sigh. He felt like it would be a bit before the venom left his system.