Whoosh!

Though his stats had undergone a significant decrease due to the innate skill his spear had, the wave of dark energy that formed from the activation of the skill was still large enough to cause a feeling of fear to well up within the skeletons that were in its vicinity.

Or at least, that’s what Valyr felt while looking at the skeletons.

Unsurprisingly, just like how it had decimated the first and third wave of monsters back when he helped out in the second monster tide, the dark tide posed no problem in rendering all of the skeletons it passed through more dead than they previously were as its scope gradually expanded to cover the entire space.

Simultaneously, multiple notifications resounded within Valyr’s mind, notifying him of the effectiveness of the skill once more, which caused a faint grin to appear on his face. ‘It would’ve been better if I didn’t only gain a single point of XP from each kill, but then again, that’s how the system is.’

Watching the wave of dark energy wreak havoc throughout the large space before him, the young man commanded the system to bring up a notification screen, focusing his attention on it from time to time as he began to tally the number of Skill Keys he would gain from the effortless ordeal.

By the time the wave of dark energy had dissipated, leaving nothing in the space other than the floor being a charred mess, Valyr had counted that he had gained nine Common grade Skill Keys from the sweep, as well as two Uncommon grade Skill Keys, the latter of which caused the grin on his face to become wider than it previously was as he let out a loud cackle.

‘Urk.’

Though, as if the heavens wanted him to recall the situation he was currently in, a sinking feeling washed over Valyr’s body, reminding him that his combat strength was still in the process of declining by the second. Letting out a low sigh as a bitter smile replaced his earlier grin, the young man then made his way to the center of the large space, coming face to face with the five doors that would lead him to the other rooms.

‘So far, I’ve obtained 15 Common grade Skill Keys and 2 Uncommon grade Skill Keys,’ thought Valyr to himself as he calculated how much Skill Keys he would have by the time he finished the dungeon. ‘If luck is on my side, I would be able to obtain all of the keys I need just from this one run alone.’

‘If not, then whatever. It’s not like I expected to get all of the keys in one run.’

‘In any case, which door should I choose…’ Rubbing his chin with his forefinger and thumb whilst he pondered, Valyr looked at the five doors once more, their positions on the walls of the large space being asymmetrical. In contrast, their design was more or less the same, being a dark gray barrier of energy that was in the shape of a door.

Closing his eyes for a bit, Valyr tried to check and see if he could feel the amount of energy that was radiating from the other side of the door, only to find out that the dark gray barriers were preventing him from doing so. At this realization, a wry smile appeared on his face. ‘Thought something would change since it’s still before the first version. Turns out that still doesn’t work, even though I could do it in other dungeons.’

‘Anyways, since that doesn’t work…’

“Eenie meenie miney…”

“Mo.” Pointing his finger at the five entrances in random order, Valyr’s finger eventually stopped at the door that was left to the rightmost door. With how the dungeon was procedurally generated and how he knew nothing about what was on the other side, the young man did not know too deeply about the choice, shrugging his shoulders as he soon passed through the dark gray barrier that he chose.

“Huh. Would you look at that. Another corridor.” Unexpectedly, just as the barrier he passed through had turned pitch black, Valyr was greeted once more by what seemed to be another absurdly long corridor, prompting a bitter smile to appear on his face as he went ahead and did the same thing he had done during the previous corridor.

Whoosh!

With the amount of time he had been in the dungeon now more than half an hour, the innate skill his spear had was now at its maximum potency, reducing all of Valyr’s stats by 30%.

Or at least, that’s what he thought would happen.

‘To be honest, I thought it would carry over. After all, it’s connected to the Mark of the Alltide.’ Pondering over the specifics of the innate skill his spear had, it was only now did Valyr finally understand how the skill worked. Though he knew that his stats would decrease while he was in combat, he did not know what would happen once he was out of combat.

Would the decrease in stats start over from the beginning once he began to fight again, or would it continue where he left off, becoming a perpetual 30% decrease in stats as long as he was fighting?

Fortunately, it was the former, which he had just found out while he was exploring the new corridor he was in. Then again, he had thought of the former being the case for the skill, but he decided to think about the worst-case scenario, lest he were to be disappointed by his expectations.𝚘𝑣𝗅xt.𝒸𝑜𝑚

“Now that I think about it, there are still a ton of vague areas regarding the limits of this thing,” muttered Valyr to himself, his spear extended as far as it could go as he zoomed through the corridor at breakneck speeds. “Also, I just realized I could still fight at full power without having my stats gradually decrease over time.”

“Hmm…” Deciding to test the idea that had surfaced in his mind, Valyr retracted the spear he was holding before affixing it to his back, feeling the slight weakness that got worse while killing the skeletons instantly disappear once he had done so. Taking note of the discovery to mind as a faint smile adorned his face, he then extended both arms out, only for blades made out of crimson flame to manifest around them soon after.

“Basic Crimson Flame Manipulation.”

“Crimson Dual Blades.”

Whoosh!

“Well, I guess I’ll be using these things for the meantime.” Taking a deep breath as he slowly got used to the blades of crimson flame he was holding, Valyr burst forth with great speed once more, allowing the crimson flames to do its thing as it rendered the skeletons along his path into a pile of ashes.

“Hahaha! It’s like nothing even changed at all.”

“Now… I wonder what would happen if I were evolve the skill to Uncommon grade?”