Becoming the Dark Lord

The list of epic skills from his class flickered to life in front of Luke. He’d saved this moment on purpose, wanting a clear head when he finally looked at it. The arguments about the Midnight War and the endless planning had left no room to process new information. He hadn’t even checked what new classes were available for Charlie yet.

I’ll have to do it soon, he thought. Otherwise, even if she kills something with that sword, she won’t gain any more class experience.

This would be his very first skill from the Demonic Predator class, and it was already epic. He hoped it would be as strong as his profession’s epic skill had been. When the menu finished loading, Luke emptied his mind and stared at the choices. This wasn’t just another power-up. It would be the last class skill he earned inside the tutorial, the one skill meant to carry him through the final battles to come.

Only three options appeared, but each one looked more devastating than the last.

[Dark Blood Arrow (Epic)]: The Demonic Predator creates a black arrow born from the power of [Dark Blood] and [Corrupted Blood of Mother Freya]. Upon hitting the target, the arrow explodes into black thorns imbued with the power of [Basic Dark Dash], piercing everything around it. The thorns also carry the power of [Profane Knife Throwing], dealing additional Bleed damage. If an enemy dies from this skill, their corpse transforms into a nest of living thorns, triggering a second thorn explosion that spreads death and chaos across the battlefield.

[Demonic Predator Hands (Epic)]: Upon activating the skill, his hands transform into monstrous forms, absorbing the power of [Dark Blood], [Corrupted Blood of Mother Freya], and [Wraith Form]. While wielding his weapons with the predator hands, his physical strength and the lethality of his strikes increase drastically. The skill emits a constant black mist. Enemies touched by it suffer continuous Acid damage. The blades wielded by these hands deal additional Acid damage with every strike. The demonic claws also allow you to scale any solid structure. A true assassin and predator can use this power both to kill silently or to unleash destruction openly.

[Darkness Tentacles (Epic)]: Using the power of [Wraith Form], the Demonic Predator can launch a fragment of dense, dark mist from his hands. Upon hitting the ground or a target, it explodes into a cloud of living shadows, from which darkness tentacles emerge, moving intelligently and dangerously while absorbing the power of [Demonic Blade Dance]. These shadow tentacles rapidly spread across the area, enveloping and temporarily immobilizing enemies while draining their Health Points via [Basic Blood Regeneration]. Trapped by the suffocating grasp of the tentacles, the targets become vulnerable, unable to escape the cruel embrace of the hungry darkness that feeds the predator with the blood of its prey.

All three skills lived up to the “epic” tag. They weren’t just powerful, they were absurdly good. If he could, Luke would have picked all of them.

Each one had a different purpose in battle. He studied them again, weighing the styles they complemented. Dark Blood Arrow screamed battlefield annihilation. The Hands were personal, brutal, a weapon for duels and climbing into impossible places. The Tentacles were pure control and sustain. Every option matched a part of his fighting style, which only made the choice harder.

Luke forced himself to think beyond his own instincts. He had to consider the war ahead, the final fights with the Midnight Lord, the Witch, and if it came to that, the Midnight King. Pushing away the spiral of what-ifs, he started categorizing the skills by utility, breaking them down by how he’d actually use them on the battlefield.

[Dark Blood Arrow] synced perfectly with his new bow style.

[Demonic Predator Hands] boosted his close-quarters fighting with the kukris.

[Darkness Tentacles] gave him crowd control, locking down enemies so he could finish them off with either blades or arrows.

Once he had sorted them by utility, he shifted focus to raw power, breaking each skill apart to study strengths and weaknesses. He had learned long ago not to be dazzled by flashy descriptions. Everything came with a cost. His Acid Blood Arrow was a monster of a skill, but its mana drain left him with only five shots. Devastating, yes, but limited. If he wanted to use one of these epic skills in the coming war, he would have to budget his mana carefully. Burn it all too soon and there would be nothing left for the “mana missile” aimed at the Midnight Lord or for whatever waited inside the castle.

Sure, there would be mana potions scavenged from chests along the way, but Luke could not count on that.

For the final battle, I can’t handle everything alone, he thought. We will have to fight as one or we will burn out before it is over.

As he examined the skills again, something clicked. Two of them were directly tied to Dark Blood, a simple choice he had made long ago, but one that had now blossomed into real power. Every skill you pick plants a seed, he realized, one that grows into something stronger later. Even Wraith Form had worked its way into the mix.

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Naturally, his attention went first to Dark Blood Arrow. It was a new arrow skill, but it did not seem as sturdy as Acid Blood Arrow. If it were, the description would have said so. His profession’s epic arrow skill had two advantages built in, the corrosive cloud and a rare-tier wooden shaft tough enough to pour more mana into, amplifying its impact. Even if he skipped the acid effect, he could still Mana Infuse the arrow and hit harder.

Dark Blood Arrow did not mention any special durability. That meant no overcharging it like Acid Burst Arrow. But that did not make it weak. Its utility was obvious.

Hit a target and the arrow erupted into a storm of spikes. Luke tried to picture it. Did the spikes sprout from the victim and leap to nearby enemies? However it worked, the secondary effect was vicious. If someone died from the spikes, their corpse turned into another living nest and exploded again. Probably the chain would stop at the second kill, no third-wave detonations, but even so, it was a brutal way to tear through clusters of enemies or soften up a massive threat.

Luke weighed the possibilities. He could hit a powerful enemy with the arrow for the main strike, then watch nearby targets take collateral damage, triggering more spike bursts, maybe even hitting the primary target again. It reminded him of Charlie’s Doom Explosion. The utility against the Midnight Lord was obvious.

But his mind drifted to the Warden Captain. A weak arrow couldn’t pierce that kind of armor, and if the Midnight Lord wore something even tougher, things would get ugly fast. There was a lot to balance here. Still, it was an epic skill with insane stats, and he wouldn’t be fighting alone.

The one sticking point was cost. How much mana per shot? If each arrow burned a thousand mana, he would be in real trouble. If only the system showed the exact cost of activating a skill, he could plan better.

Next on the list: Demonic Predator Hands. Out of all three, he saw this one as the most versatile. Unlike the arrow, it wasn’t built for wiping out hordes. It was for single-target destruction. It fused Corrupted Mother Freya’s Blood with Dark Blood to give him another acidic skill, but this time infused with Wraith Form. He couldn’t even picture it yet, monstrous hands cloaked in black fumes that dealt corrosive damage just by existing.

He wondered if the acidic mist would harm him too. After all, his Acid Blood Arrow’s cloud had collateral effects. But three things stood out about the skill. First, it amplified his physical strength and the lethality of any weapon he wielded while active. Like a berserker buff, but darker. That meant both his kukris and his bow would hit harder under the effect of this epic skill.

He even pictured it layered with the mana missile. If the Midnight Lord really was stronger than the Beast Lord, the missile alone might not finish him, but combine it with Demonic Predator Hands and the shot could become monstrous. Luke had seen how stacking skills turned good skills into devastating ones. This might be the edge he needed. There was no “later” to plan for; after this fight, there might not be a future. He didn’t care about utility after the war. He cared about now.

The second benefit was just as tempting: any blade he held would inherit acid damage. That meant his kukris wouldn’t just get the buff to strength and lethality, they would also corrode whatever they struck. Two powerful buffs rolled into one skill. That alone made it worth thinking about.

The third perk seemed minor but could be situational: climbing walls with his new claws. It wasn’t exactly a combat mechanic, but he wondered if he could also rake enemies with those claws. If I touch someone, do I burn them too? This power feels a little wicked.

The final skill on the list waited for his attention: Darkness Tentacles.

It was a skill reminiscent of Evangeline’s, the way she summoned shadow arms from the ground to snare her enemies. Luke didn’t dismiss it. Just because it didn’t deal absurd amounts of damage didn’t mean it lacked purpose. Immobilizing a target could be priceless, and he knew it.

And of course, the skill siphoned HP from anything caught in its grasp thanks to Basic Blood Regeneration, a power he had practically stopped using. In combat it was more of a hindrance than a help, draining a pitiful single hit point per second and locking him out of other spells while active. Most of the time it was faster and deadlier to charge in with his kukris than to stand still bleeding enemies dry. He only ever used it after a fight, as a slow way to heal without wasting potions.

But this new skill would spawn a whole mass of tentacles, each one leeching health from multiple enemies at once. A tempting advantage, even if it couldn’t match the raw damage output of his other options.

The problem was obvious. Basic Blood Regeneration didn’t work on the undead. Its effect relied on bleeding, and the dead didn’t bleed. The Midnight Lord and his army were almost certainly undead. In that case, the HP drain would be useless. His theory came from experience: the Midnight Warden and Midnight Watcher had been undead or constructs, and neither suffered bleed damage. Picking a skill purely for its synergy with Basic Blood Regeneration was a risk.

Still, he had to think about more than just the army. There was the Midnight Lord himself, the Witch, and then the Midnight King, three bosses waiting at the end, each probably stronger than the last. Maybe the real answer was coordination. He had considered proposing that everyone discuss their epic skill choices to build a full-team strategy. But the truth was they would never reach a perfect answer. No one knew the fighting style of those bosses. And at this point, no one could afford to take a skill they didn’t resonate with just for the sake of a theoretical combo.

Skill choices were personal, tied to mindset and synergy. A new arrow attack, a new kukri technique, or a way to pin enemies down? He could see the possibilities:

[Darkness Tentacles] plus [Acid Blood Arrow].

[Demonic Predator Hands] plus [Mana Infusion], fired through his bow or slashing with his kukris.

Or simply the [Dark Blood Arrow ]alone, with its devastating effect.

He exhaled slowly, the decision forming like a blade in his mind.

[You have acquired the Class Skill: …]