System Change

Edgar wiped the sweat off his brow as he sat in the empty dungeon. The last levels to 250 took way longer than he ever thought they would. It ticked him off that his brother was closer about how long it would take than he was. Though, Edward’s predictions were based on Edgar having an epic class, not legendary. Edgar had kept that nugget of information to himself.

He had just maxed his Wisdom out and it felt like his brain exploded. He honestly wasn’t sure he was going to survive. He’d been through pain before, like at the previous 1000 stat point thresholds, but the 1500 point breakthrough in Wisdom took the cake.

He thought nothing would have been as bad as the breakthrough in Endurance with the skin crawling and itchiness. It was awful. But he never thought it was going to kill him. He only hoped that he made the correct decisions for his stats… at least the couple thousand that wasn’t decided by his earlier classes. He pulled up his stats one last time.

Stats

Strength

Dexterity

Endurance

Vitality

Intelligence

Wisdom

Stat Points Remaining

500

500

1230

1230

1000

1500

0

His class was a Wisdom based class through and through. Before he got his legendary class at level 200, which let him distribute his stat points at his own discretion, the Wisdom stat was heavily favored by each level he received.

Edgar was lucky when it came to his class. He received a special epic class at level 25. He gained 23 stat points for each of the 175 levels he gained while having an epic class. Of those 23 stat points, 7 were auto assigned to the Wisdom stat, while 5 were auto assigned to Intelligence. 3 points were assigned to both Vitality and Endurance. Which left him with 5 points to assign himself.

With all the experimenting he did with his class and abilities, he came to the conclusion that Strength and Dexterity weren’t much needed. He had both passive and active skills that offset his lack of those stats. So, with some of his free points, he chose to only push those two stats up to their first breakthrough.

Wisdom, however, was the stat he both needed and used the most. It gave him better control of his skills, along with a much higher mana pool, which he was currently wide eyed staring at. I can’t believe I have 37,500 mana. Breaking through in Wisdom was definitely the correct decision.

He definitely used Intelligence. It augmented his skills and made them more powerful. However, since he didn’t have enough stat points to push it to the 1500 point threshold, he chose to leave it at 1000. The sustained damage from his active and passive skills were worth more than the slight increase in power a couple hundred point would have given to Intelligence.

Endurance and Vitality, on the other hand, were both needed, and every point counts. One point in Vitality could be the difference in dying and falling to critical health. And Endurance increased his Stamina, which some of his skills ate through, just like they did his mana. The extra addition to his natural defense wasn’t bad either.

Overall, Edgar was happy with his new and improved stats. At this point in his growth, he would have to search for Awards that give stat points, or even go adventuring while looking for stat point dungeons, which, although he had never seen before, he believed existed.

His only complaint was that he was unable to level some of his skills while he was a lower level. If he knew that damn dungeon was going to appear, and he was going to be chosen to lead the raid, maybe he would have pushed his party a little harder and celebrated less.

Edgar tore a handful of grass out of the ground and let it blow away in the slight breeze while thinking. Getting to max level was the easy part. Now that he was level 250, he had to focus on picking the right raid members.

Other than himself, he had 24 slots to fill. He would need a blacksmith and a cook. He had an idea of whom to ask for those roles. He would definitely need a handful of people at the Diamond Rank. Unfortunately, taking five or six Diamond Rankers was going to leave the Kingdom vulnerable, but that was why Edward was not selected to lead the raid.

He also had an idea of the Diamond Rankers he would ask. And ‘ask’ was correct, because there was no way he would be able to command a Diamond Ranker to go, and he wouldn’t want to if he could. That left 15 or so slots he needed to fill with strong Onyx Rankers.

The first thought he had was a few members of his party. But they were like family. They were strong and he trusted them, but he wouldn’t choose them. No, he would choose from dedicated military personnel who had oaths to the Kingdom, and no one counting on them to come home within a few years.

However, there was one face that Edgar couldn’t shake. He thought about choosing the weird shop owner with a good personality, but he wasn’t sure if he would choose to go after just opening a shop in Savannah. Surely, he had plans for the shop that required his attention. Edgar shrugged. I’ll ask him. It’s up to him if he chooses to come.

With his mind make up, Edgar stood. The big auction was in a week, and maybe he would be able to guilt trip his father or brother into buying him one of the precious meals made out of Void Beasts. There was no harm in trying. He had already prepared the words.

In two weeks, he and his team would be wandering to the Cydarian Coast to venture into the Time Distortion Dungeon. Which meant that he has two weeks to choose said team and get them prepared for it.

Edgar let out a breath and walked up to the dungeon orb and left. Suddenly, he was back in the palace’s dungeon room. His brother was leaning against the wall, waiting for him.

“Did you do it?” Edward asked with a smirk.

Edgar snorted. “You got lucky.” He flicked his hand and a giant stack of gold coins fell before Edward’s feet.

“Luck has nothing to do with it.” Edward waved his hand and the gold disappeared inside his storage ring. “Besides, you’re not going to need any money while you’re raiding a dungeon for a few years.”

“A few years on your end. It will be months for me, at most.” Edgar corrected.

“Well, whatever. Are you ready to see father?” Edward asked. “He’s been waiting for you. You’re on his guest list for the auction in Savannah.”

“What about my team?” Edgar asked.

Edward flicked his wrist and a stack of papers appeared. He handed them over to Edgar. “This is a list of all the Onyx Ranked military personnel who meet your conditions. They have all been informed that they may be chosen, and are waiting for your decision. I didn’t include those who wanted to opt out. It will be their choice to enter, just as you asked.”

Edgar took the papers and began flipping through them. “Hmm… 67 people. I didn’t think there would be so many.”

Edward shrugged. “Not all Onyx Rankers are strong. Choose carefully. Their stats are all there. We allow them to keep their skills hidden, though. There are only vague descriptions of their skill sets.”

Edgar nodded. “As it should be. Everybody deserves to keep something secret.”

“Now. Come on. Father’s waiting.” Edward pushed off the wall and led Edgar through the palace and into King Edwin’s study. Their father was sitting at his desk, alone.

“Father.” Edward said, causing King Edwin to look up from whatever document he was reading.

“Ah, Edward… Edwin… I trust your training went well?” Edwin asked.

Edgar snorted. “No, actually. It didn’t. You see, I was forced to forgo my training that I spent years perfecting, and do some shit I swore I would never do.”

“Edgar. Language.” Edward scolded.

The King waved it off. “No worries. It is only the three of us here. I know you didn’t want to do it this way, but the Kingdom is in your debt because you did.”

“Oh, the Kingdom’s in my debt? Are you in my debt?” Edgar asked.

“If the Kingdom is in your debt, then of course I am also in your debt.” The King squinted his eyes.

“Good… good.” Edgar said. “The auction begins in a week, correct?”

“Yes.” The King answered. “Alanah has allowed for each member to bring up to two guests with them.”

“Then you wouldn’t mind allowing me to have first dibs on any meal, would you? You know, debt and all.” Edgar smiled.

“Edgar! Father needs the stats.” Edward rebuke.

“It’s one of the meals.” Edgar said. “Those won’t increase his Vitality, and Endurance only gives a small boost in life expectancy. In the long run, a few weeks won’t matter. I wouldn’t even ask if it wasn’t for the rumored Void Beast that provided Vitality instead of other stats. Surely, father would be willing to give up a mean for his son who is risking his life in a never before explored Time Distortion dungeon if he is able to get his hands on the Vitality product.”

“Still…” Edward started.

“That’s fine.” Edwin said. “If the opportunity presents itself, you shall have the stat boosting meal, and I will take the Vitality product. Think of it as a congratulations for reaching max level.”

After that, King Edwin stood. “Now, my boys. What say we get to Savannah? There are a few people I would like to visit before the auction begins.”