The Pinnacle Warrior

It didn’t take long to see why Felix was happy to shush his lover. As the wyvern, higher level than the floor should have had but still not an irregular, began to attack, Astrid activated Hero’s Aura and protected her party as Felix grounded his stance, squared his shoulders, and hauled his axe back. Muti was the first to realize what he was doing, and she protested as he shook his head at her and grinned widely. As soon as the wyvern was about twenty meters away, he whipped his axe forward, and a hook that seemed to be made of shimmering mana flew up and wrapped around just behind its wings. Then, with his whole strength, as well as Skills and using his shield to pull and anchor himself toward the ground, Felix turned in a slow, wide circle as he smashed the wyvern into the ground.

The ground underfoot crumpled as Felix managed to ground the monster in a completely new way, and Astrid shouted her congratulations as she rushed past him. Without using Body Surge, she raised her hammer and crashed it into the wyvern’s head. She’d never used the echo stone hammer in actual battle yet and found that when she attacked, the hammer maintained contact longer than she expected, the spectral echo that smashed into it maintaining contact and crashing the physical hammer into the target for the second time.

As the first hit smashed the monster’s head into the ground with a bone-shattering crunch, the second pulverized scales and flesh, piercing through the beast’s skin and making blood pool around the weapon. The wyvern wasn’t dead, but it whimpered weakly instead of trying to stand up. As its head slowly rose, swaying from the irreparable damage that its brain had just suffered, it opened its jaws wide in an almost comically slow attempt to attack her back.

She didn’t hesitate, letting the attack come her way and sidestepping it before raising her hammer again and smashing it down, the thump-thump rhythm like that of a beating heart. That second attack dispatched the beast, and Astrid grinned as she rolled her shoulders and dismissed the kill notification. Instead, she looked at her Status, her smile as broad as ever.

Status

Name: Astrid 

Class: Immortal Champion (Steel)

Total Level: 51 (33,712/300,000)

Attributes

Current

Per level growth

Power

540 (+114)

+22

Alacrity

349 (+57) [+209]

+12

Fortitude

539 (+109)

+20

Magical Potency

205 (+39)

+10

Self-Mastery

186 (+64)

+10

Acumen

151 (+24)

+5

Astrid didn’t stop there, and since Olafson hadn’t given her any explanation about what attributes the hammer offered when he gave it to her, she did some quick math, glad to remember that her previous hammer hadn’t given her any additional attributes other than helping her to qualify for Steady Load. While Muti finished the harvesting of just the wyvern’s tail where the venom was, Astrid took out a paper and quickly scribbled out the bonuses that the hammer provided for her. When she was done, she was reminded of seeing how huge the boosts to her attributes had seemed when she first put on her armor after evolving to Iron.

Power +60, Alacrity +20, Fortitude +50, Magical Potency +20, Self-Mastery +30, Acumen +20.

She couldn’t believe it, that was way too much, wasn’t it? Olafson had explained that peak Steel tier equipment was made off of the assumption that somebody had about 4,500 total attributes, with the bonuses from evolution. That safe range was 30% of that, so 1,350 total attribute points to be given by equipment.

With that in mind, on the side of the paper, Astrid did a bit more math. Assuming seven pieces of equipment—from weapon, offhand, underlayment, primary upper body and lower body armor, boots, and helmet—that came out to 194 attribute points to be gained per individual piece of equipment, more or less. So the 200 that her hammer gave? Only slightly above average. Astrid felt her eyebrows raise as she looked at the hammer and understood just why she was able to do as much as she had. After all, the materials themselves counted for more than just the attributes they granted her, so she estimated that the total “attribute value” of the hammer was probably closer to 250.

“Thank you, Olafson,” she muttered to herself as she smiled. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t know what the attribute bonuses were for everybody else with their new equipment. She could still remember what the others’ statuses looked like, but as Muti finished chopping the last of the wyvern’s tail off with her thicker blade, Astrid asked, “Your two swords together, how many attributes do they give you?”

“+65 to Power, +45 to Alacrity, +35 to Fortitude, +50 to Magical Potency, +30 to Self-Mastery, and +40 to Acumen.”

“So two hundred and sixty five total,” Astrid nodded, feeling the faint spike of jealousy before she remembered that the benefits that she was getting were from a single piece of equipment as opposed to two from Muti.

“And how about the rest of you?” Astrid asked. “I’ve figured out what mine does, but I haven’t thought to ask you all. I’m sorry.”

“I suspect that mine is the least impressive,” Felix said with a smile, looking down at the axe in his hand, “at least in terms of attributes granted. Or maybe the other two men have more impressive additional aspects to their equipment that brings the attribute bonus down. Regardless, the enchantment to make the hook is more than enough for me. Beyond that, it gives plus thirty to Power, plus ten to Alacrity, plus twenty-five to Fortitude, plus ten to Magical Potency, plus fifteen to Self-Mastery, and plus ten to Acumen.”

“So a total of one hundred attributes,” Astrid nodded. “That’s certainly not bad. It’s worth more than an entire level, plus everything else it can do.”

“Well, it’s seventy-five more than my old axe provided,” he said. “But honestly, I’m more than happy with what it does right now. When we’re not going against massive, flying monsters, it’ll do even more.”

Astrid reached out a fist and knocked their knuckles together, smiling as she turned to the two magically inclined men. “Well?” she asked.

“Mine are the least interesting,” Benedict grumbled, though the smile on his face betrayed his real emotions on the matter. “Like Felix, the bulk of the enchantments and value of these boots is found mostly in the way it can help me move. In fact, the way that they almost exclusively use stamina is really helpful for me because most of my stuff only uses my mana, so having my stamina do more than just help me run is nice.”

“I saw the way that you were running,” Astrid confirmed. “What exactly does it do, though?”

“I’m not really sure,” Benedict laughed. “Olafson’s explanation about the creature whose hide these are made from didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Something about a half-step toward spatial magic, but not quite, semi-compressing space, but not really, I don’t know. Regardless, I can make my steps somewhat faster and somewhat longer with a thought, which will help me get to where I need to be, as well as to evade attacks much better.”

“How did you not ask more questions about that?” Astrid laughed disbelievingly. “That’s one of the most interesting things you could’ve said, and you don’t have any details for me!”

“He said something along the lines of it being from a creature called a pocket ermine? I guess their materials can be used to make spatial pouches, but the boots were a result of an experiment instead of trying to make another pouch,” Benedict shrugged. “Anyways, the attribute bonuses are ten to Power, forty to Alacrity, ten to Fortitude, twenty given to Magical Potency, and fifteen each to Self-Mastery and Acumen.”

“Gives slightly more than my axe, then,” Felix nodded. “Just means that my hook is better than your running.”

Benedict picked up a rock and threw it at Felix, who swung his axe and manifested the hook to spin the rock around and then slap into Benedict’s ribs. The Bard groaned and bent over, giving Felix the finger as he laughed. “Not gonna try that again.”

“Well, while they figure that out,” Astrid pointedly ignored the joking between the two men, “I wouldn’t mind getting some information about your new staff. You’re the only one out of all of us that isn’t replacing an existing piece of equipment at all. Is it worth it?”

“I don’t know,” Skandr said, shrugging. “The attribute bonuses are all right, but the secondary effect of the enchantments is certainly different from other things.”

“Yes, you’re being coy, we get it,” Astrid shook her head. “Now give us the details!”

His faux indecision dripped away at that as he smiled widely and explained, “The attributes are really well focused. Only ten to Power, then twenty each to Alacrity and Fortitude. Then there’s sixty, fifty, and forty to Magical Potency, Self-Mastery, and Acumen, respectively.”

Astrid blinked several times, waiting for him to continue. After all, he seemed most interested in the other effects, so she gestured for him to explain.

“According to Olafson, Wizards typically don’t have as many pieces of equipment as most other Classes. As such, the attributes and effects given by each individual piece can be much more impactful than on other pieces of equipment. As an example, we can see what my current robe does.

“This staff gives the ability to call up a storm without having to establish a spell for it. On top of that, the storm will be whatever is best suited to the current area, so I can have more flexibility without having to develop individual spells for each type of storm I might want to summon for the first time in an area. It almost serves as a guideline that I can reference to different types of storms and is almost a secondary grimoire.”

“You’ll have to better explain to me why that is better than learning how to do those spells yourself,” Astrid said. “Isn’t it better to develop spells than to rely on a piece of equipment to give you something? Like you said, you’ll be able to reference what it does, but isn’t self-discovery better?”

“Good question, but no,” Skandr shook his head. “There are aspects to storms that I simply don’t understand. I would have to go study and find things to even begin to experiment with these different storms. Part of becoming a Storm Archwizard and having my Skill become Storm Wizardry gave me understanding about how there are many types of storms that I’ve never thought of. For me to understand how to cast these spells, though, I would have to find another example and reference the differences between different types of storm summoning spells. For example, I’ve heard of a firestorm, but I don’t have the first idea of where to start with creating one.

“Instead of going to try to find an explanation of how to do it and then experimenting until I have some measure of an idea, the staff bridges the gap in my understanding and shows how to convert ambient mana into storm mana of that same type. If we were at the top of the fiftieth floor of the Trials and fighting the Boss again, I probably could make a lava storm. In one of the massive crypts from the Trials? A deathly storm, maybe. I don’t know what kind of things can be made into storms, and this will allow me to peek into the functions of mana interacting with storms without losing tons of time and money paying to see what kinds of things other Wizards have done in the past.”

“That’s awesome,” Astrid said, shrugging helplessly. “I wish I could better understand just how impactful this is, so that way I could be happier for you. Regardless, it sounds great.”

Skandr nodded, his face excited. Then he asked, “Is it all right if the rest of us get an opportunity to test out our new toys?”

Astrid laughed and, despite wanting to continue to experiment with her new hammer, stepped back to allow the rest to use their new equipment. After all, even Muti, who had gotten the first piece of steel tier equipment, had something new to try out. Well, other than Felix, who had also tried his, and Benedict, who had been playing around with his and didn’t need to be in a fight to truly test it out.

Without another word, Muti led the party to the next monster, the one closest to the passage down to the second floor. It wasn’t long, as the wyverns, higher level than they should be due to the surge, were more than eager to find their next prey. As it swooped closer, Skandr planted his stance, swirled his staff around him once, twice, and then planted it in the ground. With each movement, a tornado screamed into existence until it whipped up from his position and into the sky. His pet cloud surged up and merged into the spell as well. Lightning crackled there, and Astrid could tell when he somehow supplied the staff’s working with his health and stamina as the lightning tinged from bluish-white to red.

Seeming to think better of running headlong into this, the wyvern pulled out of its dive and flapped its wings backward, desperately looking to escape. It was too late. The tornado separated from Skandr, flying into the air before snaking back down and striking the wyvern from the air to the ground. Wind and lightning ripped through the stumps and earth, throwing debris everywhere with deadly force. The tornado started to die off just as a kill notification appeared.

Muti began complaining, given that she wasn’t going to be allowed her opportunity to prove herself as well, while Skandr rolled his shoulders and grinned at Astrid. “Do you mind topping me up with a charge of Physique?”

She didn’t answer verbally, just shaking her head and gesturing for Felix and Muti to come close as well. Then she used the charge and gestured for the party to continue onward. After all, they had to test their new abilities against the irregulars found deeper below. This was just the beginning.