C76: Refining Skills
A small pause to explore the new subsystem for everyone.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, I got greedy" I say as I respawn back at the floor 1 boss arena as that was my last lamp. I trudge back over to the exit to the third floor, pull the lever for the lift and then get back on down to the third floor.
[Chalice Dungeon challenge failed-reason: Death. New attempts are not possible as the lever to the boss area has already been opened and the miniboss slain.]
"Right right right" I comment on my failure with a shrug as I casually move over to the boss door and use my skill, loot magnet, to collect my fallen echoes which were still at the entrance. I was planning to casually go about things until I remembered that my curse value was still rising and thus rushed back to the lamp.
Returning to the dream. I casually chat with Doll a bit and mention how I feel weird in the dungeon, potentially more beast-like where she explains old records of Pthumerian dungeons where explorers turned into beasts shortly after entering there. While not completely, it lines up with my own analysis.
After a few more words, I talk about upgrading my physique and she informs me of how much it costs to upgrade a single level of my Nox Hunter build. It's around 154k to increase one level which is split between the cost of upgrading my stats twice in three different stats. It's far cheaper than leveling up normally but still feels a bit inefficient.
154k for a single level of my skill when I can try to outright use skill shards or even the skill refinery sub system to level it up.
Speaking of, I might as well check out that sub system now.
[Welcome master, to the Skill refinery. Here you may use SP to level up your skills directly or potentially merge them into new forms. Of course the merging may have a chance of failure but SP may be used to reclaim skills of failed mergers.]
"Thank you child. Very informative" I act as if im patting a child on the head, likely messing up their hair since i've never done head pats before.
I then look at my entire list of 27 skills with only one locked as that is my life creator skill which is still sealed away. Unfortunately my own Darkness and chaos mastery skills don't get to enjoy these perks, though chaos steps is part of it which means i get off brand levels into it. 'Hehe'
I begin analyzing the various costs for my skills and I see that for a bunch of my lower level and unfused skills, I can use one SP to get bundles of levels to make up for the blood echo conversion cost.
Granted I would likely never worry about SP as I have 2.840 trillion. And I'll likely get more if the blood echo count goes over a trillion again and the system couldn't pay it again.
For now though, I spend a few hundred to upgrade a bunch of my skills. I start out with Lesser Energy Flow and that evolves twice, first into Energy flow, a basic evolution, dropping the lesser from its name before evolving into Advanced Energy Flow. another basic evolution with no prefix or suffix but that's fine. Though I can certainly feel how it's affecting my body via my physique. It's like getting a constant warm oil massage across my body.
I can essentially feel it upgrading my stats in real time unlike before. But that's not good enough for me as I'm about to go full stop on my physique, I'll still want this feeling or better even then. So I keep going and pull another two evolutions with a total of 1.5k SP.
"HOH" I gasp as I feel good.
[Nox-Hunter Physique has leveled up due to accumulated energy. Level 4->level 5...level 5=Level 6…level 6->>Level 7…level 7-Level 10]
"Shit, that was a good decision. Rare for me"
"Evolve skill"
[Granted]
[Nox-Hunter Physique has evolved into Astral Hunter Physique]
I would likely start groaning in pain by now but with my stats and Seeker instinct skill, I just power through it as my bones, muscles and joints reorganize before my very senses until it finally stops and I feel more in tune with gravity itself. Not saying I fell over but actual gravity magic.
[Due to Unique Race, Physique has taken a unique form as well. Astral Hunter- Host has the capacity to venture into the very stars with enough energy. Foray into the depths of space, even if slowly and not for long, to find new lands to claim as your own.]
"...I see…." I offer a weak comment as I'm unlikely to actually do that, especially if space is possibly filled with vampires, afterall, they don't need to breathe and could very well resist the frost of space. Humans wouldn't see them through telescopes and all.
And it's not vampires then it is Eldritch gods, especially with all the Amygdalas around here in just Yharnam. Regardless, it seems I got new skills from my physique
[Astral Breathing: Gain the ability to breath in a vacuum or area with no air for a period of time. Time Limit: 3 hours]
"While primarily useless to me, the time limit is pretty nice but let's see the other skill my new physique grants me" my eyes shift to the next message.
[Astral Cloak: grants a protective membrane around the user's body that can block everything whether it's harmful space particles like radiation or asteroids. Uses Mana to power.]
"I'm sorry, you just gave me an all purpose magic barrier around me and you expect me to use this shit to fly in space? FUCK NO, im face tanking every attack and im just gonna dump a billion points of levels into my mind stat and just be overpowered like Sung Jin Woo after getting the monarch heart."
"Hah, sad I won't be able to ever watch the anime for it. The Jeju island saga on the manhwa looked pretty nice." I contemplate the fact that even though I read the original novel and a large portion of the early manga, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the rest of it. My eyes finally shift to the last subsidiary skill of my new physique.
[Astral Shift: A movement technique granting flight to the user. Allows movement up to 50 meters in a single usage while in the world. Grants a massive movement buff when traveling outside a world. The first half second of usage grants invulnerability when activating in the world. ]
"Oh, it's so good" I close my eyes and enjoy the sensation of knowledge I have obtained, and totally not because I'm essentially hands-free jacking off with advanced energy flow.
During just my reading time, I got another level to my physique so it's now level 2. Overall, I found that each of my stats has risen by 30-70 points each, part of it was the few levels from Nox-Hunter but the great majority of it, especially to my mind, was from the physique evolution.
My current stats look like this.
Vit- 140 (+4 drained) + 66 (physique) + 10 (runic mage) + 4.1(collagen) = 190.1->220.1
Mind- 50 (Racial base) + 70(physique) = 120 (180 base mana)
End- 135 + 70 (physique) (+2 drained) +4.7(collagen) = >169.7->209.7 (300 base stamina ->850 stam)
Str- 145 (+4 drained) + 66(physique) + 10(runic mage) + 4.2 (collagen)= 195.2->225.2
Skill-140 (+2 drained) + 66 (physique) + 1.9(collagen) = 177.9->207.9
Bloodtinge - 130 + 56(physique) + 3.6(collagen)= 169.6->219.6
Arcane-160 + 70(physique) +1.5(collagen) = 191.5->231.5
Arcane and Endurance got the largest buff to my stats of 40 points each, not counting mind which outright got 70 of course. Thankfully I haven't fully respec'ed my skills in mana based skills as otherwise I would not be able to pull off half of what I do.
I should probably get some sort of skills to buff up my mind skill too, not fully rely on physique. Though I do wonder what would be the next step in evolution for my physique, as with a quick glance at Doll, I learn that it takes me 5 points into Arcane, Mind and Endurance as well as three points into the other stats except blood tinge which is all but abandoned to level up my physique at the moment.
That is over 200k echoes to do so and I only realistically need 100 skill points to level it up. Thats around 50k echoes based on the reverse conversion rate of the skill refinery sub system. The refinery is very good for my physique and I haven't even realistically put a single point into it and only leveled up my energy flow skill. But for now, ill hold off and level up my other skills so that they can keep up.
First is the pet bond skill which was partially subsumed by the pet subsystem and rune of aberration. Leveling that up to the next evolution allows me to obtain more skills from my currently registered pets. I also learned that my current evolution of this skill allowed me to add one more pet slot, making it a total of five 'pets' I could have. Three of which are already in use. And a potential fourth in the pet egg which I could totally modify super heavily due to the previously mentioned rune.
Next was Solar Halo. I was pretty surprised that this skill which was so expensive back then can also be leveled up in bundles even though it has a pivotal role in healing my soul or spirit from any and all damage.
[Solar halo has evolved into (Recovery) Solar halo level 1]
"Hmm, yea, I like it a lot better when it keeps the same name but only adds modifiers and basic growth to a skill.
I try the skill out and don't feel too much different, the sunlight effect is stronger so if I didn't have my nightvision, this would certainly be more useful and surprisingly, the stamina drain isn't too bad compared to what it was before. Not that I really have to worry about stamina at all.
[CoK: 45% ->44%]
"Im sorry, run that by me again?!" I'm flabbergasted by the surprise notice of my curse going Down rather than up with the exception of using mutagen vials. I might as well go and see what is the next stage of this skill. A hefty 10k Sp later and I get the results.
[(Recovery) Solar Halo has evolved into (Recovery) Lunar Moon]
"Huh?" I ask as I activate the skill to get a feel for it and witness as a much smaller moon rises over my head, it's like the halo that cast down it's light on me but now it's a full blown miniature moon.
[CoK: 44% ->42%->40%->37%->34%->30%....]
[Lunar Moon has permanently weakened all effects of the curse. The previous forced limit of 30% as a result of corruption from the first overflow event has been reduced to 15% lowest base. Hunter nightmare has been reduced to 20% as the lowest base compared to previous 40%. All gains to the curse from now on take five times more time to proc such as in the cursed chalice dungeon or activate half the effect of the curse, such as killing beasts in the nightmare.]
"Oh…oh my. That is certainly good. I'm less likely to go crazy now. This would have hit like crazy if I had this from before the Ludwig fight. Alls well that ends well" I joyfully comment as I proceed to the next set of skills. I do this because it takes me a full million Sp to upgrade the lunar moon to whatever is the next step.
Silver cat reflexes easily levels up as the distance for fall damage shoots up dramatically with the new evolution. It keeps the same name but effect is much better.
Berserker Rage evolves into Greater Rage which further boosts the previous damage modifier, the stamina drain also went up on it and the xp boost massively shot up. As such, it is currently a 4.5x damage boost, 3.5x stamina drain and 2.5x xp boost. The only reason I haven't used it more was because of the curse effect but with the Lunar moon, I no longer need to worry about that and keep essentially keep it on all the time.
Of course I could evolve this once more and I'm sure it would introduce some new effect or massively jump up the stamina cost and xp bonus as the damage is already unreal, especially when paired with Overwhelming and my other damage boosting skills like SoP.
Jumping evolved into a second stage jumping with the [vertical] prefix. I assume that another evolution would grant it the horizontal prefix too and it's one of my cheapest skills so I could forward with it. Though instead of getting a third tier skill, Im instead met with a different request.
[Would the host like to merge Soliloquy of Power, Jumping T3 and Astral Shift?]
I cross my fingers in front of me as a pleased smile crosses my face. "Hmm, yes, I do believe I do. Proceed, my darling"
[granted]
[Astral shift has integrated jumping and Soliloquy of Power. New skill: Astral Movement has formed]
[Astral Movement: Building upon the foundations of flight and horizontal movement from other skills. The base movement has expanded further with a damage boost scaling alongside the speed and total distance traveled before ending: max distance traveled in the world is 76 meters (250 ft). Further distance provides greater damage boost. Speed modifier upon exiting world: 150x]
"Okay, thats nice. Also saves me some time and skill points onto SoP itself" I appreciate the details of the new skill.
Next is digging and carving. Digging remains the same with only modifier changes but I can feel that magic is rapidly being introduced into the skill as I easily reach t4 and only spending a small handful of points on it, far less than all the other skills so far. Maybe because it has no major usage that I can think of except for maybe traps. It only gets easier to dig and nothing else.
Same with carving, though that one is merged with Life creator just after reaching t2 as it allows me to better shape anything I make with life creator.
Greater Sense easily reaches t2 and obtains the [Omniscient] tag, which feels really weird in how I don't feel much of anything at the moment. Maybe because it only really serves as an insight count modifier. Ill find out later, I don't fully trust this skill as it was a subset from pain resistance skill from years ago.
Physical Pain resistance which was already t2 and had the [Junkie] prefix also obtained the [Mitigating] prefix while everything else remained the same as it entered t3. From a few self inflicted tests, I realize that the new modifier actually decreases how much damage I take, which means it's the perfect counter to the Caryll Rune Curse.
I bring the skill up to t4 and it experiences a full blown shift.
[Physical Pain Resistance has evolved into Physical Resistance. Pain sense negated by 90%. Physical resistance applies by 1% at level 1. Tier reset to 1]
'Well, that was a thing. I got my pain resistance up to max and got a full blown physical damage resistance skill from it as it's child. It's as if I have obtained a whole new Caryll rune for it but without all the negatives of having another Caryll Rune.]
Seeing that the price is so cheap again. I evolve the new damage resistance skill, reaching t2 brings it up to 10% damage resistance and the new tier increases by 2%, which means by the end, ill have 30% damage resistance and no I could not go past level 10 for any of these tiers so far.
Interestingly enough, once it reached t3, the damage resistance bonus dropped back down to 1% again. Which means I would need to reach something akin to t10 to completely nullify the doubled damage from the rune curse.
Im still not spending much but I am reaching the 10k values from just completing t3 for damage resistance. To reach T4, it would cost me 50k Sp which again translates to 250k echoes. I choose to go through with it and now I have 40% damage resistance in total. To reach t5 though would be 120k Sp which I feel is way too much at the moment.
Call me a miser all you want but I'm being careful as I am upgrading a lot of skills here and can't properly judge my own strength at the moment.
This leads me to a few of my lesser value skills like: Throwing, Hunter Tactics and Darkvision and Knowledge all early skills I've obtained or bought that haven't seen much use for anything. Throwing was originally good when I was dealing with basic wanderers trying to tear me apart and had the pyromaniac title to boost my fire damage. Since then it fell off unless I need to lob a spell at something but even then I can just use Cosmology to manipulate the spell mid air to change it's direction or shape.
Hunter tactics doesnt do much except make some of my attacks and dodges smoother but im at a point where up until a moment ago, I was completely reliant on SoP to dodge and attack, now that will be also true to me using the new Astral Movement skill. Darkvision is alright but it's primarily used in the dungeons where there is crazy darkness in random hallways or corners.
When these four are upgraded to their next tiers. They don't gain any crazy modifiers and knowledge continues to elude me on what it's purpose is aside from giving me headaches.
From there I have many other skills like Loot magnet, Visceral Attack, Advanced Agility, Cosmology, Riposte Strike, Overwhelming, All Weapon Proficiency, Dual Handed Weapon mastery, and Chaos Step. Along with my new physique which energy flow had helped increase from level two to level four. This granted me an additional 10 to 6 stats to everything except bloodtinge. Of course there is also Eldritch Arm but I'm not sure about leveling that one up.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Word Count = 3187