Horace... was tired. He didn't count how many times he died however the only benefit were his stats and skills.
[Horace Smith, Level 1, Classless]
Experience: 1/100
Mana: 85/85
Strength: 12
Agility: 12
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 17
Perception: 8
Unique Skill: Time Dragon's Blessing
Upon death, regress to the earliest possible time in the realm the blessed one occupied at the moment of death, retaining 50% of stats and non-unique skills while keeping other benefits such as proficiencies.
Proficiencies
Bastard Sword [Minor]
Mana Manipulation [Minor]
Skills
Arcane Enchantment [Passive] — Any sword wielded by the user becomes automatically enchanted with Arcane Mana, leaving traces of it on enemies struck. Consumes Mana based on the amount of traces left behind.
Arcane Explosion [Active] — Detonates Arcane Mana outside the user's body.
Well good news - he had the ability to detonate Arcane Mana. Unfortunately he lost the fact his Mana was doubled. And he also had the dumbass goblin in front of him.
Horace hated that long armed freak.
Thankfully it took seconds for him to take it out. As stupid as it was, it was just a glorified beast in his eyes.
Once it was done he took a deep breath and sat down. Time to try and replicate his passive skill. Or try at least.
He drew a deep breath and moved the Mana through his body, circulating it around his heart and focusing on separating the elemental particles from the pure mana.
Over and over he tried it, breathing out the mana he couldn't clear, until finally a chime sounded from inside his skull.
You have gained [Minor Proficiency in Mana Purification]
He grinned. And then reassigned his stats.
[Strength: 12 → 18]
[Agility: 12 → 22]
[Endurance: 10 → 18]
[Intelligence: 17 → 25]
[Perception: 8 → 16]
He decided to go big or go home - if he kept stacking proficiencies he might just get out of here alive... Well and possibly sane. Horace wasn't stupid enough to not realize his dying and reviving wasn't affecting his sanity. He bet if there was a stat for that he would be losing half of it every time he regressed.
But it was time to face the wolf. Again.
Horace really hated losing his skills. So during the fight with the wolf he was testing out something. He could easily dodge it but now he had finally finally figured out how to use both Arcane Enchantment and Arcane Detonation without skills, just in case he lost them.
He was now faced with something he wanted to slam his head against the wall till the next round.
He forgot that stat distribution meant you would get different classes. Now before you judge him - he went through multiple deaths and well... They learned it when they entered high school. Who remembers anything from that time?
Setting aside his own stupidity, Horace tapped a class that he heard about - Blade Dancer.
[Horace Smith, Level 10, Blade Dancer]
Experience: 91,700 / 102,400
Mana: 140/140
Strength: 18
Agility: 22 → 24
Endurance: 18 → 19
Intelligence: 25 → 28
Perception: 16
Unallocated Points Remaining: 8
Unique Skill: Time Dragon's Blessing
Upon death, regress to the earliest possible time in the realm the blessed one occupied at the moment of death, retaining 50% of stats and non-unique skills while keeping other benefits such as proficiencies.
Proficiencies
Bastard Sword [Minor]
Mana Manipulation [Minor]
Mana Enchantment [Minor]
Mana Detonation [Minor]
Skills
Arcane Enchantment [Passive] - Any sword wielded by the user becomes automatically enchanted with Arcane Mana, leaving traces of it on enemies struck. Consumes Mana based on the amount of traces left behind.
Manakinesis [Passive] - Allows the user to manipulate their mana even outside of their body.
Lingering Mana [Passive] - User's residual Mana lingers in a state of inertia once it leaves their body.
Arcane Explosion [Active] - Detonates Arcane Mana outside the user's body.
Blade Dance [Active] - Consumes 50 Mana. For the next Minute, residual Mana whirs around the user and strikes out.
En Pointe [Active] - Consumes 30 Mana. Focuses Mana on the top of the sword before blasting it forward or to the side.
Horace was happy. The amount of classes that got four skills right off the bat was very small but he was able to get one. He really didn't want to know what 50% of an odd number of skills would be. But thankfully he won't find out.
He sat down and focused. First he spread mana across his hands and then waved them around to create remains of mana in the air. And then he focused on moving them, solidifying them, feeling what the passive skill did for him until.
You have gained [Minor Proficiency in Manakinesis]
Your Perception has gained 1 point
He breathed out. That confirms some things - mainly that he can earn the proficiency even while having the passive skill. After that he tried to solidify his mana however it proved unsuccessful.
"Shit. Lingering Mana is going to be hard to learn." He sighed before getting up. "Time to face the Spiders."
He sighed and very quickly spread his stats, before entering the teleportation circle.
[Strength: 18 → 20]
[Agility: 24 → 26]
[Endurance: 19 → 20]
[Intelligence: 28 → 30]
[Perception: 17 → 18]
The spiders were, arguably a joke. Once you got over their advantage in number with a big enough explosion, you could clear them easily. Level 11 came and he sighed as he dumped all three points into his Endurance - might as well try to survive the Ogre.
But one interesting thing did happen. He noticed the poison on the webs seeping something close to mana. So he tried it - all he had to lose was a bit of sanity to gain a shit tonne more.
He focused on the mana on his sword, twisting and turning it. He micromanaged it until it started shivering and dissipating.
To his surprise a soft ding sounded in his head.
You have gained [Minor Proficiency in Mana Corruption]
Your Intelligence has increased by 1 point]
He laughed a little. That tracked. However it gave him an idea - from school he remembered Debuffers tended to use Corrupted Mana, as it acted like a poison. And the more of it there is the faster their enemies degrade.
Now. Time to face the music as he stepped into the circle.