Anything ~ 15!

Not seeing a way to take down the flying pests, Luke decided to simply move on. He had a total of thirty days that he could spend here, and he wasn't going to waste it yelling at overgrown seagulls. They seemed content to swoop around far above, but as he progressed through Zone ten the flock size continued to grow. If there had been a sun in this world instead of the omnipresent light that seemed to come from the fog walls that surrounded the land, the pteranodons would have made the land as dark as night.

Halfway through the Zone, he finally found why the creatures had seemingly given up on assaulting him. In front of him were fifteen enormous metal rings attached to the ground. Each ring was three times as tall as he was, and twice as wide. A tremendous chain was attached to each ring, extending from that connection point out into the distance before vanishing in the swirling fog. “Ah. They think they can knock me off the chain when I start to cross.”

Sometimes he forgot that the creatures of this world were not actually natural beasts. They didn’t care if they could eat him after they killed him: they’d happily allow him to fall to his death… or to whatever was at the bottom of this massive spiral. “Might actually be nothing. They might smack me off, and I’ll fall for a few months before dying of starvation.”

At that point, Luke decided to avoid that potential future. He looked up at the birds that he could see, knowing that there were even more gathering than he could see. “Kill or test my luck… well that’s an easy answer.”

He looked at his newly-collected Skill Pearls. While he had wanted to hold onto them to get a specialized, custom Skill at the end of the next set of Zones, the fact remained that he needed something to change right now. He looked at the pearls he had collected already, pleased to note that by their luster and pearlescence that they should be around Tier three right away. “First thing… time to kill fifty of these things.”

A Tier three Skill wasn’t worthless by any means, but he could either combine fifty pearls from fifty kills or spend tens of thousands of Potentia to achieve the same effect. He eyed the pearls from the Witches of Zone nine and scoffed. If he ate one of those, he would likely get either a self-destructive skill or a zappy spell of some kind. “Better to just throw those away.”

Deciding to use the same tactics that had worked against the phantoms in a prior Zone, Luke laid down and took out the book Lord Woodswright had given him, reading ‘How to Make Friends and Not Burn Down Society’. He did so out of not only boredom, but to pretend he was distracted by the book. He was startled to find that he actually found a lot of very specific examples that seemed as if they had been tailored to his situation. Checking the date it had been written, over a decade before, he decided that perhaps there were more people like him than he had thought.

Over the course of the next day of reading between fights, he lured in and killed enough birds to upgrade the pearl, but he was absolutely fuming over the massive waste of time. The creatures would send only one at a time to come down and see if he was actually not focused, displaying an intelligence that made Luke frown.

If the creatures continued to gain intelligence the further he traveled, how long would it be until he needed to attack fortified positions? He decided to step back into Zone nine to absorb and practice the new Skill, watching as the pteranodons dispersed with angry screeches. He stared at the massive flock of thousands of birds, needing to swallow back his saliva as he imagined getting a chance to tear into each and every one of them. He looked at the Tier four Skill Pearl and hoped for the best as he tossed it down his throat.

Just like every other time he had eaten one of these, the pearl seemingly vanished as it moved down his esophagus; never reaching his stomach. Just to be sure, he took a swig of ‘water’ to aid his digestion and waited to see the information.

It was a short wait.

Skill gained: Feather’s Fall. T4, level 2.

Effect 1: When taking damage from falling, the damage is first taken as mana loss until either the damage or mana has been used up. Current damage conversion: 1 mana per 1 point of damage. (Maximized)

Bonus 1, at range: At the cost of 200-10n mana where n = skill level, your mana spreads to create a far higher surface area; allowing you to drift on the wind as does a feather for 10 seconds. Current mana cost: 100 mana per use (maximized).

Effect 2: Upon falling, you are able to converge your momentum to a single point at no mana cost. When used as an attack, 10n% of the total damage dealt is converted to piercing damage. Current damage conversion: 100%

Bonus 2, multitarget: You are able to converge your momentum to 1+n points. Current maximum impact points: 3.

Luke thought over the Skill and its applications, realizing quickly that this would be extremely difficult to use in the base world. While he was in Murder World, his mana regeneration sat at a cozy one hundred per second. That meant he could use and practice with this to his heart’s content here, but would only have thirty seconds of usage when he left if he hadn’t used any of his other mana for whatever reason.

“Okay. How do I use this to kill those blue dinosaur seagulls?” He looked at his Potentia and saw a cool eighty-five hundred and fifty-eight waiting to be used. Checking his Skills, he sighed and added a single point to Walking Arsenal, pushing it through the boundary into Tier nine. A shockwave of coruscating light erupted from him, shaking his internal organs with its intensity. He spat out a mouthful of blood as the shock erupted again a moment later, and he quickly started taking a sip of mana each time the wave erupted out.

An hour later, the energy waves had calmed down enough that they were no longer hurting him, but the Murderhobo wasn’t happy with the current situation. Upgrading that Skill had basically rang the dinner bell: creatures were gathering on both sides of the Zone barrier. He was safe for now due to the creeping movement of the witches, but his body yearned to be throwing itself at the huge swarm of pteranodons that were mere meters away.

Every once in a while, the press of bodies would get too thick. At that time, the weaker birds were tossed across the boundary and directly detonated, showering him in gore and headless carcasses. Luke stood there and taunted the beast for a while before getting bored and beginning to test out the capabilities of his new Skill. It was one thing to read what a skill did, and another thing entirely to put it in practice, and if he were going to manage to get to the next Zone, he needed to be proficient in its use.

Luckily for him, going deeper into Murder World meant that he was descending on an incline. While he hadn’t seen any cliffs or tall stones recently, he still had an idea to help him practice. Luke ran uphill for roughly a mile, then turned around and used Bum Flash to sprint a hundred meters in an instant, leaping into the air and using Feather’s Fall right after.

He was glad he practiced before trying it in an actually dangerous situation. His mana swept out like a thrown net, and he tumbled end over end multiple times before falling face-first into a rock. To his great surprise, he was completely unharmed even though he didn’t have any mana armor at this time. His mana topped off the same second, and he realized that it had taken the damage instead of his flesh. Nodding appreciatively, he got back to practicing. He changed locations every few hours, or whenever he started to see witches drifting toward him.

Currently he didn’t have a way to fight them effectively, and his upgrading Skill continuously called out to them. The fifteenth time he changed location, he was starting to get irked. Luke moved to a spot that was completely barren, then managed to make a great leap into the air. When he activated Feather’s Fall, it seemed to link with his Pristine Balance Skill, and it all sorta clicked for him. He swooped in the air, a controlled glide for the first time since he had started working on.

“Woo!” Luke screamed in joy as he started coming toward the ground at his own pace. A flicker of motion caught his eye, and he screeched as he noticed a shard of ice leaving the tip of a staff pointed directly at his head. The ice moved so quickly that it would barely lose out to Taylor’s new lightning bolt, but it was slower. Acting on instinct, Luke activated the new function of Bum Flash; instantly moving a single meter directly upward.

Ice passed under him, so close that his exposed chest hair froze and broke off. Luke used the remaining seconds of Feather’s Fall and his higher position to swoop over to a safe landing spot before sprinting away from the murderous Boomy Mage of Doomy. He ran almost a full hour before he started practicing. The Murderhobo realized that he had been underutilizing his upgraded Skills, and he immediately poured five thousand three hundred Potentia into Bum Flash; bringing it to level seven in an instant. He had thirty-two fifty-seven remaining, meaning he was just about one hundred and fifty shy of reaching the next level.

“Set Skill to gain all Potentia until it reaches level eight.” He directed his Sigil, which chimed in reply. He got right back to practicing the Skill, now able to go from a standing position directly into gliding. Soon he had a plan ready for when he was going to fight the pteranodons, and a murderous smile stretched across his face.

“Now I need for my Skill to finish upgrading, and I’ll make it rain dino-birds.” Luke nodded cheerfully to himself. A slight chime came from his head, and Luke’s face lost all mirth as he screamed at his Sigil. “I said I gotta be patient!”