The skill gains were enough for Randidly to finish off Monster Slayer V
Congratulations You have completed the Monster Slayer V Path +5 stat +1 to Health Regen Mana Regen and Stamina Regen Sometimes the path forward leads through blood and gore and sometimes the path is long But you cannot hesitate
But the completion of the path left Randidly with several choices He had unlocked The Monster Slayer Path which would take 50 PP and also still had the Watcher Path but he had also earned Potion Making I Path after getting the skill to lvl 20 It cost 25 but Randidly hesitated because of the real possibility that a skill lay at the end of it
Ultimately the lure of that skill was too great and Randidly chose to pour his remaining 14 PP into Potion Making I As he did so he was delighted to find that after putting 5 in he got a point in Focus and 10 gave him a stat in control It was a nice surprise after the Monster Slayer paths that only gave a completion bonus
After Randidly put the 12 of his 14 PP into Potion Making I path something else happened that gave him pause
Congratulations Your Soul Path Green Spear Mastery has reached level 250 You have followed this path for a long time yet now it forks On your left lays the Waning Rafflesia and on your right lays the Blooming Hydrangea Choose where you wish to Walk
Randidly wasn’t overly familiar flowers but he understood Waning and Blooming as adjectives He briefly considered trying to perhaps consult Sam on what exactly the flowers were but they didn’t seem very important Instead Randidly went with his gut
Waning Rafflesia The other path seemed to be the softer sides of plants growth and healing But Randidly knew that to possess the strength he desired to protect the village to find his friends he needed the strength of rot and death
You have chosen the path of the stinking corpse lily Green Spear Mastery has become Spear of Rot Mastery Skill level has reset to 1 You retain all the benefits of Green Spear Mastery
You have learned the skill Pollen of the Rafflesia Lvl 1 You have learned the skill Edge of Decay Lvl 1 You have learned the skill Summon Pestilence Lvl 1
Pollen of the Rafflesia Release pollen from your spear spreading the scent of spiciness and rot Enemies caught inhaling your pollen will experience drowsiness nausea and minor hallucinations Costs 50 mana Effectiveness depends on Intelligence and skill level
Edge of Decay Passive ability Wounds you inflect contain a hint of Rafflesia’s Rot often leading to increased infection and necrosis of the wounds Frequency of rot and speed of rot depend on skill level
Summon Pestilence The Rafflesia has a strong relationship with hungry insects Summon a group of those hungry insects to unleash upon your enemies Number of insects depends on Intelligence and Skill Level Concentration of Insects depends on Focus Wisdom and Skill Level Control over insects depends on Control and Skill Level
Randidly smiled reflexively then shook his head sorrowfully There were just so many skills he had to grind now There simply wasn’t enough time in the day for them But still
Randidly adjusted his plans and looked South towards the area that the fireball casting imps came from Perhaps he should try out these new skills before anything else
After sneaking past their patrols and earning himself another skill point for sneak Randidly stood in a ruined building that served as their base While he had been getting in position another pillar of light had risen up into the sky and a notification about the Policeman’s Newbie Village had appeared before Randidly but he dismissed it focusing on the task at hand
As he stood hidden he activated Pollen of the Rafflesia and could sense rather than see a cloud of something the pollen spreading out around him
Randidly’s eyes narrowed as two imps walked forward or rather floated right into the pollen At first nothing happened and Randidly was slightly disappointed But then he noticed some strange movements and activated Eyes of the Spear Phantom his vision instantly sharpening
The left Imp still seemed fine but the right imp was twitching And as Randidly watched it seemed to be talking to itself As it walked deeper into the cloud of pollen the twitching got progressively worse
Two more imps who had been out of Randidly’s vision around the corner appeared heading in the opposite direction of the first two and the twitching imps response made Randidly gasp
It raised its hand and blasted its compatriots in the face with a fireball They fell back shrieking but it just aggressively rushed forward and blasted more
Randidly’s Pollen of the Rafflesia improved to Lvl 2
The right imp finally responding to the horror grasped at the other imp back but missed and fell to the ground where it vomited up the contents of its stomach The one imp continued to roast the other two imps but Randidly was impressed His Intelligence stat probably made up for the lower skill level and was pretty effective against the imps when they didn’t know what was happening
Randidly flexed his hand summoning pestilence a swarm of buzzing insects the size of his fist appearing above his hand They instantly began to fly everywhere and Randidly frowned pressing down with his will and they unwillingly gathered back up
While doing so the skill improved immediately to Lvl 4 It seemed that his control was helping him gain levels more quickly Randidly then pointed and the pestilence surged forward albeit haphazardly hitting the imp that was vomiting on the ground The flies and wasps instantly dug their greedy mouths into the Imp’s flesh causing it to roll around screeching Within seconds half of its head was missing eaten away by the pestilence
The Imp who was flaming the two other imps turned its eyes dull and confused Randidly reached out and pressed and the pestilence rose up off the first imp and attacked this second imp or at least most of the insects did Some admittedly stayed gnawing on the imp on the ground It even earned Randidly another skill level
After watching them for several minutes Randidly concluded that it was a useful skill but currently not deadly Although they could eat a lot of the imps flesh it was mostly just superficial wounds He suspected that the skill would fare slightly better now that it was Lvl 5 but not enough to make a difference
Still it would be excellent at distracting enemies and reaching hard to catch enemies like the cat With Magic Missile and Summon Pestilence Randidly felt much more confident about facing the enemies beyond the edge of the boundary
Chapter 37
Sweat dripped down Randidly’s brow as he faced the enemies in front of him he had made a terrible mistake
If he had encountered a singular cat there was no doubt in Randidly’s mind that he would have been able to handle it easily And indeed there was only a single cat in front of him
But of course there were also two lizardmen wielding scimitars Randidly had stumbled across the lizardmen and decided to risk a fight But coincidentally Randidly and the cat appeared at almost the same moment ambushing the lizardmen and had both frozen Now an uneasy and aggressive truce existed between the three parties
However it seemed that the lizardmen and the cat had both come to the same conclusion and turned their eyes towards Randidly He was the weaker party They advanced quickly rushing towards him the cat turning into a blur of sharp claws and death
After a half second of hesitation Randidly gritted his teeth and removed something he had hoped to never use again the strange invigorating juice of the origin banana It would leave him extremely weak but
The only path for a spear is forward A man holding onto a spear cannot hesitate ’
Randidly gulped it down and almost immediately relaxed a smile spreading across his face Why had he even been worried
The cat screeched closer its claws ripping towards him followed by the grim eyed lizardmen
Spinning his spear Randidly yawned casually And then he stepped activating the Phantom Half Step closing half the distance to the furthest back Lizardman phasing entirely through the cat and appearing next to the closest lizard man