VII

Chapter 7

It’s been about three hours since Utopia launched, and the players are still rising at break-neck speed. While others spawned in towns and cities, I have been walking in the woods. I have used the SOTD skill to get around unfavourable situations such as quicksand and a swamp. Other than that, I’ve been taking in the beauty of this game. The leaves, flowers, insects, and so on. I have hunted a couple monsters I’ve run into and only two were above my level so for the most part it was easy. I didn’t loose a single health point with the help of the SOTD skill since I could attack without getting close as long as my opponent was within my sensory bubble.

“Status.”

[IN-GAME PROFILE]

[PSEUDONAME: DEXTER BLOOM]

RACE: DEVIL ELF

ROLE: DEVIL GOD SUCCESSOR

AGE: 17

GENDER: MALE

TIER: NOOB

TIER RANKING: 000064852/000064852 [STILL RISING AS MORE PEOPLE JOIN]

LEVEL: 10→14

FORM 1: HUMAN-LOOKING

HEIGHT: 5’9

HAIR COLOR: RED

HAIR STYLE: SLICK BACK

EYE COLOR: BLUE

BODY TYPE: RECTANGULAR

UTOPIA COINS : 1→3

[STATS]

STRENGHT : 14→18

AGILITY : 19→23

STAMINA: 17/17→21/21

DEXTERITY: 29→33

DURABILITY: 13→17

INT: 19→23

IQ: 128 [STATS CANNOT BE ASSIGNED TO THIS]

HP: 55/55→75/75

MP: 50/50→70/70

SKILL POINTS: 1→5

SKILLS/SPELLS

[TRANSFORMATION (Active) (LV 1): Transform between form 1 and form 2. Duration of transformation decreases with proficiency. Duration: 6 Mins]

[30% Additional boosts on all stats at transformation]

[Singularity Of The Devil (Active) (LV 9)]

Size: 1280 cm/41 ft 11.9 In

Duration: 55 seconds

Cooldown: 4.7 seconds

Levelling up was going well until I hit level 14 as it became harder to find monsters of levels higher than 13. I couldn’t even find 14. As they say, be careful what you wish for, I ran into a Level 21 Diamond-Back Ape,

It has an insane defense with its diamond scales and a single punch from this eight-foot two-inch beast took a whopping 13 of my health points with it.

I try to gain distance from it to safely use SOTD but it’s pretty fast at catching up with me during the cooldown and I can’t hide in the singularity for more than 55 seconds.

I can’t keep going on like this. I’ve been hit thrice, and I now have 36 HP left. I tried to buy a new skill to help me but each skill book in the Library of The Devil God costs at least 10 points…which I don’t have. I tried looking in other libraries, but they’re all locked, costing 100 Utopia coins to unlock any one of them. Don’t get me started on the hidden libraries that cost 350 Utopia coins each. So only the initial choosing is free. I thought you could just buy from any library and just had to pay for the book.

What do I do? I’ll die at this rate. This is the second time today. I should have known there was a powerful beast nearby since there were np other monsters nearby. They were staying away from its territory.

No need saving up. I’ll first use all my skill points.

SKILL POINTS: 5→0

SKILLS/SPELLS

[TRANSFORMATION (Active) (LV 1) → LV5: Transform between form 1 and form 2. Duration of transformation decreases with proficiency. Duration: 6 Mins→4mins]

[30% Additional boosts on all stats at transformation]

[Singularity Of The Devil (Active) (LV 9)] →10 [Max]

Size: 1280 cm/41 ft 11.9 In → 2560 cm

Duration: 55 seconds → 60 seconds

Cooldown: 4.7 seconds → 2.4 seconds

Quirk Unlocked at Max Level: Duration of Skill can be increased at the cost of 1 MP per Second.

The third skill says “?” and I haven’t met its requirements. I’m facing life and death so why won’t it unlock?

Four minutes. I can’t hold the singularity for that long and if I go out, I’m dead. I probably can’t move or fight during transformation.

Hmm…Duration…60 Seconds…if the skill is maxed out then I can’t go any quicker than 2.4 seconds…Quirk? Oh! Sweet. This helps!

But wait…it’s still not enough. Seventy MP translates to Seventy seconds. Adding that to the original duration, I get two minutes and ten seconds and I’ll have to wait till my MP regenerates. I’ll be dead before it’s done. Not enough. Not enough! I check the store for things that can help. Potions yes potions. There should be something to boost power briefly. As I look through the potions, I find a Berserker potion but the lowest grade (level 1) alone costs 8 Utopia coins. I have only 3. Not even half the required amount. What do I do?

Damn it! I have only 20 seconds left in here. I have only one shot.

As the time is just about to end, I open the gate above the beast’s head and come down with the scythe on him.  The blade takes its right eye, and the beast becomes partially blind placing both hands on its face. Yes. I can do this!

As they say, don’t count your chicks before they hatch.

[Diamond Back Ape has gone into a frenzy (LV21) → (LV 23)]

“Shoot! Like fighting a level 21 wasn’t already hard enough.” I sigh.

I keep jumping in and out of the two gates of the singularity as quickly as possible. One gate is above the ape’s head and the other is a few metres away. My scythe is long enough to hit him from a distance when I come out of the gate on the ground.

I finally manage to kill the ape, but I barely have any HP left: 9. One more hit and I’d be dead. My MP bar dried up but started regenerating again after about 20 seconds. I may be imagining it, but it seems the higher my intelligence stat, the less the cooldown. As for rate of mana recovery, it’s still fixed at 1MP per 20 seconds. That’s quite slow, I think? Isn’t there a way to increase mana recovery?

“Hey. Admin.”

“Yes, Dexter Bloom.”

It seems to refer to me by my character’s name rather than my real name. It’s weird since I’m used to that voice calling me Al or Ally. Well, whatever. It’s a good reminder that this voice belongs to an AI and not my mom.

“Is there a way to increase rate of mana recovery?”

“Every race has their own unique base stats. The human race has an IQ of 128. Most other races have between 100 and 115. There are exceptions such as the Orcs which have 85 and the dwarf race with 137.”

“So does that mean that if I had chosen the dwarf race, I would have had faster mana recovery as a dwarf?”

“Yes. More strength too. But of course, everything has its own trade-off. Such as less base speed and mana points.”

I see.

I ponder for a while longer. The transformation skill. Although I couldn’t use it in the midst of battle, it still promises a 30% boost to all stats. I haven’t tried it before. I’ll wait till my HP fully recovers as other beasts may be attracted by the fight earlier. Games these days are awfully realistic you know. It has the same 1 HP per 20 seconds recovery speed as my MP.

*** *** ***

“Status”

[IN-GAME PROFILE]

[PSEUDONAME: DEXTER BLOOM]

RACE: DEVIL ELF

ROLE: DEVIL GOD SUCCESSOR

AGE: 17

GENDER: MALE

TIER: NOOB

TIER RANKING: 000083805/000083805 [STILL RISING AS MORE PEOPLE JOIN]

LEVEL: 14→19

FORM 1: HUMAN-LOOKING

HEIGHT: 5’9

HAIR COLOR: RED

HAIR STYLE: SLICK BACK

EYE COLOR: BLUE

BODY TYPE: RECTANGULAR

UTOPIA COINS : 3→10 [+ Frenzy bonus →+2] →12

[STATS]

STRENGHT: 18→23

AGILITY: 23→28

STAMINA: 21/21→26/26

DEXTERITY: 33→38

DURABILITY: 17→22

INT: 23→28

IQ: 128 [STATS CANNOT BE ASSIGNED TO THIS]

HP: 75/75→100/100

MP: 70/70→95/95

SKILL POINTS: 0→5

SKILLS/SPELLS

[TRANSFORMATION (Active) (LV 5): Transform between form 1 and form 2. Duration of transformation decreases with proficiency. Duration: 4 Mins]

[30% Additional boosts on all stats at transformation]

[Singularity Of The Devil (Active) (LV 10)]

Size: 2560cm

Duration: 60 seconds

Cooldown: 2.4 seconds

Quirk Unlocked at Max Level: Duration of Skill can be increased at the cost of 1 MP per Second.

“I jumped 5 whole levels just like that. Hmm…frenzy bonus. I guess it also counts frenzy boost of opponents when doling out U coins. But I’m not planning to risk fighting frenzied opponents on purpose in the near future. That was dangerous.”

I check my HP to see that it has recovered. It should be safe to transform. I haven’t tried this yet.

Transformation.

I can’t feel anything but as I look down at my hands, I can see my skin slowly changing colour to dark/blueish red. Almost purple. It’s getting darker. My arms seem to have added a little muscle. It’s not really noticeable unless you were there as it changed size. It takes the designated 4 minutes to fully transform and as I had feared, I couldn’t move throughout the entire process. I could move my head, but the rest of my body was frozen stiff. I could move my hands but very slowly. My feet wouldn’t even budge. I definitely can’t use this mid-fight.

I look at my status to see the changes.

LEVEL: 19

FORM 2: DEVIL ELF

HEIGHT: 5’9

HAIR COLOR: WHITE

HAIR STYLE: LONG

EYE COLOR: BLUE

BODY TYPE: INVERTED TRIANGULAR

UTOPIA COINS: 12

[STATS]

STRENGHT: 23 [+7]

AGILITY: 28 [+8]

STAMINA: 26/26 [+8]

DEXTERITY: 38 [+11]

DURABILITY: 22 [+7]

INT: 28 [+8]

IQ: 128 [STATS CANNOT BE ASSIGNED TO THIS]

HP: 100/100 [+30]

MP: 95/95 [+29]

SKILL POINTS: 5

“It does give the 30% boost, but it seems it does not apply to IQ. I’ll have to find another way to increase my mana regen rate. For now…let’s keep going.”