VI

Chapter 6: Berserker Ape

“I was told that I won’t be able to retry the test to master this castle if I fail once. Do you know of any way around that?”

The Administrator does not reply immediately.

“Firstly, the test has not begun yet. It doesn’t begin until you get beyond that door.

What?! I’m already about to die from the people guarding the entrance. What would it be like inside?

“If you look at your status window, nothing has been added to your missions’ log. Even if you did manage to get past the door, the minimum requirement would prevent you from mastering this castle.”

“Minimum requirement?”

“The requirement to master this castle is to be at least Angel Tier. Further information on the tiers and their level designations in the FAQ section.

TRAINEE [0-9]

NOOB [10-19]

GAMER [20-29]

INTERMEDIATE GAMER [30-39]

EXPERIENCED GAMER [40-49]

ANGEL [50-59]

ARCH ANGEL [60-69]

DEMIGOD [70-89]

GOD [90-91]

?? [100-??]

“I wonder how long it’s going to take for me to get me there.” I sigh.

I guess it’s a hidden dungeon for a reason. And judging from its high requirements, I’m guessing the dungeon was meant to discovered later on.

I pull up my map and ping this location so I can find my way back since hidden places and things don’t appear on the map.

I ping the nearest city. It’s just outside the forest but the distance to there is about a hundred and ten miles. Just my estimate. Could be less. Could be more. There’s also a mountain about seven hundred miles in the opposite direction and another city after it.

The average person walks a mile in 2 and a half hours but, my base stats was designed within the confines of an average human’s ability. With leveling up, my in-game avatar should be way faster than that. I wonder how long it will take me. Well, if you factor in the fat that it’s not a straight-line journey because of trees and swamps, plus I’ll be stopping to hunt monsters, I’ll be slowed down again.

I look at the statues once more. I hate to give up but, this is beyond the present me. Got to go level up.

“Next problem. I may have been directly transported here but how do I get down to the ground?” It is a literal castle in the sky.

I asked the administrator and she stated that there’s no appropriate mechanism set in place. All Angel Tier players are expected to be capable of flight.

I stand there in thought for a couple minutes before the bulb above my head lit up.

My hand could pass through the gate of the Singularity of The Devil.

Hmm…

What if I do this…? It’s risky but nothing happened to my hand so it should be fine, right?

I jump off the building and activate the SOTD skill below me. As I fall into the singularity, I’m greeted by absolute darkness. I can’t even see my own hands that are right in front of my face. I’m floating in mid air and can move around freely like I can fly. My brain says it’s not real, but I feel otherwise at the moment.

Darkness below me. Darkness above me. Darkness in front of me. This place seems endless. I turn around and look behind me to see a dot. A red dot. I want to start heading towards it, but the notification appears in front oof me.

A countdown! I forgot I have a timer!

15…14…13…

The exit! Where is the exit? The gate I passed through closed the moment I entered. How do I open the exit gate?

Wait. Like everything else. I don’t need to move my hand to touch things on my status window. I just will it.

Open the exit.

Why isn’t it opening?! I have only 7 seconds left!

Ugh. Do I die if I stay in here after the time limit? Oh wait. It’s just a game. I won’t really die.

But no, I don’t want to get some penalty or have to start all over from avatar creation. That would suck. And what if the system doesn’t give me hidden roles and races upon reboot?

Wait. I didn’t even think of where it should appear. The gate can’t just open without my specifying where to. I hope my thoughts are right. It would suck to reboot.

I focus and imagine what was beneath my feet as I was falling. A gap the size of the portal opens in the darkness. I can see green grass. That must be it. It worked. I hurry towards it and through.

“Ow…” I went through the portal alright. It’s just…I bumped right into the ground like running into the world since I dashed with speed as I saw it as life and death. Maybe I should have brought it closer to the ground.

I made it out though so I can breathe a sigh of relief. I should probably take time out to master the kinks and limits of my skills. A shame I didn’t get to see what that red light was.

I look up above me. I can’t see the castle, but the map says it’s up there. I can be at ease knowing other players won’t be discovering it anytime soon.

The cooldown is over. Should I go back in? Uh…no maybe not immediately.

I activate the SOTD again and start testing it out. From the feeling I get after a series of tries, I have learnt a few things.

I can alter the size of the size of the portal before opening it but once it’s open, I can’t alter it anymore. It will take more practice to gain more precision though.

The portal no matter how much I try cannot exceed its original size.

I can force-close the portal early, but the cooldown stays the same. So, if I open it for a split second and close it immediately, I’ll still have to wait about five seconds.

Distance. What is the maximum range? I try several times before I’m able to figure this one out. I thought it may have to do with line of sight but my hopes for an OP skill were crushed. It’s still OP but…sigh. It turns out to do with something I’m going to call sensory bubble. I’m able to sense everything within a certain distance clearly even without seeing it. Even the trees, grass, and even the airflow behind me. The details seem to get weaker and weaker the farther away it is from me, but I estimate the maximum range would be eleven and a half meters.

I wonder if my sensory bubble can be increased. If it can, I’ll increase it to hell and back. Sigh. I probably can’t figure out how now, so I’ll just start heading for the city.

Author’s Note: SOTD is just short for the singularity spell/skill.

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.”