Return to Level 0

Chapter 9 Deep Pockets and Deeper Pits

As the kicked up dust subsided, Luck took notice of his surroundings. Seeing no enemies in sight and grinning a bit in joy at the notification he got, he opened his menu.

[Level 1 of the Pit of the Dead has been cleared]

[Level 2 unlocked]

[Will you proceed?]

[Yes/No]

Before making his decision, Luck looked to his stats and weapon skills.

***

Player Name: [Luck]

Class: [Creationist Lv5]

Titles: [None]

Class Skills: [Eye of the Creator] [Pocket of the Creator] [Exchange of the Creator]

Normal skills: [Beginner Alchemy] [Beginner Blacksmithing] [Beginner Fighter] 

[Beginner Mental Recovery] [Beginner Physical Recovery] [Beginner Mana Recovery]

Weapon skills: [Psyche Up Lv1] [Power Smash Lv1] [Earth Shaker Lv1]

HP: 100/100

Mana: 873/1000 

Strength: 11+30

Vitality: 10

Agility: 12

Dexterity: 11

Intelligence: 100

Wisdom: 100

***

Seeing the plus 30 next to his strength, Luck confirmed that the effects of the items he used were still in effect. He was also somewhat glad that his base strength, agility, and dexterity had increased. 

Stats in the game world of Level 0 were not wholly developed by levels gained but were cultivated through practice and the honing of one's skills.

Currently, stats such as strength, vitality, agility, and dexterity were capped at 20 as it represented the human limits. This was why taking on dungeons or powerful monsters in Level 0 were usually done by groups rather than individuals. 

If not with a group, items would have to supplement a player’s strength which was why a person like Luck was attempting to solo a 12 man dungeon run on his own.

So seeing him make small progress toward reaching the cap was a good sign that he was on the way to the top. 

Flicking over to his weapon skills, he noticed that he had gained an additional weapon skill point. Luck thought about if he should select another skill or further develop the skills he already had.

Reading through his weapon skill’s descriptions he deliberated his next course of action.

[Psyche Up Lv1] 

Description: The gathering of fighting spirit to allow for the empowerment of a fighter’s next strike. Allows for the amplification of an attribute of a weapon skill or basic attack, which is determined by the system AI RNG or the player’s will. Note: Stackable up to 4 times with each attempt having less chance of occurring.

Cast time: 2 Seconds

Effect: 50% increase attack effect / 100% success (First Attempt 1) 

Subsequent attempts decrease chance by 25% per attempt

Cooldown: 60 seconds

[Power Smash Lv1] 

Description: Let loose a physically destructive slam that will rattle the enemy. Produces waves of power at the site of impact that will damage nearby enemies. Warning, if not used properly, the wielder will suffer a lag on agility and reaction time.

Effect: +150% of strength / AOE: 1 Meter Radius 

Cooldown: 15 seconds

[Earth Shaker Lv1]

Description: Your foes will tremble at the feel of your power. When striking the ground, enemies nearby will be shaken and will become unbalanced and disoriented. Effective with blunt weapons against solid ground

Effect: 50% chance to stun / AOE: 5 Meter Radius / +10% of Strength

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Luck mused about getting new skills as he had never really tried many of them in his future memories. He was fully devoted to earning money, and weapon skills were an afterthought to him as he was more concerned about earning money. Now that he had the time to really think about his fighting style, he realized that he truly didn’t have one.

He was proficient yes, but had no clear cut forms or even formal training. His mind began to wonder if he should try learning some form of professional martial arts in real life, but shook off the idea before getting side tracked.

Refocusing, he deduced that another new skill would not help him in this situation as he already had what he needed for this dungeon. The [Pit of the Dead], as its name promotes, was a dungeon filled with undead creatures.

The first level made it apparent that this dungeon had a focus on the skeleton variety which lined up with his future memories and knowledge.

Skills such as [Power Smash] and [Earth Shaker] were enough for now since one gave him the AOE damage he needed for handling large swaths of enemies while the other provided ample CC to get him out of sticky situations.

Looking at all the piles of bones around him, Luck guessed that these two skills' current levels were enough and decided to put his weapon skill point in [Psyche Up] since it provided more effective versatility to his two skills.

[Psyche Up Lv2] 

Description: The gathering of fighting spirit to allow for the empowerment of a fighter’s next strike. Allows for the amplification of an attribute of a weapon skill or basic attack, which is determined by the system AI RNG or the player’s will. Note: Stackable up to 4 times with each attempt having less chance of occurring.

Cast Time: 2 Seconds

Effect: 75% increase attack effect / 100% success (First Attempt 1) 

Subsequent attempts decrease chance by 20%

Cooldown: 60 seconds

“Alright! Everything should be in order for now. Let’s get the next part over with.”

Taking his backpack off his shoulders, he parted from it after placing it on the ground. Moving to a nearby pile of bones, he began to rummage through it to see if anything of interest had dropped, which should have been very likely since he saw that the skeletons he had fought held an average mana count of give or take 10.

Not disappointed, he found a small magic crystal and another item of interest.

Gilded Bone

Rarity: Uncommon

Description: A bone inlay with traces of precious metals that have been accumulating in the remains of the dead. Can be either refined to obtain a trace amount of precious metals or sold for a small sum of coin.

The Gilded Bone was the item Luck had coveted the most in the past since it gave him access to a somewhat reasonably stable source of D-credits which he could use to buy the resources to support his crafting.

Using his [Eye of the Creator], Luck was able to more easily spot the Gilded Bones since one needed a keen eye to spot the difference. Snatching them up as quickly as he could, he then deposited them into his backpack nearby and continued to work at the other piles for a few minutes.

But soon or later, trouble came and Luck had a difficult choice to make. His backpack had a limited capacity and he still had to look through the other half of his loot. He thought to turn his magic crystals or the excess gilded bones into RP for use in the exchange shop but if there was one thing Luck knew from his long years of experience in Level 0, it was that raw items held great sway in this game.

Not wanting to turn too many of his raw items into points, he tried to think of what he could do. 

While the idea of turning the items into RP and then back into raw items came to mind, his Exchange shop and the game was a step ahead of him.

It seemed that there was not a one to one exchange from RP to Item and Item to RP.

A small magic crystal cost 200 RP in the exchange shop while the amount he got for exchanging a small magic crystal into points was 100RP.

Not wanting to be wasteful, Luck thought about buying a magic item bag from the exchange shop but was again smacked in the face by reality.

Magic Bag (Small) - Cost: 100,000 RP

Seeing the price, Luck slumped his shoulders in defeat and soon began to despair at the fact that he might have to leave all this delicious loot behind.

As he wished that he had deeper pockets in both capacity and wealth, his menu flickered as his skill, [Pocket of the Creator], began to make the same incessant beeping like [Exchange of the Creator] did the day before.

Learning his lesson from yesterday, Luck scrolled over and tapped his skill. Popping up in front of him was a notice message and a question.

[Detecting Player Luck is out of physical carrying space.]

[Detecting large amounts of unstored loot in the area.]

[Would you like to enable quick store?]

[Yes/No]

Wanting to see what this class skill could do, he selected yes and read another pop up instruction. 

“Huh, so if I do this then something should happen?”

Reaching out to a pile of bones, he grabbed one and in the instance he got a good grasp on it the bone disappeared and another menu filled his sight. At this point, Luck remembered to turn off his stream before experimenting with his class skill.

Noticing another flicking indicator on his bag icon next to the notification icon, he tapped it and saw a new storage tab next to his backpack storage space.

There, he saw the singular bone listed as an icon. Luck realized that the skill [Pocket of the Creator] could be an innate storage skill which was similar to [Pocket Space Magic] which was an innate skill that a [Space Mage] possessed.

Wanting to experiment and wondering how big this new storage space was he began picking up bone after bone as he filled the apparent pocket space he had with his class skill.

After picking the area clean, Luck was bemused by how big his newly acquired pocket space was. He had estimated to have picked up over 1000 items and he didn’t get a prompt concerning his encumberment or max storage space.

Thinking that it would be great if this skill gave him infinite storage, Luck knew better since like his Exchange rate for RP or any skill for that matter, there was always a drawback to the game’s skills.

As he mused about how he should further test the [Pocket of the Creator], Luck moved forward as he descended deeper into the [Pit of the Dead].