As Atlas faced off against the golems, his mind was whirling with possibilities of how to take them all out. With almost half of them dead, it was far easier to fight against them, and Atlas bent his mind to the task, Reaper’s Senses whirled into overdrive, slowing down time and giving him some much needed space to think.
Then Atlas closed off his mind, entering a state of perfect awareness. His senses expanded, and he didn’t see the golems, but he could smell the hint of earth, metal and rust enveloping their beings, he could hear their footsteps thud against the dirt, and the clanging of their swinging arms. He could taste the hint of dust and death carried on the wind, delivering him understanding.
Understanding that bled throughout his entire being, and his skills activated. The glowing armor hovering over his skin glowed brighter before shifting into a deep black and strength and speed filled his body, almost to the point of bursting. Dark mist seeped out of his pores, and he became obscured in a wall of wispy darkness, hiding him from view. His eyes snapped open, red floodlights erupting from the night, sending shivers down even the unfeeling golems.
Atlas felt something click and power roared inside him as everything snapped into place, just as it should be. He felt all the skills working together, giving him more power than the sum of their parts.
He felt a notification attempt to block his vision, but he banished it, fusing all of his being with one desire, one thought of perfect clarity. To bring death upon those who had done him harm.
The golems began to hastily erect defences, practically feeling the impending doom in the air, but Atlas was on them in a flash.
Atlas’s pick flashed through the golems, shattering hastily erected golden barriers that attempted to shield their owners, but it was in vain, and Atlas started to pummel the golems to death with his pick.
The golems were still not easy foes however, and they started to weave complex earth magic that sent Atlas stumbling backwards, walls of earth and rock shattering against his face. Atlas used his own magic to smash apart the defences with a single wave of his pick and an explosion of molten fire that melted through the stone and gave Atlas a clear flight path to the golems.
As Atlas struggled against the six golems working perfectly together, the strong golem from earlier died, and Atlas quickly used Ultimate Consume on it, and felt 30 points of Dexterity get added to his ever growing pool of stats. It was a minimal increase, but even minor boosts were helpful in this struggle of life.
Atlas shot away from the golems taking in a deep breath and then summoning a giant pick out of earth behind himself. It dwarfed him, towering over everything at a ridiculously tall 100 feet tall and about 30 feet wide. Atlas’s mana began to rapidly deplete, falling by almost a thousand every second that the pick remained. With a grunt of effort, Atlas brought the monstrosity of rock down on the golems' heads.
There was an explosion of rock and stone and Atlas was flung backwards, limbs askew as he hurtled through the air. He landed hard, tumbling head over heels backwards. He finally came to rest a couple dozen feet away from the city walls. He groaned in pain, holding his head.
It throbbed painfully, and Atlas could instantly tell that he was completely out of mana. His head felt like it had been put through a grinder, his mana pathways felt strained, and he was just overall exhausted.
He picked himself up, dragging himself to lean against the wall and surveyed his stats. His health was at zero, as was his mana, and his stamina wasn’t far behind. He now understood what the system had said when it had mentioned that at the lower tiers, health and stamina were all but useless, and it only became prudent to even show them when they reached 10,000.
Atlas looked out at the devastation he had wrought on the golems, and felt a chill go up his spine.
Where he had forced his pick to impact the ground, there was a gigantic crater hundreds of feet wide and dozens of feet deep, in the center were three broken remains of golems. Atlas frowned. Where were the other two golems? Atlas took the time to activate Reaper’s Senses, but found that the skill wouldn’t work. Now Atlas was really confused. Why won’t the skill work? He wondered, opening up his status sheet and notifications in confusion.
Skills have been forcibly fused together: Death Mist (SS), Reaper’s Senses (SS), Endless Strength (SS), Battle Trance (SS), Runic Armor (SS), Blitz (S). Combining skills… Large amount of skills at SS tier, raising tier by one. SSS -> Z.
You have lost the temporary skills: Sense of Death, Ruinous Mist, Armor of Debuffs
Skill created: Avatar of Death (Z).
Atlas Channing
Tier: 2
Level: 162
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Class: Reaper
Subclass: Absorber
Mana Pathways: Rare
Mana: 40,820
Life force: 13,530
Stamina: 13,530
Titles: Shadestrider, Skill Master, Boss Slayer, Powerful Soul, Legend of the Tutorial, Sythesiser, Fate breaker.
Skills: Ultimate Debuff (Z), Avatar of Death (Z), Elemental Affinity (SSS), Consume (SS), Misty Step(SS), Supreme Damage Resistance (SS), Demonic Claw (S), Enhanced Mana Manipulation (S),Crafting (B), Lightning Beam (B) Herbalism (D).
Spells: None
Talent: Z
Potential: Z
Stats:
Endurance: 1353
Constitution: 1373
Strength: 1382
Dexterity: 1392
Wisdom: 1382
Intelligence: 1362
Free points: 2
Atlas blinked in equal parts awe and confusion. He had created a skill? Without the help from the system? And not only that, but it was his second Z grade skill? Sure, it had taken a good chunk of his skills to create it, but didn’t that just mean that it was a higher tier skill?
As Atlas spun questions through his brain to the point of overloading his head with (mostly) useless thoughts about this new skill, he pulled open the description for Avatar of Death. He had a vague sense of what it did just by having the skill, but he wanted to know for sure what it did.
Avatar of Death (Z): Summons dark black armor that gives multiple benefits depending on each piece of armor. Different effects work only as long as a certain number of armor pieces are intact. Pieces CAN be broken, but how durable the armor is depends on the wearers endurance. Armor pieces and their effects:
Helmet: Grim Reaper’s Senses: Your perception increases considerably, to the point where everything seems far slower than it actually is. You are slightly slower to your own senses. Your hearing is also vastly improved, to the point where you can hear frequencies that other humans cannot, such as a bats screech. Your taste does not change. Your sense of touch can feel the slightest shift of even the air (only works on non-harmful items). Your sense of smell becomes greater than that of a bloodhound.. Your eyes glow red while wearing this helmet, and the helmet will show you all of the weak points and best places to be while in combat.
Breastplate: Armor of Runes: Gives all the runes (Speed, Strength, Durability, Magic, Resistance, Defence, and Shield) to the Breastplate.
Gauntlets: Infinite Strength: You have a bottomless well of strength while wearing these gauntlets, and that strength can be used in different ways. 1: You can use the base amount of strength given passively (10%). This doesn’t put any strain on the user and boosts your strength by 2x. 2: You can draw on 50% of the gauntlet's strength. This puts minor strain on the user's body and boosts your strength by 10x. 3: You can draw on 100% of the gauntlet’s strength. This puts major strain on the user's body and boosts your strength by 20x.
Greaves: Reaper’s Mist: These greaves emit mist darker than the deepest black, and the mist eats away at any enemy within it and lingers indefinitely. This effect can only be reversed by the user ending it, by killing the user, or by breaking the greaves. The mist can also add debuffs by pushing mana into the greaves. The debuffs can be ANY debuff and are not related to the skill (Ultimate Debuffs).
Boots: Infinite Speed: You have a deep connection to the concept of speed, and you draw upon it with every step you take. Your first step after being immobile, (not moving for more than 3 seconds) increases your speed by 20%. Each step afterwards increases your speed by 2%. There is no maximum speed, but once you reach 10,000% your body will take slight damage from going too fast. The next milestone is 100,000%, at which point your body will start to take increasing amounts of damage. At 1,000,000% every step will do large amounts of damage, to the point where every step has the potential to kill you. This effect will lessen with his endurance, but it will never be completely gone.
When all 5 pieces are in effect you take 50% less damage from ALL sources.
When at least 4 pieces are in effect, debuffs you inflict have a 20% chance of being a higher tier of debuffs (Normal -> Rare -> Very Rare -> Epic) and so on.
When at least 3 pieces are in effect, heath, mana, and stamina are regenerated twice as fast.
When at least 2 pieces are in effect, your soulbound items are 100% more effective.
When at least 1 piece is in effect, Skill: Battle Trance (SSS) activates.
When no pieces are in effect, the skill (Avatar of Death) fails and cannot be reactivated for 6 hours per armor piece.
Atlas almost choked at the wall of text in front of him. This was only one skill? It kept almost all of his skills while not only making them stronger but also giving additional effects depending on the amount of pieces that he was wearing. It was easily a far stronger skill than Ultimate Debuff, which didn’t completely make sense, seeing as they were both the same tier.
If he had to guess, he would say that the skill was a higher tier because of the sheer amount of high level skills that had been shoved into it. As Atlas stood their reading up on his newest skill. He heard an ominous creaking sound.
He glanced up and found two battered golems climbing up out of the ground. His eyes went wide. Is this why he hadn’t been able to find the last two golems or gotten level up notifications? Because the golems had hidden beneath the earth to escape his strike?
Atlas hoisted himself up with a grunt, activating his newest skill, Avatar of Death. His body was flooded with power and it suddenly became far easier to remain standing. With a roar and a blast of power, Atlas’s fist collided mightily with the golem on the left, breaking down its decemated body in a single strike.
He twisted quickly, leaping at the other golem before ripping it apart in a whirlwind of motion. Atlas used Ultimate Consume on the two piles of rock, absorbing their essence and gaining 30 intelligence and 20 constitution for his efforts. His body suddenly felt as though it was being ripped apart and notifications scrolled through his mind.
