Fully resourced, Leo and Ellie stood in tandem. The golem, who had effectively killed him almost twenty times at this point, rose from its usual stand.

Thick rock coated its limbs. Light shone in its solid, crystal-like eyes. It raised its fists like a trained boxer.

Leo had watched this many times by now, and each time after it did so, it would charge at him rapidly. He’d attempted a counter, attempted to dodge, but each time he did, the golem would adjust and hit him anyway.

The bright idea he had this time, one so gloriously complex that even Caldrin would be amazed was as follows:

Hit it harder.

Fire roared to life within his body as the channels to his muscles opened. Heat flooded through him as mana and stamina vanished into the growing blaze within. Fists rose up to his just below his chin.

Ellie dashed backwards, charging up a breath. Small balls of frost began to orbit around her.

The golem rushed toward him, gliding along the ground like it had a hoverboard. Leo watched and waited for his moment.

Its fist struck out, swinging for his head in a deathblow. Leo ignored it, the feint obvious to his Nerveflash. His own fist swung out, roaring to life as the power within burst forth. He couldn’t help it.

A roar escaped his lips.

His fist crashed into the golems, spinning in motion as the corkscrew blow started shattering the entirety of the golem’s arm like it was made of loose gravel.

A follow-up blow struck out, his Inferno Drive enhanced leg swiping upwards in a tight kick. The golem caught it, trying to stop the blow.

It didn’t matter.

The blaze ignited further, pushing even more strength into his muscles as he forced his leg upward. Still holding on, the golem was raised high above his head.

Right into Ellie’s waiting sights.

Frost orbs pelted the golem as a beam of concentrated blue lightning tore a hole. It was peppered and damaged as it was knocked through the air, blocking some of the orbs but not all.

The strain on Leo’s body was more than he was anticipating, having definitely pushed the skill further than he was ready for in pure frustration.

That was okay. With the pair finally landing clean hits on this brutal foe, all he had to do was raise his hand.

And snap his fingers.

*Snap*

Frost exploded through the body of the golem, detonating all of the creeping frost inflicted by Ellie’s Frost Orbit. Chunks of it were shredded off, breaking apart until it was finally destroyed.

Leo grinned, fist pumping into the air as Ellie cheered.

You have been restored

You have reached the limit of difficulty of E-grade within this rank.

“Well done,” a voice said suddenly beside Leo.

Caldrin patted him on the shoulder before moving to Ellie and offering her his hand. She raised her head up, letting Caldrin make the final distance to scratch her. He did.

“There’s no more difficulties?” Leo asked, surprised that he was able to beat the max difficulty so easily.

Caldrin chuckled. “While you may think that golem was an easy foe in the end, nothing short of monstrous ability is required to beat it.”

“Huh.” Leo genuinely wasn’t sure how to feel about that. The feeling quickly settled on pride and accomplishment.

“For the Silver rank variant that is,” he continued.

Leo blinked. Then again as his eyes landed on the sneaky wizard. “Silver… rank?”

“Indeed. There are, of course, more ranks above this available. You didn’t think that each enemy you face out in the multiverse would be a simple golem that punched you, did you?” He laughed, but it was fake, like that of a smug wizard that had a bit of crazy to him.

“But, you did well. That upgrade to your skill was simple in theory—not the one I’d have chosen, mind you. But clearly effective. Perhaps you’re ready for your mana control lesson—”

“I wanna fight the next rank,” Leo said, interrupting the Primarch with a glare. Not of ire, but determination.

Caldrin sighed. “Very well.”

What followed was Leo spending the next week fighting against a variety of foes, mostly golem-like, but in different forms. Insects, swarms of ravenous bird-bat things, a pack of wolves that worked together. They all tested him in one way or another.

Gold tier, as he’d learned, was a far sight harder than he was prepared for. But the training was valuable, not netting him a skill upgrade, but improving both his and Ellie’s general fighting.

When Caldrin finally appeared again, the god looked almost impressed. Almost.

“To spend so long just throwing yourselves at something like that without losing a hint of focus or determination… You may have a path through D-grade after all,” Caldrin said, voice carrying a hint of intrigue.

“Not relying on your merging skill was the right way to do it, but perhaps a little more thought could have gone into your training to improve some more skills… I was hoping you’d improve at least three, but I suppose two will be enough.”

“Two?” Leo asked curiously “I only upgraded Fuel the Fire though.”

Caldrin smiled. “Call it my parting gift, as I assume it will be easy based on our talks.”

The talks Caldrin were referring to were the times where Leo was out of mental juice, or perhaps Caldrin was just lonely. Leo informed him about every skill he had in detail. Some, the god waved him off, already completely familiar with how the skill worked. The ones he didn’t know? Leo had to almost fight the god to stop him from questioning him.

Curious, Leo asked further, “What skill? Also, are you allowed to even give me this kind of advice?”

Caldrin grumbled. “Allowed? Of course. I’m not just going to tell you how to do it, however. What kind of teacher would that make me?” He shook his head. “The skill I refer to is your Iron Repetition. It’s not a common skill for people to still have approaching D-grade.”

Iron Repetition (Common)

Each blow refines your rhythm, letting the next strike hit with greater force.

Continuous blows against the same target increase damage, up to a limit of 20%

The bonus fades if no strikes land for a few seconds or upon taking a hit.

Cooldown: None

“I told you,” Leo said, sighing. “I’ve tried to upgrade it, but I don’t know how. It doesn’t feel like I can pour more mana and stamina into it to just boost it like I did with Infernal Drive.”

“You also didn’t try all that hard because it just worked in the background, granting you a big increase to damage,” Caldrin added, smirking.

Leo rolled his eyes, not admitting the truth behind Caldrin’s words.

“Tell me, Leonidas. If a river strikes one stone for a hundred years, what happens?”

He frowned, but answered. “It wears it down?”

Caldrin nodded. “And when the stone breaks, does the river stop flowing?”

Another frown.

“No.”

“Then why does your skill?”

The god crossed his arms. Leo knew this meant he was gonna be smug about it. The best and worst kind of teacher.

“You’ve become fixated on the target. The target is irrelevant.”

Leo started to listen more intently.

“The momentum is yours.”

Leo blinked. The momentum was his?

All of a sudden, it was like a brainwave hit him.

“Can you summon something for me to punch? Please?” Leo asked, a little desperation in his voice.

Caldrin chuckled. A moment later, a sturdy looking golem appeared, not unlike the ones he’d been fighting for days.

Leo approached it, then hit it a few times, enough to gain stacks on the skill. He could feel them on the target, instinctively knowing that it was his opponent that he needed to keep hitting if he wanted to build more. After a few seconds, they dropped.

He did it again. But this time, he focused on the power granted to him by those strikes. It wasn’t some mysterious force, it was the skill. He was in control of them.

Another golem appeared right next to the one already summoned.

Leo struck out until he was at maximum stacks, then hit something else. He focused on the feeling once again, the moment the stacks dropped off like they were vanishing.

The stacks weren’t in the enemy. They were in him.

The power wasn’t being sucked out of him when he switched target or was hit, they were just going dormant, the skill being turned off.

Am I dumb? How did I not see this before?

He looked up at Caldrin who was just smiling calmly.

Leo built up full stacks again on a golem, the power in him fully realised. Then, the moment he switched, he tried to force that power he’d stumbled on to remain. He grunted, using his own will to make it happen.

“Good.” Caldrin’s voice sounded out.

Leo grinned.

Iron Repetition (Common)

Upgraded to:
Relentless Rhythm (Uncommon)

Relentless Rhythm (Uncommon)

Combat is a rhythm, and yours refuses to break.
Each successful strike builds upon the last, increasing the force of subsequent attacks up to a limit of 25%

The stacks built are no longer tied to a single target and may be carried between opponents.

The bonus fades when failing to land a strike for an extended period or upon taking damage.

Cooldown: None

“Hot damn!” Leo exclaimed. Then he sighed in self remorse. “Can’t believe it was that simple the whole time.”

Caldrin laughed, boisterous. “Sometimes breaking through a wall simply requires a different approach.”

Ellie started yipping at Caldrin, eager for advice on her own skills. “After you leave, young one, we will be able to talk at length about your skills too. I promise. Before then, simply use the library of knowledge contained within you,” Caldrin said, rubbing her head.

You will be returned to the Neutral zone in thirty seconds

Leo exhaled. “Thanks for everything, Caldrin. Hopefully we see you again soon.”

Ellie started waving her little claw back and forth as they stood away from the god.

“Sorry we didn’t get to do the mana control or aura control you mentioned,” Leo said.

“No matter,” Caldrin waved him off. “I’m sure you’ll learn plenty when you both come here for school.”

Leo’s eyes widened, a chuckle fading as he was warped back to his own little white room. He looked toward Ellie, sitting on the floor with a happy smile.

“Did he just say school?”

~

With his visit with the god over, and a bit of time still remaining before he could go back to earth, Leo decided on taking a good sleep, resting his head on the comfiest bed in existence. He’d fought hard over the last seven days, gaining improvements to skills and furthering the bond with Ellie.

Leo took a look at his stat page, something he often glanced at but never took the time to really delve into as much anymore.

Name: Leonidas Hawkins

Level: 82

Race: Human (E)

Class: Elemental Adept

Companion Bond: Ellie (E)

Health Points (HP): 5550/5550

Mana Points (MP): 5460/5460

Stamina Points (SP): 7610/7610
Resonance: 600

Stats

Strength: 736

Agility: 849

Endurance: 761

Vitality: 555

Toughness: 399

Intelligence: 546

Wisdom: 495
Will: 338

Bond: 120

Free Points: 0

Bloodline: Bloodline of the Prismatic Storm

Essences

Fire (E)

Inferno Drive (Rare)

Scarlet Impact (Uncommon)

Ice (E)

Frost Lance (Uncommon)

Absolute Shatter (Rare)

Lightning (E)

Nerveflash (Uncommon)

Lightning Drive (Uncommon)

Earth (E)

Reinforced Stoneskin (Uncommon)

Layered Bastion (Uncommon)

Wind (E)

Cloak of Wind (Uncommon)

Tailwind (Uncommon)

Titles

Bloodline Originator

First Blood

Dungeon Delver II

Storforged Pactbearer

Ahead of the Curve

Trial Tower Allstar

Vanquisher of the Brood Queen

Slayer of the Mighty

Denier of Fate

Class Skills

Unarmed mastery (Uncommon)

Elemental Stance (Rare)

Volt Crash (Rare)

Relentless Rhythm (Uncommon)

Gale Talon (Rare)

Spiral Break (Uncommon)

Second Wind (Uncommon)

Elemental Momentum (Class Mechanic, Rare)

Elemental Severance (Rare)

Concussive Clap (Uncommon)
Titan Barrage (Rare)
Redirect (Rare)

Bond Skills

Stormforged Presence (Exalted)

Senses of the Dragon (Common)

Draconic Equip (Rare)

Unified Motion (Uncommon)

Wyrmstep (Uncommon)

Draconic Greaves (Rare)

Dragon’s Disguise (Uncommon)

Dragon’s Hoard (Rare)

Race Skills

Multiversal Polyglot (Unique)

Identify (Common)

Meditate (Common)

Anchored Progression (Unique)

Prismatic Apotheosis (Unique)

Each skill, each stat point, each title. They all told a story. A short story so far… but each of them a memory.

Back when he’d been finishing unlocking all his Essence skills, Leo had been worried about the number of skills he’d have to deal with. Looking at his extremely varied arsenal now, he felt like he had at least a small grasp on them all. In fact, he was ready to unlock his sixth Essence, to see what kind of skills that would grant him.

Maybe the greed of a dragon is affecting me after all. Leo smiled. Nah. I’ve always been greedy.

His stat points were fairly balanced for melee combat—well, damage at least—which suited him just fine. Strength, Agility and Endurance were all within a hundred points or so, give or take a few. One thing he probably should have planned better was his Free Point distribution.

At first it had felt like a lot, one point into eleven was a big increase. But when it was ten points into eight-hundred? That felt like a lot less. His free point distribution was currently as follows:

Strength - 57

Agility - 169

Endurance - 33

Vitality - 54

Toughness - 47

Intelligence - 27

Wisdom - 49

Will - 60

Some of them had been impulsive, others had been briefly thought out. Didn’t make things much better. In a way, Leo wished he’d maybe gone even harder on Agility, perhaps making him fast enough to keep up with Serrix.

He shook that thought off. That fight was done. He knew his shortcomings and it was time to move forward. Going into higher grades, he would likely receive even more free points to distribute, turning these into a drop in the bucket.

Going forward, Leo would put more thought into them, based around more than his immediate needs.

Next, Leo checked out Ellie’s stat page, hoping to see some better allocation of Free Points.

Name: Ellie

Level: 76

Race: Elemental Dragon (E)

Companion bonded to Leonidas Hawkins

Health Points (HP): 2410/2410

Mana Points (MP): 4710/4710

Stamina Points (SP): 3610/3610

Stats

Strength: 439

Agility: 600

Endurance: 361

Vitality: 241

Toughness: 274

Intelligence: 471

Wisdom: 311

Will: 257

Free Points: 0

Essences

Dependent on bonded companion

Skills

Rebirth (Unique)

Tearing Rend (Uncommon)

Crushing Bite (Uncommon)

Elemental Breath (Rare)

Wingbeat (Common)

Glittering Scales (Uncommon)

Frost Shroud (Rare)

Draconic Physiology (Rare)

Frozen Orbit (Uncommon)

Elemental Interdiction (Uncommon)

Sparkstride (Uncommon)

Library of the Arcanum (Divine)

Titles

Vanquisher of the Brood Queen

Slayer of the Mighty

The Eighteen

Blessing: Herald of The Archmagus

Seeing her list filled him with pride, but also a bit of worry. Her stats were quite far behind his in a lot of respects and with her unable to wear equipment—that he knew of—and drink elixirs, she would fall further behind as Leo gained those things.

The good news, at least, was that Ellie had received titles from the tail end of the tutorial. The system hadn’t even told him. It had only shown her receive the Eighteen title. So this was a great surprise. It was strange she hadn’t gotten the dungeon delver title, considering she was in there with him, but perhaps he counted as one and received the title. A little unfair, but nothing he could do to change it.

Her free point dispersion was pretty much as he expected it.

Strength - 30

Agility - 145

Endurance - 20

Vitality - 42

Toughness - 75

Intelligence - 96

Wisdom - 40

Will - 0

It actually looked better than his, all things considered. A lot of her skills had been leaning into Intelligence, which was probably why her mana was twice that of her Vitality. It made him worried about her durability, hypocritical as it was.

Suppose she has Rebirth, Leo grumbled internally. Need to find some way to equip her with gear.

All in all, both Leo and Ellie had come a long way since they’d met. Gaining skills, titles, and thousands of stats between them.

He stepped out of his room, appearing in the middle of the wide open area.

Expecting noise and commotion, instead silence had descended. He wasn’t the first to return, not even close.

Jasper and the other insect-like converted were standing across from almost the entirety of the remaining humans.

Cecelia stood at the front, with Ron next to her. All eyes landed on Leo as he emerged into the wide open neutral zone.

Right in the middle.