Chapter 269 - 5th Floor (Patreon)

Congratulations! You have cleared the 4th floor of the Hell difficulty tutorial. Welcome to the 5th floor: Mentorship

You have acquired:

Epic Passive skill

Skill upgrade token

2000 Shards

60 stat points

Access to other Communities

Well, there goes my 6 thousand shards for killing Myrra.

Do I regret it?

Not even a bit, yup, not even slightly. The system can go and delete its System32 folder, step on a Lego, or something.

I confirm my decision by showing the middle finger to the screen in front of me and lay on the grass. The sky over me is beautiful and as far as I can sense there is no human or monster close by. The 5th floor seems peaceful so far.

My thoughts keep going back to the 4th floor and to the mana stone I left behind. I wonder, will it help? Will the system ignore it and delete the floor instantly?  Will the stone trick it slightly? Did things change because of Lissandra? The stone might only prolong Myrra's suffering, yet I still find myself hoping.

Lying there I open the community.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - so how is it?

Grumpy (Hell, group 4) - Nat! I'm happy that you are safe!

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Who is Nat?

Grumpy (Hell, group 4) - oh, sorry! But don't worry, there is no one else, just our group

Noname (Hell, group 4) - how can you know that?

Grumpy (Hell, group 4) - no one else has talked so far!

Oh boy, maybe all the hits she took on the left some damage she couldn't heal.

Izzy (Hell, group 4) - hello, Noname! what a terrible name!

TheStrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - long time no see

Sset (Hell, group 4) - welcome to the 5th floor

I talk for a while, and greet group 4 members. After not talking to them for a few weeks it feels weirdly nice and I feel myself pushing my feelings about what happened with Myrra and the end to the floor to the back of my mind.

For now, I will hope. I will allow myself to expect the best. I will trust that Cockroachsandra is as scary as she likes to think she is.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - so everyone is split?

Sset (Hell, group 4) - yes, from what we found so far everyone is in their own instance of the 5th floor. They seem to be identical to each other, but it looks like we won't be able to meet each other.

TheStrongestOne (Hell, group 4) - I have to go, my disciple is getting impatient!

Huh, disciple?

Sset (Hell, group 4) - I will be going as well. Don't forget to check the Community every hour, stay safe everyone

FoodFood (Hell, group 4) - Food!

A few more words are exchanged and I close the Community.

Well, it looks like I will be on my own for a while. Min-Jae said the disciple, so what is this floor about?

Floor quest:

Raise and protect your disciple

Rewards:

???

Skill upgrade token

5000 Shards

100 stat points

Trait strengthening token

Welcome to the 5th floor! Your disciple will be summoned in 24 hours. The disciple will be chosen from the tutorial database, especially for you

If your disciple dies on the 5th floor you will be severely punished.

If your disciple dies outside of the 5th floor you will lose a certain amount of shards.

Time until the appearance of the disciple: 23h 51min 10s

That's a lot to unpack.

Asking others doesn't seem to make sense as they surely don't have more information than what the system just offered to me.

The most important part is the death of a disciple means severe punishment. The weird part is that there is the death on the 5th floor mentioned and also the death somewhere outside of the 5th floor. What does this part mean?

And what's with raise and protect? Will the disciple be young and that's why the system talks about raising?

Noname (Hell, group 4) - How old are the disciples?

Sset (Hell, group 4) - Mine is 6 years old, others are similar. Sorry, I have to go!

Oh boy, this floor is getting messy. The rewards as well, just some question marks as the first reward.

At least it looks like I have some time so why don't I sort things out?

Do you really want to sell the following item for 5000 shards?

Skill upgrade token

Yes/No

I confirm and the skill upgrade token disappears. It looks like its grade was the same as the one for the side quest and that leaves me with 20,462 shards.

Just in case I go through the shop and look for a rarity higher than epic, but I don't find any at all. It looks like even 20 thousand shards is not enough or there is some other requirement that I need to fulfill for it to unlock. Maybe another Primary class upgrade? Subclass upgrade? Higher floor? Do I need to find something of higher than epic rarity “in the wild” for it to unlock in the shop?

Well, it's something to think about later.

I spend the next few minutes scrolling through the passives offered to me by the shop and then the ones I'm getting from the 4th-floor quest.

After a bit of thinking, I decide to buy a passive I was looking at a long time ago. There still isn't any better one and as I noticed with its weaker version I possess, it's something I could be capable of learning on my own and turn into an active skill, hopefully. Plus, out of all healing passives, it feels the strongest, mentioning Primordial thermal energy.

Yes, I could go healing passive based on the amount of mana I possess but none I got offered feels like a burst of strong healing I need. It feels like an excuse, but the main reason is my hope of acquiring an active healing skill and I tried a lot while relying on my mana to get there and trying to copy Lily. It didn't work at all so maybe Primordial thermal energy will get me there.

When I try to buy it a notification pops up.

Unable to buy another passive! Every being within the system is limited to 5 passives at most.

Please get rid of one or sell it to replace it with a new one.

And it's as expected.

I heard about it from Dennis when the boys tried to have a build with a dozen uncommon passive skills, but they told me they were unable to go over five. I had hoped it was because of their lower level or because of them not having a primary class upgrade, but it looks like there is a limit to the amount of passives to be held.

Now that I think about it, there might be one for active skills as well. Currently, I have 9 active skills so maybe it's 10? The system likes rounded numbers.

Passive skills:

Cerebral Harmony (rare)

Mana-Fortified Resilience (rare)

Pyrokinetic Resurgence (rare)

Mana Reservoir (epic)

Arcane Resilience (epic)

One of the passives comes from the Primary class so that leaves only 4 passive skills for the user to decide. An annoying limit, but there might be a reason for it.

Do you really want to sell the following item for 200 shards?

Pyrokinetic Resurgence (rare)

Yes/No

Then I buy a new passive.

Phoenix Embrace (epic): The user harnesses Thermal Energy, channeling controlled bursts of heat to accelerate the healing process, using primordial energy's transformative nature to heal their wounds.

It cost me 12,350 shards, leaving me with 8,312, something I decide to keep for now while I once again go through the epic passives I got offered for the 4th-floor quest.

This time there are 6 of them, but I didn't find any of them in the system shop when I checked.

Basilisk Gaze (epic):

The user possesses a passive intimidating aura, causing unease and fear in adversaries. This skill doesn't paralyze with a look, but it does unsettle opponents, making them less effective in combat.

Mana Overload Absorption (epic):

The user's mana channels are highly proficient at absorbing excess mana, mitigating the negative effects of mana overloads, and ensuring stability in challenging magical situations.

Mana Forge (epic):

The user's manipulation of mana transcends its limits, enabling them to shape mana into intricate and powerful constructs. These creations possess remarkable durability and destructive capabilities, making them formidable.

Kinetic Momentum (epic):

The user's mastery of kinetic energy allows them to effortlessly transfer tremendous kinetic force between their body, weapons, and projectiles, resulting in devastating impacts and unparalleled effectiveness.

Energy Conversion (epic):

The user naturally converts ambient energy into personal strength and stamina. This passive skill grants them increased endurance and resilience, making them less susceptible to fatigue and energy-based attacks.

Labyrinth Mind (epic):

The user's thoughts are incredibly complex and protected, rendering them near immune to mind-reading, scrying, and mental intrusion. This skill also confuses anyone attempting to manipulate their thoughts or memories.

So, let's go through them one after one.

Basilisk Gaze is something I got most likely because I like to use my mana for intimidation lately. I don't like it that much because it is passive and walking around with such a field sounds annoying. But now that I think about it, I'm at times capable of turning off my passive skill so it should be fine, turning this passive into a semi-active skill.

The effect is most likely really strong because it's a passive skill, but I would rather kill my enemies quickly with more damage rather than scare them and kill them with a lower one. So this is a skip for now.

Mana Overload Absorption is a similar skill to what I got offered a long time before, just that the old one was only of rare rarity. I like this one a lot, really a lot. If I won't change my mind I will pick this one.

Mana Forge is also interesting and would strengthen my [Regalia] plenty and would most likely make it easier to create the mana mecha armor I already used a few times. Yet here I hesitate, as it's something I will slowly get to on my own and I don't need [Regalia] to become much stronger, it's really strong already and I'm even using [Infusion] to give it an even further boost. This one is also a skip for now.

Energy Conversion sounds interesting. Does it mean the passive is capable of turning heat into strength and stamina? Maybe even cold? Would a higher rarity skill be capable of turning sunrays into more power? That does sound incredible. A being with such a passive? Turning sunrays, cold air, hot air, strong wind, gravitational force, and other energies into physical stats?

The effect most likely won't be that strong otherwise the skill would be straight-up broken and the assholish system wouldn't allow that, but I should keep this in mind.

Labyrinth Mind is probably something similar to my Mantle and Reinforcement constructs. I also like it a lot, but with my immense mana, I should be able to protect my mind on my own, which was confirmed when Sophie wasn't capable of Manipulating the First One for a while because he was releasing a lot of mana.

Well, Mana Overload Absorption it is, the question is what skill should I replace?

Thinking for a while I sell Cerebral Harmony for 200 shards and replace it with the newest one. I think the boost Cerebral Harmony gives to my mind and mana connection is too weak at this point to even notice so it should be fine.

As expected the pain is terrible and it feels like my mana channels are burning, a feeling almost as bad as when I got my first trait. The worst part of it is how long it takes. Minutes of burning pain that is made worse by the feeling that it comes from inside my body.

With the use of [Focus], I try to filter it out and examine the changes that are done to my body.

As many times before I can't even feel the source from where the changes come or what is doing them. I'm also incapable of feeling mana or anything else applying the changes. It's just happening.

The system is truly as scary as it is assholish.

Epic passives being dealt with, there is one thing I want to check before testing them. Something I was really, really curious about ever since the start of the floor.

I open the community, click on Easy Difficulty, and type my message.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - hey, what was your floor quest for the 4th floor?

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - oh, another one from group 4! Welcome!

Sami (Easy, AFK) - lol, another loser from Hell. Only on the 5th floor, lol.

Maria (Easy, AFK) - Ignore Sami, he likes to think he is funny.

Potato (Easy, Royals) - Noname, did you meet Ligma on the 4th floor?

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - our floor quest was to kill some abomination ant. I couldn't even see his level, but he had two question marks. One group killed him a few months ago; we went to the 5th floor.

Sami (Easy, AFK) - we even have people who went to the 6th floor two months ago, lol.

Potato (Easy, Royals) - did you learn about Updog?

Sami (Easy, AFK) - they might be on the 7th or 8th floor already. I bet they could take you on. I don't trust that Sset guy at all. There is no way there are three question mark monsters.

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - what's your level, Noname?

Noname (Hell, group 4) - Sami, I will see you during the tournament. Potato, ligma balls. Thanks for the answer, Channeler. Is Mana the best stat? I will keep my level to myself.

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - oooo, I like you! Mana rules! Are you also a mana build? I'm 2 parts mana and one part constitution, and people call me crazy, heh. What are you? 3 mana 1 con? Or maybe even 4 mana 1 con?

I check my stats.

Constitution: 246
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 782 + 782

Oh boy.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - something like that. Can I ask you a few questions?

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - sure, but you will have to answer some of mine - well, the ones you can.

I really start liking the guy.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - will do so.

I ignore other messages as there are at this point a dozen people chatting, and I don't have that much time with my limit for community and need to save some for later.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - how many groups are there in Easy difficulty and how many people started in each? Can you tell me your floor quests and your average levels?

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - heh, Sset asked the same question. 10 groups in total, each group with 200 people, but plenty of them moved to normal difficulty. One group nearly all died and only 1 person survived from all 200. We think he killed everyone else though. First floor - survive for 30 days in the forest, there were goblins and some wolves, all of weaker levels. The second floor was to stop a powerful mage mass murderer, the third floor was some post-apocalyptic city with zombies, and we had to reach the Saint and help to fight it, the fourth floor was to kill the abomination ant, two question mark monster.

Nice answer, short and to the point.

Noname (Hell, group 4) - thanks, what would you like to know?

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - did you really have to fight 5 calamities one of them being a giant ant with wings that was over level 250 and led tens of thousands of ants?

Noname (Hell, group 4) - only 4 Calamities and the ant didn't have wings, he made them with mana. And yes, he was around that level.

Channeler (Easy, Steakhouse) - heh, I was testing you. I wanted to compare your and Sset's answer. Thanks. My limit is gone so see you later!

After Channeler is gone, I skim through a few messages and turn off the community. Tomorrow I will check the normal one.

***

Next Chapter