The clearing had gone quiet as the trio decided to ignore the previous episode focusing on their own things.
Sakura was looking at the scroll as she had been for a few minutes, turning it over in her fingers and Yuki was cleaning her blade while Victor was checking his EP.
"I want to test it." Sakura said.
"Go ahead."
She glanced up. "You're not going to tell me to save it?"
"It's yours."
She looked back at the scroll. "300 fire damage is the base but Arcane Amplification doesn't just add numbers, it changes things." She turned it over once more. "So this should be different."
Sakura broke the seal and the scroll dissolved into her palm and that was when the notification hit.
[ New Skill Acquired: Arcane Fireball ]
[ Grade: Rare ]
[ Type: Offensive Magic — Permanent ]
[ MP Cost: 30 ]
[ Damage: 800 base — scales with Arcane Amplification and level ]
[ Special Property: Arcane Burn — 50 magic damage per second for 8 seconds. Ignores Defense. ]
[ Note: Consumable source converted and permanently integrated by Arcane Amplification. ]
Sakura stared at the notification and said nothing.
Victor glanced at her as her usual energy was completely gone and she just sat there with her hand still raised reading the panel with an expression like she was waiting for it to correct itself.
It didn't.
She closed it and opened it again.
Same notification.
"."
Yuki looked at her sister's face and frowned. "What happened?"
Sakura opened her mouth, closed it, and then just blinked twice finding it hard to speak through the turbulent emotions.
Sakura snapped out of it and without a word started wheeling herself toward Victor in a way that made him take a cautious half step back.
"Sakura—"
She grabbed the front of his robe and pulled him down to her level and wrapped both arms around his neck and held on, her face pressed into his shoulder, and Victor went completely still for a moment before he put a hand on her back.
She didn't say anything for a few seconds and he didn't either.
Then she pulled back just enough and kissed him on the cheek, it wasn't a small friendly peck but a long drawn out one, the kind that left no ambiguity about its intentions.
Victor straightened up and touched his cheek with a helpless expression as Sakura gazed at him with slightly watery eyes and a wide grin.
Yuki on the other hand just watched with a stunned expression not knowing what to say or do.
On one hand she felt jealous, on the other hand she had no right to be jealous. She was the one who left when she couldn't handle the pressure, so she ran away like a coward.
In the end Yuki just exhaled the breath she was holding while ignoring what was happening in front of her. Avoidance has always worked for her, it had been reliable up until now , so there was no need to stop it now.
The happiness Sakura felt wasn't exaggerated, she genuinely felt like Victor had done something life changing for her. After arriving in Aethelgard she had considered herself a burden and had asked Yuki to leave her multiple times since all she was , was a dead weight.
Someone Yuki had to carry on her back and would make the former's rank up journey more tedious.
But now she could really help and her Talent had started to shine and now she really could protect the people she cared about...
...
After pulling himself away from an enthusiastic Sakura , Victor leaned against a tree and pulled up the enhancement interface.
Victor had 49 EP from all the kills he got and since he already enhanced the robe , Victor decided to level up his reliable Rusted sword next.
With the 200 HP per second regeneration passive along with the defence stat he was pretty safe for now , so Victor decided to try and enhance the sword one more time to see if he could either strengthen the Tetanus passive or gain a new one.
Victor still was a believer of Defence being more important since he only had one life but he only needed to kill one more mob to upgrade the sword twice too.
'Enhance the Rusted Iron Sword.'
[ System: Infinite Enhancement Activated. ]
[ Cost: 10 EP ]
[ Calculating... ]
There was no dramatic glow or even flash of light signifying that a change occurred but Victor did see the rusted patterns on the sword grow darker and it spread itself across the blade.
Visually nothing much changed , as the blade just looked even more like rusted scrap but Victor could feel it. When he held it in his hands it felt different and he didn't know how to explain the change.
Victor quickly inspected the stats of the blade and after seeing them he was filled with exhilaration.
[ Rusted Iron Sword +2 ]
[ Grade: Ordinary ]
[ Attack: +60 ]
[ Special Trait I — Tetanus: Guaranteed proc on hit. Target loses 100 HP per second for 10 seconds. Ignores Defense. ]
[ Special Trait II — Necrosis: Target loses 1% of their maximum HP per second for the duration of Tetanus. ]
[ Description: It looks like a piece of junk But it is not a piece of junk. ]
[ Current EP: 39 ]
Victor read the message twice to make sure he didn't miss anything. The Tetanus passive in itself was deadly and now it didn't depend upon a 50/50 chance instead it was a certainty.
The new trait Necrosis might not be useful against the common mobs but against a boss or elite monster with a deeper hp pool it was deadly.
Not to mention it was total hp based damage not current hp , so the damage number would not scale down even if the boss's health bar diminishes.
Victor gripped his sword tighter feeling the handle of the sword that he had noticed to become a bit more comfortable.
He still had 39 EP and that meant he could either upgrade the Robe or the sword and Victor chose to level up the Robe since the Rusted Sword's passive in itself was very strong and he felt more safe with more survivability options.
'Enhance the Cotton Robe.'
[ System: Infinite Enhancement Activated. ]
[ Cost: 20 EP ]
[ Calculating... ]
The same glowing tendrils of light ripples through the fabric of the black robe before it shimmered once and disappeared.
Nothing much changed other than the fact that the fabric felt like it was slightly better in quality but not by much as it still looked like a cheap but clean robe.
[ Cotton Robe +3 ]
[ Grade: Bronze (Upgraded from Ordinary) ]
[ Type: Light Armor ]
[ Attributes: Defense +90 | HP +400 ]
[ Special Trait I: Advanced HP Recovery — Restores 500 HP per second. ]
[ Special Trait II: Evasion — 20% chance to dodge incoming attacks. ]
[ Special Trait III: Thorn Skin — Reflects 15% of all incoming damage back to the attacker. ]
[ Description: It looks like nothing But it is not nothing. Absolutely not hit the person wearing this. ]
[ Current EP: 19 ]
Victor was better prepared as he wasn't that taken aback when his Armor gained a ridiculous stat upgrade. He already understood his SSS rank skill was absurd but still the raw jump in stats still made him feel the kind of dopamine hit someone gains after winning a high stakes gamble.
The chance of evasion doubling and the HP regen jumping from 200 to 500 was already ridiculous enough but now he had a new passive that reminded Victor of a cute girl that maxed out her defence because she was afraid of getting hurt.
Some say 'Offence is the best defence' but Victor would like to disagree since he could stand in place and let the mobs hit him , and they would be hitting themselves to death.
'Thorn skin'
15% of the damage he recieved was not small number , and the number was calculated according to the damage his robe took not the damage he took.
Meaning if a mob hit him with its 20 attack it certainly couldn't pierce through his 90+ defence meaning the damage would be zero , but that wouldn't be what would be happening since the damge reflected would be 15% of 20.
Victor still had 19 EP left he could either enhance the sword or save it and enhance the robe after grinding the remaining 21 EP.
Victor glanced at his rusted sword contemplating the decision.
Should he enhance the sword or save up for the next upgrade?
....
Thanks for the votes 🦆
Depending on your answers the next chapter decision will be impacted...