I still truly think that something is wrong with our red enemies. It just doesnât make any sense that we are able to level so quickly and even fight back against them so easily.
It just doesnât add up. Not one bit.
Iâve had plenty of time to think and thereâs only one thing I could think of. The enemies we were fighting now were nothing but cannon fodder. Of course they were still able to kill us, as proven by the carnage on the water, and all the bodies we saw out in town.
But they arenât walls we canât get through.
We proved that in full last night.
These are opponents we can not only kill but also surpass. To drive the thought home, I didnât see a single powerful skill, magic, nor anything other than fighting with medieval weapons. It just doesnât make sense.
And at this point I really believed my theory to be true.
The notifications I just finally looked through this morning helped to confirm that even more.
Ding!
â¦XP Gained!
â¦XP Gained!
....
[Level +1]
[Level +1]
â¦.
Stat Bonus Reached!
Please Choose Your Second Trait!
Status
Name: Fred Williams
Born World: Earth (ENWPI70059)
Race: Human
Age: 17
Grade: F
Level: 25
XP: 1188/15570
Stat Points: 21
Traits
Trait 1: Oxygen Efficient Lungs (Rooted)
Trait 2: Locked
Trait 3: Locked
Class
Current Class: Tide Initiate
Class Grade: F
Class Rarity: Rooted
Skills
1. Surging Step
2. Ripple Guard
Attributes
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 8
Endurance: 12
Mana: 10
Willpower: 8
Perception: 8
Intelligence: 11
I was currently level 25. Last nightâs events granted me 8 total levels. But there were a couple things to note here.
The level of XP required to reach level 26 just took a very sharp incline. It was steady all the way before and after doing some rough math from all the notifications, I found out that I gained roughly 18,000 XP last night which gave me 8 levels.
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But now, that would only get me one level.
Thatâs not a small difference at all.
Iâm willing to go out on a limb and guess that level 25 is a significant milestone.
It has to beâ¦and after looking at the list of available Traits, I think Iâm right.
These donât look anything like those initial list of Traits I saw at level 1.
Traits
· Whirlpool Membrane (Rooted)
· Veil-Touch Membrane (Rooted)
· Thorn-Laced Membrane (Rooted)
· Slickflow Membrane (Rooted)
· â¦
· Lumen Thread Membrane (Rooted)
Every single one of them had the word membrane attached to it.
And after looking at a few of them, I can see clearly just how different these were from the first Trait selection.
Whirlpool Membrane (Rooted)
The membrane spirals inward at the gut and lower spine, constantly drawing in ambient mana. Slightly improves passive mana absorption in natural environments and increases mana stability when wounded.
Veil-Touch Membrane (Rooted)
Thin and layered like mist, this membrane muffles internal mana signatures. Makes it harder for enemies to detect you using mana sense, and reduces skill cast noise slightly.
Slickflow Membrane (Rooted)
Silky and fluid, the membrane shifts like liquid under the skin. Slightly reduces mana friction, making spellcasting feel smoother and lowering the cost of sustained techniques.
They sounded cool as shit.
But now I needed to decide what would be my way forward.
My first Trait had to do with my lungs, and Iâd say itâs been pretty useful. My class is Tide initiate and my skills are water related in some way. And Iâve been trying to guess my way through with stat points allocation to be more attuned for water.
This next Trait needs to follow the same path.
Show me traits related toâ¦water?
Ah.
It worked.
Traits
· Tide-Bound Membrane (Rooted)
· Gilled Conduction Membrane (Rooted)
· Driftflow Membrane (Rooted)
· Soaked Pulse Membrane (Rooted)
· â¦
· Rainwake Membrane (Rooted)
Alrightâ¦letâs spend time going through a few of these.
There were a lot of them and I didnât plan and spending the rest of my day looking at them all.
Once I found one or even a couple Iâd be happy with then Iâd stop and make my decision.
Now after about 30 minutes of searchingâ¦I finally settled on two of them.
Soaked Pulse Membrane (Rooted)
This sponge-like membrane soaks ambient mana like water. It stores a small reserve that refills slowly over time, especially in humid or wet environments. Offers a bit more mana to draw on between rests.
Tension-Skin Membrane (Rooted)
A thin layer of mana-reinforced tissue forms between muscle and skin, helping the body maintain posture and form while wet or submerged. Reduces water drag slightly and improves underwater control. Increase overall strength slightly out of water.
There were a bunch of others that I liked as well, but for some reason I kept coming back to Soaked Pulse and Tension-Skin.
Both of them provided benefits that while they are heightened in water or near it, they still had uses outside of it. I wanted water abilities, but I didnât want to be useless outside of it.
And having a reserve pool of extra mana to use or being slightly stronger fits both of those billets.
Butâ¦I think I know which way Iâm leaning.
I donât even think I have a pool of mana to be added on to, but part of me wants to take the chance to see if picking this Trait will help me form one. It would be great to know exactly how much mana I use when I cast a skill.
Alright letâs not think about it too much.
Soaked Pulse Membrane it is.
I made my selection then the expected feeling of heat came, but it felt different this time. Instead of being concentrated around my chest area, it felt like water?
Yeah like a thin layer of water was slowing flowing to all parts of my body.
Heated water that is.
The feeling continued for a couple of minutes and then it felt as if it was hardening?
I donât really know how to describe the feeling, but after whatever it was finished flowing, it essentially settled into place and then I felt something take form within me.
This feltâ¦different.
It was like I was somehow more connected to the world around me.
One look at my status was all I needed to confirm the feeling.
Status
Name: Fred Williams
Born World: Earth (ENWPI70059)
Race: Human
Age: 17
Grade: F
Level: 25
XP: 1188/15570
Mana: 50/50(1)
Stat Points: 21
Traits
Trait 1: Oxygen Efficient Lungs (Rooted)
Trait 2: Soaked Pulse Membrane (Rooted)
Trait 3: Locked
Class
Current Class: Tide Initiate
Class Grade: F
Class Rarity: Rooted
Skills
1. Surging Step
2. Ripple Guard
Attributes
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vitality: 8
Endurance: 12
Mana: 10
Willpower: 8
Perception: 8
Intelligence: 11
I grinned.
The mana pool was there. It was quantifiable. I donât know how the mana stat affects it just yet, but I had some ideas, and one of them was easily testable.
The other thing is the â1â in parentheses. My reserve mana pool is already filling up.
And that feelingâ¦Itâs mana. I can feel the ambient mana in the air.
Now I know for certain that something was wrong with the people we have been fighting. Thereâs just no way they had the same advantages that we currently have. Is it tied to race? Perhaps the human race has some inborn abilities not present in the red people.
For some reason that didnât feel true.
The type of force that can attack and subjugate an entire Planet like this has to have some advantages of their own.
Once I settled on that thought, a bad feeling crept up my spine.
What if the people we were fighting so far werenât really the ones behind this? What if they really were just cannon fodder sent to soften us up?
As soon as the thought settled in my mind I couldnât quite shake it.
I canât stay here sitting on my ass like this. We need to be going out and looking for more ways to get stronger.
Now.