68: New Beginning [Second Volume - Prologue (1)]

New Beginning [Second Volume - Prologue (1)]

A YEAR LATER, RIO DE JANEIRO...

*Beep Beep*

"It's... morning already?" Arnold yawned, trying to disable the alarm, "Why won't it STOP ALREADY!"

He slammed his fist down on the alarm, successfully shattering it into pieces.

'Tsk. I really need to control my strength... I can't keep replacing the alarm clocks forever.' Arnold thought and started stretching his muscles once he got up from the bed.

'How long has it been now?... little over a year maybe?' Arnold thought and brewed some coffee for himself, before leaving to shower.

He looked at his reflection which was being cast on the mirror present in the bathroom. His appearance had changed a lot in an year. He had grown 5 to 6 inches taller, and now stood 6'5" tall. But that wasn't all, his looks had changed drastically, he looked pretty... handsome now which definitely made his life easier in Brazil and it was all thanks to his increased charisma.

His body had gone through a lot of changes as well and was more durable, more agile, and stronger.

He undid his elbow length hair and took off his clothes as he stepped into the shower. Previously he hadn't been interested in tattoos because it didn't suit his skinny body, but it was a different story now. His body was buffed a bit more after investing dozens upon dozen points to increase his strength and stamina.

'Open interface' Arnold thought and a system window immediately popped up in front of him.

___

NAME : Arnold Ling

TITLE : [Crouching figure]

LEVEL : 62

RANK : B

SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL'S RAGE]

CLASS : <Cosmic creationist

SUBCLASS :

• <Magical Gunslinger

(lvl 10) <Max level

EXP : --/--

[QUICK SHOT] (lvl : 10)

[EXPLOSIVE SHOT] (lvl : 10)

<Expand to see 3 more

• <Engineering Pioneer

(lvl 7)

EXP : 0/3000

[QUICK ASSEMBLY] (lvl :7)

[EFFICIENT RECYCLING] (lvl : 6)

<Expand to see 2 more

• <Blood Maniac

(lvl 14)

EXP : 4785/15000

[BLOOD NECROMANCY] (lvl 14)

[BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] (lvl 12)

<Expand to see 2 more

AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire)

<Increase your intelligence to learn more affinities

Personal details and stats :

HP : 10138/10138

MANA : 7837/7837

EXP : 5800/15000

STRENGTH (STR) : 96

DEFENSE (DEF) : 75 (due to the gears)

STAMINA (STA) : 78

INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 149

AGILITY (AGI) : 83

ACCURACY (ACC) : 94

EVADE (EVD) : 78

CHARISMA (CHA) : 86

MYSTIC (MYS) : 155

Summons details :

NUMBER OF ELITE SUMMONS : 6/30

TOTAL NUMBER OF SUMMONS : 204

<Expand to see details

ABILITIES :

• [ESSENCE OF LIFE] (lvl : 5)

• [POSEIDON'S BLESSING] (lvl : 5)

• [STATIC RAGE] (lvl : 5)1

• [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 5)

• [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 7)

• [ICY VEIL] (lvl : 5)

• [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM] (lvl : 8)

<Expand to view 27 more abilities

ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 55

POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 14

___

"Tsk, I don't know why does this system insists on calling me a B ranked warrior, my level is low according to the system, but my stats are way better than most of the A ranked bastards..." Arnold mumbled, turning off the shower, he thought so because on an average A ranked warrior's stats rarely above 80-90 points, while most of his attributes were more than that.

"Dump all attribute points into intelligence. I already have too many summons and for the potential points... nah, leave them be I'll decide what to do with them later."

___

REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED.

___

Although Arnold's stats were sky high and he was progressing at an insane pace, it had led some unforeseen complications. One of the first problems he encountered was the inability to learn any more skills or affinities.

For the past six months, whenever he had tried to learn a new ability or affinity, the system had always refused and didn't allow him to learn either of them, until and unless he replaced them. Yes, he had to replace his old abilities to learn new ones, Arnold wouldn't have had any problem with replacing his abilities if the replaced abilities were of the same level as the abilities they were being replaced with but it wasn't like that. If he replaced an old ability with a new one, the new ability would be of lvl 1, thus it was useless for Arnold to invest more and more potential points to upgrade the skills. Furthermore, the skills once replaced are lost forever.

The only way to get rid of this problem was by increasing the intelligence stat, as it allowed him to increase the number of abilities and affinities he could use. But it led to another issue.

Arnold discovered that once his stats crossed the limit is 120 points it became a pain in the butt to increase it again as it required not 1 but 5 attribute points to increase it once, meaning if he used 50 points to increase his intelligence, it would only increase by 10 points and not 50 points. The same thing happened with the mystic stat. The only solution to this problem was to clear more and more dungeons.

It would've been easier for Arnold to if he was in USA as the jurisdiction of every guild was well defined and no other guild could attempt to clear a dungeon which fell under some other guild's jurisdiction until and unless they get a permission from the guild which controlled that dungeon. But this wasn't the case in Brazil. There were no jurisdictions, neither an independent proper body to decide which guild would get to attempt a dungeon. It was done on a first come first serve basis. Furthermore the guild had to pay to the government to be able to use the dungeon. Which, of course, led to corruption as few guilds would pay the government officials beforehand and thus would gain monopoly over a certain region for a certain time.

Arnold was still thinking about his abilities and skills when his communicator started ringing. Arnold picked it up and a familiar face popped up in front of his eyes.

"Arnold irmão, I've got a good news for you! A dungeon popped up in your vicinity." the man smiled. (Author's note: Irmão means brother in Portuguese.)

"Send me the address, I'll be there shortly." Arnold smiled back as the desire to battle filled his heart.

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