Ascending Endlessly: I Copy Skills

The trains to the dungeons were always a reflective experience for me. The quiet vibrations of the wheels on rails and the vast, empty landscapes surrounding them always left me to think deeply. 

Today was no different. It was a bizarre feeling. I was riding on the same train where I'd been previously captured by a Goliath. Not to mention... the dead hunters it left behind. I gritted my teeth and lowered my head. There was nothing I could do.

Even still, it came for me, didn't it? I was, at least to a certain extent, the reason those people were dead. Yet, I'd become so desensitized to death that all I could do was shake my head and pity them. What's wrong with me? I should weep or feel depressed, but I just feel a little sorry. Like when you'd hear about kids starving across the world, and go "wow, thats's really sad," but go on with your day anyway.

Even though among those hunters was one who'd helped to save my life. I sighed. It didn't matter anymore. It happened then, it happened now, and it would happen again. I didn't want to lose something that made me human, but I also couldn't afford to worry over the lives of everyone else.

For now, I can focus on getting stronger. I can't even properly protect myself, yet. How can I be expected to protect the lives of others? Once I'm strong, it will be different. Once I gobble up all the power I can, it will change.

The train stopped. Once again, we departed the train and entered the dungeon in an orderly manner. I checked over all of my equipment one last time. I'd purchased some new cheap, light armor.

I would definitely want something nicer in the future, but this would do for now. My skills were exponentially more reliable than my first visit here, so I wasn't extremely concerned with having some lower-quality defenses than I could if I farmed the D-Rank dungeon for a while longer.

Having ensured that everything was in order, from my knife to my armor to my jokers, I left the mansion's entrance through to its twisting depths. Of course, the damage I'd done before to the wall and the floor in the entrance was gone. Unlike the D-Rank dungeon in Oasis, where it was practically indestructible, this place would repair itself. It was yet another phenomenon that few people understood at all. 

Many dungeons above C-Rank had special properties like this, though. I marched through the mansion's ghostly, sinister halls. Something about the air of the place made my skin crawl. Maybe it was the haunting atmosphere, with the abnormally high walls and strangely enlarged furniture, or maybe it was the knowledge that ghouls could be lurking, watching from anywhere, but either way, it really creeped me out.

Which was good. It helped me to stay on my toes. I reached the end of the hall and opened the door which stood at the final wall facing me. Inside was a master bedroom, far larger than some of the other, smaller ones. I went to turn back, expecting to walk through into an unfamiliar space. However, before I could, I heard the clattering of nails on wood to my right.

A ghoul was rapidly approaching. I retreated from my position at the door and drew several skill cards. First, I cast the skill which I'd already had prepared in my hand. Super speed. It was an incredible skill. Not only did it enhance my physical speed, but also my reaction speed and mental processing. 

With the skill active, time felt like it slowed down a bit. I was moving at the speed of a ghoul. Within my periphery, I saw the coming attack. Twisting my body to lower towards the ground, the ghoul fell past me. I activated a second skill card.

"Cut."

It was a simple skill that would create a sharp center of mana at the tip of my finger. I drew it across the ghoul's flank as it skidded past me. It opened a somewhat shallow yet still significant wound. The ghoul screeched and clutched its waist where I'd opened the gash and activated a skill. Once again, I was prepared. 

A set of sharp tentacles flew out from its back. I, in return, cast the C-Rank barrier skill I'd accidentally acquired on my last trip here. The tentacles struck the barrier, shattering it before dissipating. However, it slowed them down enough that I had time to dodge and counterattack. With the ghoul's skill out of the way, I had a moment to rush it before it could prepare it again.

Now, my goal was to kill it fast enough that it wouldn't have a chance to return fire. I'd already drawn several skill cards.

A set of red claws of mana extended out in front of me, slashing at the ghoul from both sides. The skill opened up a fresh set of wounds on the ghoul's left flank and deepened its cut from before. Now, it was bleeding quite heavily. However, I was far from done. Teleporting behind it, I cast a skill I called "pierce".

A spear of mana rapidly materialized in my hand, which I promptly jabbed into the ghoul's back. Then, I followed suit with my knife, twisting both into its body until it collapsed moments later. I panted slightly as I stood over the ghoul's corpse, looking down at it with a satisfied expression. Good. This was good. I didn't suffer any injuries at all and managed to take it down quickly.

More would be coming. That was fine. I had plenty of mana left and had barely used any of my skill cards. With one ghoul killed, I stood there and waited for the others to smell the blood. Normally, hunters in this dungeon would move as soon as they took one down and collected the gloam shards. However, today, my goal was not simply to survive.

It was to dominate. There, another one came. dropping down through the ceiling, I maintained my super speed skill and teleported away. The teleport skill could be used in succession quite a bit before destabilizing. 

The ghoul, losing sight of me, looked confused. Before it could react, I had teleported back towards it and shredded its neck with another skill.

As the ghoul I'd just attacked suffered from its fatal injury, two more arrived to the fray.

"Come at me, you fuckers."

After an hour, the ghouls stopped coming. The entire room was soaked in blood with the limbs and mangled bodies of the monstrous creatures who had tormented me only days ago strewn everywhere.

I was calmly slicing them apart with my knife, humming as I cut crystals out of their corpses. Why had they stopped coming? Were they afraid? I chuckled. In the D-Rank dungeon here, the monsters never gathered in one place like this. I had to track them down throughout the halls to eliminate them. 

It was a refreshing feeling to be so much more powerful than these things that they'd avoid me altogether. After collecting my haul of crystals, I decided to move on. Now that they weren't looking for me, I would have to hunt them down myself.

Wandering through the halls of the castle, I couldn't find any more ghouls. They were incredibly stealthy, and unless I stumbled upon some that were ready to fight, it seemed that I'd be avoided for a bit. Just how smart are these things? Their organizational abilities were incredible considering how bestial they were. 

Well, maybe it was for the best. My super speed skill had stopped working a while ago, and my body was covered in surface wounds. I had other skills to make up for the super speed running out, but when battling the incredibly fast ghouls, it was difficult for me to avoid injury completely. 

Still, I was in kind of a flow state. I fought them off in groups, slaughtering ghouls over and over again with the C-Rank skills I'd collected. Plus, it was, in a way, a renewable resource. I copied more from plenty of the ghouls I'd killed, only to use them again immediately. 

An hour wasn't long, but considering how they liked to gang up and group together rapidly, it was incredible that I'd managed to stay in one place that long without getting seriously hurt or even killed. I knew my judgement was right this time. I had now dominated C-Rank. I would've liked to collect more gloam crystals, but the ghouls didn't feel like giving me any more.

So, instead, I just meandered about until I found the entrance. What a fruitful day. Well, I had some money now. I couldn't afford anything crazy, but relatively safe transport to another city was within reach. All I had to do was find a convoy that was willing to take me with them for a price. 

I felt like things were really picking up. S-Rank didn't seem so far away now.