Collect the World (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 2), page 6
Keith opened his status panel and frowned.
Whether he took this final step or not hinged on his confidence, and he had no reference for his power level. Was he as strong as an Adventurer Academy graduate? Or did he near the level of his Father and Ska’dur?
Keith heard Ska’dur had been running around the nearby zones hunting all manner of monsters by himself, so if Keith were at least 60 percent as strong as Ska’dur, he’d do it.
Keith was willing to take risks, not throw his life away.
Possessing 60 percent of Ska’dur’s power was Keith’s bottom line.
Having committed to a decision, Keith sent his Father a message explaining his intentions and then went to bed. When he woke up, the first thing Keith did was check his magic tablet.
And there it was—a blinking notification from his Father.
In the message were a few sentences from Markus: You have my full support. Should you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.
Immediately drawing Keith’s attention was the snapshot of Markus and Ska’dur’s stats.
[Markus]
Level: 708
Health: 664,000
Mana: 412,000
Strength: 13,825
Agility: 14,729
Intelligence: 8,400
Vitality: 12,248
Endurance: 12,262
[Ska’dur]
Level: 715
Health: 588,000
Mana: 583,000
Strength: 11,112
Agility: 11,130
Intelligence: 11,180
Vitality: 11,150
Endurance: 11,159
Keith had mixed emotions after looking through their stats. He was stunned and excited because he hadn’t expected to be so close to their overall stat count and confused about how he could catch up so easily, considering they were both hundreds of years old.
And then Keith remembered something—Markus and Ska’dur hadn’t formed a Mana Body yet. The realization left Keith feeling unexpectedly wistful. There was still such a big gap between them, even after three years of hard work.
On the upside, since Keith had similar stats to Ska’dur, who was killing ancient grade monsters left and right, Keith had the confidence to perform similarly. While there was no doubt Ska’dur’s equipment was leagues better than Keith’s, Keith’s transcendent grade Mana Body didn’t just increase his stats by 70%; it gave him an all-around improvement. Especially the effect that boosted all of Keith’s skills by one grade.
It was decided, then.
When the shipment of customized equipment arrived later today, Keith would set off for Typhoon Beach. No longer would he hold himself back.
Chapter 12
Keith fixed himself a simple breakfast, then turned his attention to the mythic grade Pocket Dimensions. He removed one from the briefcase and collected it. Feeling optimistic, he opened his Collection Grimoire’s function shop and found a new addition.
Inventory Expansion (1) – 100 million CP
Description: Increases your inventory size by 100 slots.
Keith frowned, finding the function lacking. The price wasn’t the issue. Rather, exchanging a mythic grade Pocket Dimension for a hundred inventory slots was a bad deal, as a Pocket Dimension at that grade had way more storage space. Even then, Keith’s instincts told him it wasn’t so simple, as thus far, every function had a use.
Pondering, Keith recalled a feature of inventories: The items stored inside left no physical trace in the world. Contrarily, since you couldn’t put spatial-type items like Pocket Dimensions in your inventory, you always had to carry them on your person or find a secure location to store them.
In the Innate Nation, concern over robbery was non-existent, so Keith almost overlooked this difference. Only when he shifted his perspective to that of someone used to the Grandsky Realm, where robbery ran rampant, did he consider this advantage.
And that depressed him.
Just last night, Keith had been excited about exploring the Grandsky Realm, having painted a picture of growth and discovery, conveniently forgetting that there, theft, murder, and conflict were all too common.
Suddenly, the memories of the slave camp came to mind, splashing blotches of black ink over his beautiful image.
Then it clicked.
Keith had often listened to his father’s long-winded speeches about morality, justice, duty, and society, unable to understand why he and many others cared so much.
Now, he did.
It was a dream.
To Keith, the Grandsky Realm was a world full of adventure, and for others to sully it, to warp it beyond recognition, filled him with revulsion. Markus wanted to make his dream a reality, which required cleansing the ink stains from his painting. Keith wasn’t willing to do that. Or at least, he hadn’t reached that point. Keith wanted to avoid confrontation, not seek it out.
Lost in thought, Keith didn’t sense Adeiv’s presence until the latter knocked on the front door. Keith snapped to attention, his face lighting up as he brought Adeiv inside.
Upon entering, Adeiv waved his hand, revealing a rare grade Pocket Dimension clasped between two fingers. “Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Keith grinned as he took the Pocket Dimension and willed it to open. When the portal appeared, Keith entered, hoping the blacksmith had faithfully adapted his vision from the few drawings he’d sent over. Since this would be Keith’s first two ancient grade armor sets, he wanted them to stand out.
Arriving inside the small Pocket Dimension, he looked ahead and found two mannequins covered in resplendent armor standing at attention.
Each armor set had three layers—plate, leather, and cloth. The innermost layer was cloth, while the leather filled the gaps between the outer layer of plate pieces. Of course, while the words sounded commonplace, the materials were anything but. Although Keith couldn’t recognize them, the order stated that each material was ancient grade.
To fulfill Keith’s request, the blacksmith had dyed and enchanted each layer differently.
The set on the left had silver cloth, white leather, and a deep blue plate. Even better, the cloth had a faint glow while the plate rippled as if waves ran across its surface, reminiscent of Keith’s natural hair.
If the set on the left represented light, then the set on the right represented darkness. Every groove and curve was the same, except for the colors and visual enchantments. The cloth was a murky gray, the leather a deep red, and the plate black as night. The plate had the effect of absorbing any nearby light, turning it even darker.
As the two armor sets reflected themselves in Keith’s pupils, he gasped. “Awesome!”
Without hesitation, Keith teleported to their side and began fondling here and there, leaving nothing untouched. He was so delighted he kept muttering, “So cool,” unable to find other words to describe his joy.
A moment later, Adeiv appeared at the portal and grimaced upon witnessing the bombastic armor sets, thinking how outlandish they were. Wasn’t armor like that painting a target on your back?
Walking over to Keith, Adeiv asked, “I’ve been wondering why you got two sets?”
“Simple,” Keith answered, sending Adeiv a notification panel with a flick of his finger.
Battle Loadout
Description: Automatically swap to different loadouts you’ve unlocked depending on the type of attack received. Low mana cost. No cooldown.
“What the…” Adeiv was startled by what he read.
“I can only afford two loadouts at the moment, so I decided on a generic magic resistance set and a generic physical resistance set.” Keith sighed when he recalled how pricey the third loadout was to unlock—a whopping five trillion CP. His dream of getting a loadout for every damage type was far away.
When Keith started putting on the magic resistance set, Adeiv fell silent.
For the first time, Adeiv felt the massive differences there could be between innate gifts. Innate gifts usually specialized in one aspect, while Keith’s seemed to be going in every direction it could.
However, just as Adeiv started lamenting about the unfairness in the world, he thought himself hypocritical. His contracting innate gift was no slouch either, especially his latest unlock, the power to contract people’s talent. Using that new function, Adeiv had leveled his skills by the hundreds and acquired a dozen legacy skills in the past few months.
“Well? How do I look?” Keith asked as he posed heroically in front of Adeiv with a smug expression plastered on his face.
Adeiv looked Keith up and down before nodding. “Not bad. It matches you.”
Keith chuckled and looked down at himself. “I’ll call this set Spell Breaker and that one Fist Breaker.”
Keeping quiet, Adeiv wondered whether he should find a writer to contract their creativity skills to Keith. On second thought, Adeiv felt he was being too judgmental. He rather envied Keith’s optimism and carefree attitude. It was too hard for Adeiv to find happiness recently, no thanks to the pressure from the other dimensions.
Keith opened his status panel and exclaimed, “Wow, my health shot up by half a million. I got about five thousand bonus stats, too.”
If an ancient grade equipment set gave Keith so many stats, he couldn’t imagine what a transcendent grade set would give. It would probably make someone invincible.
Adeiv looked at his watch and realized his next appointment was coming up. “I gotta go. Contact me if you need anything.”
“Thanks again!” Keith called out as Adeiv walked through the portal.
Now that he was alone, Keith slowly calmed down. He collected both armor sets, opened the Battle Loadout function, and configured its settings. After making the Spell Breaker set his default loadout, it appeared on his body in a flash. Inspecting himself once more, Keith felt confidence welling up inside.
It was time to head to Typhoon Beach.
Chapter 13
A pungent odor assaulted Keith’s senses when he neared Typhoon Beach’s massive body of salt water. Keith looked over the side of his griffin and gazed into the depths of the water, yet all he saw beneath the dazzling surface was darkness.
Fighting underwater was a challenge many people struggled with, especially Keith, who recently relied heavily on the Entangling Roots skill, which needed a solid surface for the roots to erupt from. Even though Keith would be at a great disadvantage battling here, he had intentionally come here first to test an idea.
Now that he’d arrived, Keith unsummoned his griffin and used the Flight skill, though just as he neared the water’s surface to get a better look, a shadow appeared directly beneath him. Without making the slightest sound, a Bruised Swordfish erupted from the water, its pointed nose exuding sharpness that would put a mythic grade weapon to shame.
Keith exclaimed and twisted to the side, his face stinging from the wind.
Before Keith could relax, the now airborne Bruised Swordfish smacked the air with its fin, sending it barreling toward Keith’s gut. With the Flight skill giving Keith freedom of movement, he spun, dodging the Bruised Swordfish’s follow-up attack and countering with a fierce kick to the fish’s head.
BANG!
The Bruised Swordfish skidded across the water, its health dropping by a quarter. As Keith steadied himself, the fish vanished underwater as quickly as it had appeared.
Keith released a breath.
How fast!
For being level 580, the Bruised Swordfish was unbelievably quick, so quick that if Keith had a thousand agility less, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with its movements. Thankfully, although its speed was frightening, a simple kick had reduced its health by 25 percent, revealing that it was incredibly fragile.
In the next moment, Keith’s ears twitched, having picked up the subtle sound of water parting.
Turning around, he multicast Cold Snap three times and froze all the water within twenty feet. Undeterred, the Bruised Swordfish pierced through the ice, its speed diminished by half. Like before, it slapped the air to boost itself, but before it could get anywhere, a large hand formed by Entangling Roots squeezed it to mush.
Keith’s eyes sparkled. It works!
If Entangling Roots had no solid surface to sprout from, why not make his own? Ice Wall, Earth Wall, Cold Snap. Used creatively, Keith could cast Entangling Roots wherever he wanted.
When combining Keith’s massive mana reserves with Mind Division and Mind Enhancement, Entangling Root’s potential skyrocketed. Keith felt that it was no worse than a divine grade skill.
And that wasn’t all.
Since Keith’s Mana Body boosted all his skills by one grade, it was more like a celestial grade skill. Of course, as Keith had never seen a celestial grade skill, he couldn’t be sure.
In any case, now, there was nothing to fear.
Keith decided to head to Mandara Desert. Hunting monsters in Typhoon Beach would take too much time—the body of water here was too vast.
Two hours later, Keith arrived at the border of Mandara Desert, and what greeted him was a scalding wind so hot that he continuously lost health points. Promptly drinking a mythic grade heat resistance potion, Keith looked around with tears in his eyes. The sunlight reflected off the light tan sand, turning the desert into a massive mirror that left Keith half-blinded.
Keith searched through his Collection Grimoire and withdrew sunglasses he had collected long ago. Putting them on, Keith could finally see. In the distance, he spotted a large ravine, ruins, and an oasis, all places of interest.
A minute later, Keith hovered above the oasis, its waters flat and still. Surrounding the oasis were patches of palm trees and dense foliage. At first glance, Keith didn’t see any monsters. Wherever they were, they were well hidden.
Smiling, Keith snapped his fingers.
Up above, five Small Meteors appeared in the sky, a fire trail burning in their wake. In moments, they collided with the ground, unleashing shockwaves that devastated a portion of the previously serene oasis.
ROAR!
The monsters Keith’s Small Meteors had hit were now enraged and searching for their attacker. Brutish Alligators, Horned Beetles, and Dirk Scarabs rushed out of the impact zone. There were at least a few dozen, all mythic grade and with levels over 600. Together, they locked onto Keith, growling.
Before they could do anything, Keith raised the palm of his hand and spoke softly. “Earth Wall.”
One, two, three.
Fifteen Earth Walls erupted from the sand, enclosing the dozens of monsters within. Next, Keith’s mana poured into his Entangling Roots skill array as he closed his hand into a fist.
From all directions, thick roots the size of a bodybuilder’s thigh sprang from the Earthen Walls, reaching toward the dozens of monsters with astonishing speed. The monsters defended themselves, their skills destroying large portions of roots, but they quickly became overwhelmed.
With Mind Enhancement and Mind Division, Keith controlled the numerous roots as if they were his own limbs. They slithered forward like snakes before wrapping around their target and exerting pressure until all that remained was meat paste.
In seconds, the battle was over.
A notification appeared, informing Keith that he’d leveled up to 571. Swiping it away, Keith checked his status and noted that he had consumed around 200,000 mana, a significant amount.
Normally, people tried to limit how much mana they spent when adventuring, as mana regenerated too slowly. That wasn’t a concern for Keith. With the dozens of Mana Gathering Arrays in his Collection Grimoire, he could afford to be wasteful. Keith’s only limit was how much mana erosion his body could withstand. Before acquiring a transcendent grade Mana Body, that was about 10 million mana.
In any case, Keith knew he could fight freely, so he turned to face an untouched portion of the oasis, his smile widening. The atmosphere tensed as Keith once again raised the palm of his hand, except this time, dozens of monsters rushed out of their hiding spots before Keith could summon any meteors.
They had just witnessed Keith’s earlier fight, and seeing him face in their direction scared them witless. Roaring, they attacked Keith. The Brutish Alligators spat out pillars of water, and the Dirk Scarabs tossed massive boulders as the Horned Beetles flanked Keith on both sides.
Unlike before, Keith didn’t raise a bunch of Earth Walls or cast Entangling Roots, as multicasting caused a skill’s cooldown to increase drastically. Instead, he pointed forward, summoning ten bolts of lightning.
In an instant, they chained from one monster to the next, forming an intricate web of lighting that lasted only a moment. The monster’s growls halted in unison as they stiffened, smoke rising from their bodies. They collapsed to the ground, dead.
Keith sighed in satisfaction when he saw he was halfway to the next level. He had never leveled so fast.
By this point, Keith had destroyed about 40 percent of the oasis, and the remaining monsters knew that a calamity had arrived. They set aside their grudges and animosity toward each other, knowing they had to team up to survive. Thus, to Keith’s surprise, a hundred-odd monsters charged out and attacked him with wild abandon.
