Darius nodded in agreement with the description, at 10 mana per second to use this almost useless ability felt completely unnecessary. However, he was looking forward to the point in time when that would change.
For now, he continued with the self-assessment. Darius had not put anything into Charisma, as 15 points were fine enough for any endeavor he would partake in and he was confident enough in his verbal prowess to maximize his chances at successful seduction or persuasion should the need arise.
Instead, he had dropped 5 points into his Luck, bringing it from 15 to 20. Since it decided his genuine luck and the drops he got from kills it seemed like a worthwhile investment. Were it not for his need for more battle power, Darius would have happily dumped all points into Luck.
There could never be anything wrong with being too lucky, only that people would find it aggravating if he accomplished everything in his life too easily. However, Darius cared little for the opinion of third parties, for no one going through a perilous journey ever thought 'let me suffer some more, so that I may forge myself into something greater for others'.
As for his skills, he had pre-planned to upgrade Analyze in order to see any changes in its development, so he generously allocated 5 of his points to it. 3 of his SP went into Ember because it was a very useful attack.
While Sparks was his mainstay, Ember seemed to be trying its best to perform well, where even in two dire situations, its usage had indeed scared his foes. Well... despite being common, fire was fire after all.
As for his number 1 spell, Sparks, Darius had generously placed everything else. 16 points were greedily swallowed by the spell, but that was it.
In truth, he had tried to place everything into Sparks since he had learned from this battle that he should only use his spear to support his magic, not the other way round.
However, after it had reached level 20 he was unable to add to it, making him understand that it had to be the max level for a basic spell like Sparks. Darius wondered if Ember also had the same level limitation, since it and Sparks seemed to generally be of the same tier.
Darius had rightfully ignored skills like Cooking and Washing because they were only misc skills he had picked up along the way. As for his Basic Lancer Arts, it was doing well enough at level 4, so he had ignored that as well.
He checked his skills and how they had grown after his 'nourishment'.
[Analyze - Level 6 Skill
Cost: None
Description: Deduce the characteristics of any item or person. The effectiveness of this skill is based on 1.6x your Intellect stat.
[Sparks - Level 20 Spell (MAX)
Cost: 5 MP
Description: Send out a sparkle of electricity that can zap foes into a significant paralysis. This deals 100% lightning damage.]
[Ember - Level 4 Spell
Cost: 1 MP
Description: Send out a shower of fire that burns all foes within range. This deals 20% fire damage.]
Darius was greatly impressed. Analyze showed marginal growth by adding a multiplier that increased its practical effectiveness while Ember reached the same stage Sparks had been at up till now.
20% of his 50 Intellect would equal 10 damage per cast! Quite nifty truly, as about 9 casts would have waylaid the same Troll.
Not exactly exemplary as combat had many changes and permutations, but he would soon adopt his role as a backline fighter when he found a suitable candidate for his System Brand.
Of course, it was still unable to contend with Sparks, which was on a whole different level now. With 100% damage, it meant every bit of his high Intellect would work as practical damage.
Every cast of Sparks now did 50 damage to all enemies!
The Troll from before would have died with two casts!
The part that thrilled Darius was the low MP cost. His MP was now at a whopping 550, and a mere 5 MP per cast meant that he could cast Sparks 110 times before he bottomed out.
This was it!
This was the capital Darius had been looking for to secure his power!
With this, he could deal with beast, monster, and hopefully, human alike. He wasn't sure about other races like Elves or Dwarves, but surely they should also suffer the same fate?
Darius quelled his childish excitement. He now noticed that the more he got comfortable with this body, the more it took a hold of his mind. While his Intellect stat was high, it affected his mind, not his body.
He was 13 years old, prone to emotional outbursts, and in the prime of his puberty. Darius would have to consciously control himself in order to prevent any 'mistakes'.
He knew better than anyone how… 'hungry'… boys at this age were. The slightest sniff of a female and they would turn into beasts. Darius had enjoyed a long andropause in his seventies, so he hadn't had to deal with such a thing for a long while.
Whatever the case, Darius checked his other loot.
[Berserk Potion - Consumable
Durability: 15/15
Description: A good quality creation of Alchemy that grants a 30-second Berserk state, increasing damage and defense by 5% and lowering intelligence by 15%.]
[House Portal - Scroll
Durability: 10/10
Description: Return from any location to one's main homebase.]
Darius raised an eyebrow. The Berserk potion meant little to him because he would never trade power for his intelligence… as that was the source of his power. However, the House Portal scroll seemed too good to be true.
A warp scroll that took him from anywhere to their homebase? First of all, how did the system identify what his homebase was?
He hadn't set any location as his homebase and he doubted it was kind enough to just take him to Poleria's Homestead since that had been the first location he had visited.
Case in point, Darius attempted to activate one of them.
[Error, no specific location has been set as the homebase.]
Darius frowned, then smiled. He opened his system menu and checked the Settings. In the tab for the map functions, he saw an option for the homebase settings.
Rubbing his chin, he exited the Settings and opened the main map. He then zoomed in until he spotted Poleria's Homestead in a tiny corner of the Plains of the Green, where he then pointed to it.
[Set this location as your homebase?]
Darius assented while also taking out his House Portal scroll.
