Spearbound

You have entered The Arcane Well.

Every minute you stay in The Arcane Well, you will receive a reward of +1 [Free Points]. Once you leave, it is impossible to regain this effect.

Kade felt conflicted. He shouldn’t be, considering how much he could benefit just by waiting in this lake.

This fantastic gift that fell from the sky would happen before some overpowered monster smacked the protagonist around like a chew toy. He very much considered himself a protagonist at the moment.

The problem was that a large part of him hoped for an overpowered monster to appear. That was where he felt conflicted.

He didn’t know if he could call himself insane or not.

Kade stayed near the lake’s edge so he had firm ground beneath him. He tightened his hands around the shaft of his [Soulrend], intending to launch it at the first thing that appeared.

He knew he would draw the world protectors by dipping into the lake. It was just the benefit that he got that freaked him out.

Free Points: 0—>1

One minute passed.

He saved the point. He wasn’t sure if he needed to use it on [Speed] or [Strength]. It would depend on what he was going to fight.

Free Points: 1—>2

Kade was coming to think that he had accidentally killed off whoever the protectors were on his rampage. If that was the case, he would gladly sit in this lake until he became wrinkled up like a prune. Hell, he would do until the Rift Zone forcibly kicked—

He stared at the water. There was a ripple that he didn’t cause. He would’ve missed it if he hadn’t been paying attention. It was that small.

There was another ripple. This time, it was larger.

Something was approaching. Kade looked up toward the forest. The ripples in the lake originated from that side.

The nearly abandoned state of the place made sense if the strongest being lived there. However, he wondered why he had been dropped off in the middle of that forest at the start.

The boss monster probably didn’t put me in its eyes. I was too weak.

He could hear soft thumps in the distance. It was getting louder every time he heard it, and in all honesty, he wished it would keep going as slow as it currently was. The more time he had without disturbance, the better he liked it.

Free Points: 2—>3

Kade could now feel the ground shaking. He backed away in the water, getting closer to the edge to word the side that bordered the grass plains. As much as he enjoyed getting [Free Points], he wouldn’t be able to use them if he got stomped under this massive monster that was heading towards him.

He heard a faint screech that put him on alert. Though, it also made him confused. That was a gnawer. It had to be.

Kade watched incredulously as several gnawers rushed out of the forest directly toward him. This wasn’t enough to bother him.

He made swift work of them and skewered each one well before they could get close to the lake and possibly contaminate it. He could still hear screeches coming from deep within the woods.

Kade shuddered in disgust when he saw a black mass rise from the ground in the distance. It was a wall, but one made of stacked gnawers. They were trying to climb on top of each other to get to him.

Even though they were individually weak, having this many gathered at once would undoubtedly cause him issues—major ones.

Free Points: 3—>4

Kade had little to no options. He couldn’t leave the lake without losing his [Free Points], and even if he chose to, it wasn’t like he could rush right into the tide of gnawers to cause havoc. Whatever was causing the ground to shake still wasn’t accounted for.

It was getting closer, but he still couldn’t see what was causing it.

The only safe thing he could do was retreat. He tightened his hand around his [Soulrend] before lifting it from the lake.

I’m going to take out as many as I can before I run.

Kade launched his [Soulrend]. It reached the quickly moving wall within the blink of an eye and pierced a small hole that was quickly covered. He clenched his hand to summon the [Soulrend] back before repeating his action.

It sounded tedious, and it was, but he could do this several times every other second. It was a thin spear of light that erased a small number of the gnawers, but it happened so many times that it ended up making a significant impact.

It slowed the horde down and gave him more time to stay in the lake.

Kade had taken out more than half of the stampeding gnawers and was ready to continue his repetitive onslaught, but when he tried to summon his [Soulrend] back after his umpteenth throw, it failed.

He lost his connection to it. The interface let him know why.

Your Soulrend has been shattered.

“Shit,” Kade cursed. “Soulrend!” He felt like an idiot yelling that out loud. Still, he immediately sacrificed half his health and formed another.

The lack of health was the least of his concerns. He had more than enough gnawers to destroy and recover all of it.

Free Points: 4—>5

Another minute had passed.

He threw his [Soulrend] back in the fray. It hadn’t been more than a few seconds before his [Soulrend] flashed a bright blue as it returned to him.

Soulrend (Dormant Spear)—>(Awakened Spear)

Kade caught the [Soulrend] and noticed its visual changes before glancing at the interface again.

Choose 1 ability for your Soulrend.

Vital Reap (1 MP):

Each successful strike drains a small portion of the target’s vitality, transferring it to you. This will allow you to restore health with every hit.

He skimmed the first ability and immediately tossed it out. He already had a form of this when he leveled up. Kade threw his [Soulrend] back into the horde of gnawers before looking at the second ability.

Vital Surge (10 MP):

When your health drops below the 10% threshold, your Soulrend will grant you drastically increased combat capabilities. This ‘last stand’ ability activates automatically.

An ability that was more interesting, but still didn’t speak to him. He didn’t want to be near death every time he needed to get more powerful.

Kade wiped out another batch of gnawers as he read the next ability.

Frozen Lance (10 MP):

Your Soulrend becomes coded in an icy aura. Each strike inflicts cold damage. As frost creeps across the target’s wounds, it reduces their movement speed and reaction times.

This could be useful against a monster that was much stronger than he was. Even if he continued down one strike, the effects would accumulate. I’ll keep this in the back of my mind.

Kade saw a massive silhouette behind the severely reduced horde of gnawers. The final fight would soon be upon him.

Inferno Burst (10 MP):

Your Soulrend releases an explosion of fire upon contact with the target, engulfing the surrounding area in flames. The flame will persist for several seconds at a minimum. All affected targets will suffer burn damage until healed.

This is the one. I want this.

Your Soulrend now has the ability [Inferno Burst].

The first thing Kade did was try to use [Inferno Burst].

Insufficient [MP]. You must have a minimum of 10 [MP].

He frowned and quickly eliminated the rest of the gnawers in the tedious way that had worked so far. He still couldn’t see the details of the oversized silhouette behind the horde, but it was getting closer with every massive step it took.

Free Points: 5—>6

Another minute passed.

Kade let out a soft grunt as he launched his [Soulrend] for the last time. He took out well over twenty gnawers from how practiced he was in controlling the path of his [Soulrend] when it was out of his hands.

The interface appeared as the ground shook heavily from the giant’s steps. He could see the trees getting bent out of the way as it lumbered to the lake.

That was the only thing that slowed the giant down, and he was very thankful for it.

Kade quickly skimmed the interface.

Spear Throw (Level 2)—>(Level 4)

Level-up!

Arcana Level 15—>Arcana Level 16

Free Points: 6—>7

Level-up bonus applied.

Constitution: 17—>18

Endurance: 9.5—>10

Strength: 16—>17

He could finally see the details of the giant. He thought goblins were ugly, but they had nothing on this king of rot.

It stood as tall as the surrounding trees, its skin mottled with patches of blackened, twisted flesh that emitted a visible dark miasma. Whatever was infecting it overpowered the skin’s original color—a soft, mossy green.

It stared at him with eyes that glowed a bright orange, holding an unnatural rage inside. Jagged, bone-like protrusions erupted from its back and shoulders, oozing a thick, tar-like substance.

Kade heard an angry growl as it picked up speed, uprooting the surrounding trees in its new haste.

Now he knew there was something wrong with him. He didn’t feel scared. Maybe he was a little worried about leaving the lake, but he was not scared.

Kade had been tiring of demolishing all the cannon fodder. After destroying what felt like thousands of monsters made of paper, he was finally about to have a proper fight.

First, I need to make sure I can stand a chance.

He added for four and a half points to [Wisdom].

Free Points: 7—>2.5

Wisdom: 0.5—>5

MP: 1/1—>10/10

MP Recovery: 1% per minute—>2.8% per minute

Kade was proud that he knew every point of [Wisdom] equaled two points of [MP]. He still had zero idea how [MP Recovery] worked, but it was utter shit. There was no chance he could do the math to know how long it would take to get all his [MP] back.

35 minutes and 42.857 seconds.

He ignored the nearing boss monster roaring at him. “I appreciate the help.”

Kade turned his attention back to the boss monster and saw that it looked furious that he ignored it. He sneered at the narcissistic monster before raising his [Soulrend].

When he selected [Inferno Burst], the system automatically gave him the knowledge of how to use it. He aimed at the giant’s torso and let his [Soulrend] loose.

Kade saw that the boss monster thought nothing of the little stick flying at it. It was exactly what he hoped. Right before the [Soulrend] was about to make contact, he activated [Inferno Burst].

“GRAHHHHHH!”

Free Points: 2.5—>3.5

Another minute passed.

The rancid breath that slammed into him from the monster’s pained scream did not faze Kade. He grinned wildly as he summoned his [Soulrend] back.

It was perfect. The Arcane Well provided another [Free Point] while blazing flames engulfed the monster’s body.

The fire quickly spread as if fuel were giving the flames more power. He noticed it was incredibly effective where the monster had blackened skin. So, really, it was the entire body that was fueling the fire.

While Kade felt pure joy at the effectiveness of [Inferno Burst], a significant part of him felt let down by how easily he appeared to be able to take down the protector of this Rift Zone.

He watched the boss monster rampage around for several seconds and wondered how many [Free Points] he could accumulate. He could already see the future. He would be the strongest human by default, and the masses will look up to him in awe.

“GRAAAAH!”

“Oh, shut up!” Kade yelled when the monster’s scream brought him out of his fantasy.

That got its attention. It stared at him hatefully, its eyes now red with rage. It still had flames covering its body, but somehow, it ignored the pain and lifted two uprooted trees and launched them above the forest directly at him.

“Fuck!” Kade cursed as he moved within the lake while dodging the trees. Both trees landed on the area he was occupying with a massive splash that displaced far too much of the lake’s water.

He didn’t have the chance to gather himself. The monster threw two more, and this time, it didn’t wait to see where it landed. It gave up trying to reach him and settled for being a tree-launching machine.

The monster had realized it wouldn’t reach the lake in time to save it in its condition. It was attempting to deny him any more benefits as revenge.

Kade did his best to stay within the water while avoiding getting pancaked by the raining trees. The biggest issue was that there were more trees than water on the surface of the lake.

Free Points: 3.5—>4.5

Several more trees were on the way. It was time to quit while he still could without issues. He had extracted all he could from the lake.

Kade jumped out of The Arcane Well and put a suitable distance between him and the forest.

He stared at the monster from deep in the grasslands with a taunting look. He wanted to fight it where it couldn’t use a tree as an oversized club and kill him by fluke.

The system had other ideas.

The Arcane Well has been degraded beyond repair.

Congratulations on initiating the destruction of Rift Zone #8,274,177!

We estimate that around 30 minutes will pass before this Rift Zone shatters.

After the destruction, you will receive credit for indirectly killing the Corrupted Lifeform. Wait patiently for the process to finish.

Kade read the interface with a frown. “The Corrupted Lifeform… is it that monster on fire?”

Yes, it is the Lesser Troll on fire.

He stared at the troll and wondered what could possibly make it ‘lesser.’ It stared right back at him, clearly wishing to grind his bones into dust.

Kade tapped the shaft of his [Soulrend] on the ground in thought. “Is it better for me to kill it directly?”

The difference in reward will be negligible, but yes.

He walked towards it slowly, fighting his rational mind, which was screaming at him that what he was doing was stupidity on the highest order.

Unfortunately, the rational mind was right.

Fortunately, Kade ignored it entirely and sprinted toward the troll with an excited grin, his [Soulrend]’s shard blade pointed at it.

“GRAAHHH!” The lesser troll let out another pained roar. This time, there was anticipation present along with the pain.