Cipher leaped from the tree branch, descending onto the unknowing demon and stabbing it through.
It let out a sharp shriek before melting into a puddle of dark miasma and disappearing.
Cipher hadn't expected it to make such a sound. He quickly jumped across several trees to get away before other monsters could gather.
Once he reached a safe location, he looked at the system notification before him:
[You have slain E-rank Demon (Level 18)]
[+5,000 EXP]
[+20 Cheat Points]
[You have leveled up!]
"Looks like it was an E-rank mage type," he thought.
He was actually a little disappointed. He'd been expecting it to be a D-rank with E-rank mana. That way, he would've gained even more EXP.
He looked at his stats. He was currently at Level 6 and had eight free stat points.
He needed to distribute them as they might interfere with his leveling up. If he leveled up again and gained two more points, his True Rank would become D-rank and he'd earn far less EXP from E-rank monsters.
But how to distribute them?
After some thought, he decided to put five of them into Stamina. His other stats were already E-rank, yet his Stamina was still F-rank.
With a thought, five points were distributed to Stamina.
He felt that strange sensation of stats increasing spread through his body once again.
He exhaled to calm his nerves. The feeling of Stamina was different compared to Strength - although he felt stronger, it was a different kind of strong.
At the same time, a system notification appeared.
[Congratulations! You have awakened a skill]
[Skill: Aura (D-Rank)]
[Type: Active]
[Cost: 40 Mana]
[Duration: 30 seconds]
[Description: Coat your weapon or body with a layer of condensed mana. Attacks deal 200% damage while active. Additionally, attacks have a 10% chance to critical hit, dealing an additional 200% damage (total 400% on critical).]
…
He looked at the skill. He recognized it - he had seen someone use something similar before.
He remembered. It was Ryker.
"A Magic Swordsman skill," he thought. A skill that allowed him to infuse mana into his swordsmanship. It seemed he had gotten it by having all his stats equal, like a Magic Swordsman.
But there was another reason he was excited for this skill.
He checked his Cheat Shop's Owned section.
Seed Card (Mod Card): Applies "Rigged" edition - all probability becomes guaranteed. (ex: 10% chance → 100% chance)
He didn't wait and instantly used the Seed Card on the Aura skill.
After using it, the card disappeared from his Owned section, but the effect was already active:
[Skill: Aura (D-Rank)]
[Type: Active]
[Edition: Rigged]
[Cost: 40 Mana]
[Duration: 30 seconds]
[Description: Coat your weapon or body with a layer of condensed mana. Attacks deal 200% damage while active. Additionally, attacks have a 100% chance to critical hit, dealing an additional 200% damage (total 400% on critical).]
It really worked, he thought, looking at the new skill description. Now it would always deal 400% damage.
He was even more glad that the cost of using the skill didn't seem to be affected by the edition. With his full 100 mana pool, he could use this skill about twice. But in reality, he didn't even need to use it twice. Since it lasted for thirty seconds when active, as long as he was smart with it, he could deal significant damage.
The amount of damage one could deal was their Strength × 10. With his 10 Strength, he could deal a maximum of 100 damage. With his Assassinate skill, he could deal 300% damage, which was 300 damage.
There was a guaranteed crit when the enemy wasn't aware of his presence, but every time he used it, he killed an enemy, so he didn't know how much additional damage the crit gave. He decided not to go into it.
Instead, he calculated the new skill.
If he activated Aura, covering his dagger, for the next thirty seconds, his damage would be 200. Add that with the 200 from the guaranteed crit, and his base damage was 400 - almost enough to one-shot an F-rank.
Now with that base damage, if he used Assassinate, he would get 300% on top of this. That meant 1,200 damage. Enough to one-shot an E-rank.
An average D-rank Tank build should have about 2,000 HP. With two strikes, he should be able to kill them.
Assassinate cost 25 and Aura cost 40. With one Aura, he should be able to use 2 Assassinates as assassinate had only a 20 seconds cooldown while Aura lasted for 30 seconds. This meant that he could kill a single D-rank with his 100 mana and still have some left to prevent mana exhaustion.
Of course, all this was without taking into account any defensive items or skills, but it should at least guarantee that he was invincible against E-ranks.
…
Anyway, that was all in theory and there was no way to really know except from real combat, Cipher thought.
He then looked around him, wondering where he was. He had run quite a bit to avoid the monsters that would be summoned by the shriek, but now he was lost.
He sighed. He had forgotten that he wasn't an actual scout.
He decided to continue hunting monsters while trying to find his way back to base…
How naive he had been, Cipher thought as he rested on a tree branch.
He had decided to fight monsters while finding the way back to base, but he had become even more lost. Those monsters always let out that annoying sound every time he killed them, and he had to keep running.
He had now killed two E-ranks. Leveling up to Level 8 and receiving forty Cheat Points.
He had seven free points now. He decided to put five of them into Intelligence. His current scaling depended mostly on mana, so it was better to have more of it. As for the remaining two points, he decided to put them into agility.
He had been resting in between killing monsters, so he still had fifty mana left.
After using the points, he felt something inside him expand and a feeling of refreshment spread through his body.
[Name: Cipher]
[Level: 8 (2000/8000)]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Cheater]
[Health: 1000/1000]
[Mana: 100/150]
[Strength: 10]
[Stamina: 10]
[Agility: 12]
[Intelligence: 15]
[Stat Points: 0]
[Cheat Points: 60]
[Skills (4/5): Aura (D), Assassinate (E), Mana Sense (E), Mana Recovery (E)]
[Cheats: Cheat Shop (Max Level)]
[Owned Cards: ]
With his current full mana, he should be able to use an additional Aura, or two Assassinates, depending on the situation. This could prove quite useful.
He decided to rest for some time for his mana to completely recover before making his move once again.
…
Author's Corner
I've decided to change mana recovery from F rank to E rank. The description is still the same, it's just that its E rank.