16 Hellish Skill Training
After calmly withstanding a few dozen cycles of hellish skill grinding, he suddenly heard the systems sultry voice as a golden window appeared.
"DING!"
[System Notification: Skill Level Up. [Fire Cloak][Lv. 1] → [Lv. 2]]
[Fire Cloak][Lv. 2] - Encase caster within a thick layer of fire for 3 minutes. Deals fire damage to all who come in contact including caster.
Type: Active.
Cost: 45MP.
Exp. 0\200
Casting the newly leveled up [Fire Cloak] he noticed the flame appeared twice as fierce whilst the layer of flames that covered his body now appeared slightly denser.
Now that this skill had leveled up he would have to endure an even greater amount of suffering, for an even longer amount of time, which would once more test the resolve of Salvatore's iron will. As the roar of the flames filled his ears he suffered in silence, feeling as though each second that passed was an eternity.
As the skills 3 minutes finally ran out he collapsed on the ground mentally exhausted, vaguely hearing the systems sultry feminine voice.
"DING!"
[System Notification: Skill Level Up. [Fire Resistance][Lv. 1] → [Lv. 2]]
[System Notification: Skill Level Up. [Pain Resistance][Lv. 1] → [Lv. 2]]
[Fire Resistance][Lv. 2] - You resist 20% of all fire damage.
Type: Passive.
Exp. 0\2,000
[Pain Resistance][Lv. 2] - You resist 20% of all pain damage.
Type: Passive.
Exp. 0\2,000
Several minutes later with his mental strength recovered, he continued his hellish leveling of these 3 skills.
After 2 hours of continuous skill grinding, he collapsed for the umpteenth time on the ground, having once more reached the limits of his current mental strength. Completely exhausted, he barely managed to retain a sliver of consciousness long enough to hear the systems sultry feminine voice before he blacked out.
"DING!"
[System Notification: Skill Level Up. [Fire Cloak][Lv. 5] → [Lv. 6]]
[System Notification: Skill Level Up. [Fire Resistance][Lv. 3] → [Lv. 4]]
[System Notification: Skill Level Up. [Pain Resistance][Lv. 3] → [Lv. 4]]
[Fire Cloak][Lv. 6] - Encase yourself in three compressed dense layer of fire for 15 minutes. Deals fire damage to all who come in contact including caster.
Type: Active.
Cost: 25MP.
Exp. 0\600
[Fire Resistance][Lv. 4] - You resist 40% of all fire damage.
Type: Passive.
Exp. 0\4,000
[Pain Resistance][Lv. 4] - You resist 40% of all pain damage.
Type: Passive.
Exp. 0\4,000
A few minutes later he awoke feeling completely refreshed. Slowly rising to his feet, he swiped his hand through the air, casually dismissing the cluster of golden windows which blocked his view.
Standing straight, he resumed his unyielding stance, then with an energetic shout once again casted his recently leveled up skill.
"[Fire Cloak]!!!"
Like an awakening fire dragon, a sea of flames instantly roared into existence, fire emitting from every pore of his body. At this level the skills activation now looked much more formidable than it had at [Lv. 1]. Now there were three compressed layers of flames covering his body, with each layer almost an inch thick. Because each layer of fire was a different shade of red-orange, it appeared as though he was wearing a set of bright orange armor.
There was also several large flowing streams of fire which coiled around his limbs. While where his feet met the ground there was a rotating wheel of fire 12 feet in diameter with him in the center. Watching the 2 feet high flames revolving around him, he felt as though he was surround by a ravenous pack of hungry fire beasts.
As the flames intensity reached its peak at the 3 second mark he suddenly realized that the pain he had braced himself for had not arrived. Looking at his flesh although the fire was obviously a lot hotter now that it was at [Lv. 6] his skin remained completely unblemished.
Even the intense amount of pain he had become accustomed to feeling did not appear. It seemed he had reached the tipping point of his resistance skills with 40% resistance + 100% resistance boost from his class skill + 20% from his [Iron-Willed] Title resulting in a 100% resistance to both fire and pain damage.
Normally leveling resistance skills take a great deal of time, suffering, and especially willpower, for unlike other skills, mastering a resistance skill requires one to walk the fragile border between life and death, however he had been able to reach this point thanks to the [Superior Blessing Of The Stargod] he was currently protected by, that would instantly heal any damage his body sustained, allowing him to continue training without having to wait for his body to heal each time.
As the skills time ran out he sighed in relief, still standing for the first time after collapsing countless times before, and felt barely satisfied with the result of his hellish training. Little did he know that he had reached in roughly 4 hours a level of fire resistance, (not counting of course the resistance boost from his unique class skill and title), that most fire mages would have to spend decades of training to reach.
Casting the skill once more, for the first time he enjoyed the heat, for it made him feel as though he were at the beach, sunbathing, instead of covered in raging flames hot enough to melt metal.
When the skill ended he quickly opened his skill book and checked the [Fire Cloak] skill, noticing the experience points had not increased at all. It seemed that now that he received neither pain nor damage the skill no longer accrued experience.
Satisfied with the results of his hellish skill training regime, he put on his black silk PJ's with a "DING!" then promptly sat down, deciding to rest for an hour in order to return to his peak condition before continuing with his skill grinding.
