Chapter 3 - Stat spread and the first battle

Now that I've spend my Skill Select Points, it's time to turn my attention to my SP - my stat points. I can allocate up to 30 right now, huh... It seems that there are 6 different stats, each corresponding to a different aspect of my being. [PWR] and [DEF] seem to be my physical offensive and defensive stats, [MAG] and [RES] seem to be my magical offensive and defensive stats, [AGI] seems to be my speed and mobility, and [WIS] seems to be my non-combat skill efficiency. By the way, it seems that [WPR] cannot be raised by SP, and it's something that I'll have to raise by myself somehow.

Hmm...since my <Innate> is a magical skill, perhaps I should raise my [MAG] as much as possible...but then...what if...

As I sunk into deep thought about how to allocate my stat points, a faint clacking pinged on my [Sense Lv.1].

Fuck me, that's gotta be an enemy, right? No time to waste, let's just quickly do this!

I entered in my choices rapidly and then righted myself in the air, having unknowingly flipped upside-down while thinking. Consulting my [Sense Lv.1], I could tell it was something hostile coming from somewhere beyond a metre to my left. Of course, with such a low level <Basic Skill>, there's no way I could have clear information. Once it entered my view, however, I would be ready.

~ZhazhazhazhaZHA!~

A twelve-legged centipede-like creature appeared from the crevice in the rock to my left. It was a dark brown colour, with an exceptionally large head and sharp mandibles, and the gaze from its four eyes seemed to latch onto me. It was about 3ft long and 4in thick, and its tail was sharpened like a blade.

My first battle, huh? Hopefully it isn't too strong...although it really gets my heart rate up thinking about having to fight! Well, it's mostly anxiety rather than excitement though... Anyway, [Identify]!

<Name> [Nameless Citrosian]

<Species/Race> [Citrosian Nymph Lv.3]

<Stats>

[HP: 30/30]

<<Information Unable to be Read>>

Well, what did else you expect from [Identify Lv.1]? At least it wasn't as bad as a certain spider trying to use [Appraisal]...or as broken as a certain slime with [Great Sage]...

Umu! All in all, balanced world! (A/N: Our thoughtful but airheaded MC has already forgotten about the broken skills and power scaling in this world...)

Seeing as it's only a [Nymph] and only has 30 HP, I felt confident that I could probably, maybe, perhaps beat this thing. I set [Area Cast] to the zone around its head and...

"[Spatial Magic]"!

...

The [Citrosian Nymph] stared at me. I stared at it. It tilted its head as if to ask "is something supposed to happen?" I kept staring, feeling the rising heat in my cheeks because, yes, something was supposed to happen, but...nothing happened.

"Eto..."

"...zha..."

Quick as a whip, the [Citrosian Nymph] swung its bladed tail, now shining with a slight sheen, towards my body. I reacted as quickly as possible, tumbling out of the way through the air so I would not get hit by whatever skill it just activated. I tried again, designating [Area Cast] on its head and casting [Spatial Magic] while imagining the space twisting and tearing.

Unlike my embarrassing failure earlier, this time, it actually worked.

The space around the [Citrosian Nymph]'s head twisted like a vortex, blurring and twisting the image of the background behind it. Cracks started appearing in the monster's carapace, and its legs started wriggling anxiously. However, it was caught in the spatial vortex, and could not move from that spot. Beads of sweat started dripping down the side of my face as my MP was rapidly consumed by the strength of my first-ever spell.

[MP: 84/100]

Thankfully, the nymph's health also dropped as more cracks appeared on its head.

[HP: 24/30]

...

[MP: 28/100]

[HP: 3/30]

...

~CRAAAAA-KSHHH~

With a final, soul-rending cracking sound, the head of the [Citrosian Nymph] collapsed in on itself, wiping out its remaining HP. All in all, it had taken only about 10 seconds, but those were 10 agonising seconds.

Phew...that was way too close. And what is with that MP consumption?!

-Conditions have been met. {Subskill: Spatial Rend} has been acquired.-

-{Subskill: Spatial Rend} has been incorporated into <Innate> [Spatial Magic Lv.1]. MP consumption has been optimised due to <System> support. Damage output has been optimised due to <System> Support. [Spatial Magic Lv.1] has levelled up.-

-[Citrosian Nymph Lv.3] has been defeated. Congratulations on defeating a higher-levelled opponent. 64 EXP has been awarded.-

-As a reward for defeating a higher-levelled opponent for the very first time, all <Stats> have been raised by 1.-

The familiar mechanical voice rang out in my head.

Uwaa...what is this reward?! That was way too awesome for just 10 seconds of combat! Well, it was my first battle anyway, so I guess it's to be expected. I don't suppose future battles with the same enemy will give me as much, right?

It turns out that the low power output and high mana cost were because I was using this {Subskill} for the very first time, and it was not yet supported by the <System>, huh. No wonder the points I put into [MAG] didn't seem like they were having an impact. By the way, let's take a look at my <Status>.

<Name> [Nameless Vallen]

<Species/Race> [Vallen♀︎ Lv.1 EXP: 64/100]

<Occupation> []

<Condition> [Low MP]

<Location> [Megaceris Endless Labyrinth: Floor 87]

<Stats>

[HP: 50/50]

[MP: 20/100 +0.1/s]

[PWR: 11] 1UP

[DEF: 6] 1UP

[MAG: 36] 16UP

[RES: 11] 1UP

[AGI: 21] 6UP

[WIS: 26] 11UP

[WPR: 35] 9UP

SP: 0

<Titles>

[Reincarnator (B)]

<Title Skills>

[World Handbook Lv.1]

<Basic+ Skills>

[Skill Management Lv.1]

<Basic Skills>

[Area Cast Lv.1] [Identify Lv.1] [Sense Lv.1]

<Innate>

[Flight Lv.1] [HP Auto-Regeneration Lv.1] [MP Auto-Regeneration Lv.1] [Spatial Magic Lv.2] 1UP

By the way, my new {Subskill} was as follows:

{Subskill: Spatial Rend

Skill Description: Rends and twists the designated space, causing damage to bodies in the designation. Damage output scales with [MAG], inversely with destination [RES].

Skill Prerequisites: <Basic Skill> [Spatial Magic].

Skill Stats: Base Damage 4, Damage Scaling 0.4[MAG] - 0.25[RES]; MP Consumption 4/s; Base Damage increases with [Spatial Magic] level.}

Simple, but effective. Thanks to <System> support, MP consumption per sec was halved. The damage also now scaled with 40% of my [MAG]. Doing some quick maths, it seems that the [Citrosian Nymph] had around 4 [RES], thankfully, or I might have done next to 0 damage. Well, not like doing 3 DPS was anything to write home about, either, not that I had a home to write to. It seems that ignoring [RES], my damage output had now gone up to around 19/s, which is more than a sixfold increase.

System-sama, you're the greatest!

Now, perhaps it seems that I took [Area Cast] superfluously, but it was actually the only reason I could win just now! From my innate [Vallen] intuition of [Spatial Magic], I understood that on its own, [Spatial Magic] merely targets a point in space. If I had done that when in combat with the [Citrosian Nymph], I might have done less than 1 damage per second of use. I needed to use [Area Cast] to designate a fixed area, and warp the space around the point that [Spatial Magic] targeted in order to cause severe enough damage to beat that stupid worm! My only mistake was that I foolishly thought that simply activating [Spatial Magic] would be enough to make something happen, but it seems that I needed to actually decide what was going to happen in the space, instead of simply having a foggy idea of what might happen...

Uwaaaaa...my black history...at least there wasn't anyone around to see it, and the only witness is EXP in my tummy!

Having cheered up considerably, I began deciding my next steps.

(A/N: Eto MC-chan, there are readers who have seen it...)