Soaring Abilities

It had been less than two days since Joseph initially awakened, but he had already broken through to E grade. Not only that but his ability had the perverse skill option of granting him equipment. And this equipment, mind you, was beyond the level of being stupidly OP. Even strong A grade equipment wouldn't do the kinds of things that Joseph's skill artifacts would do. 

Knowing all this Aden felt that he would be prepared for whatever new things this kid was about to show him...he was wrong.

Upon looking over the shoulder of Joseph to see the screen he nearly had a stroke from what he saw.

"Name: Joseph Thornwood

Race: Half-Angel

Grade: E

Level: 3

Exp: 45/100%

HP: 1232/1232

Mp: 1232/1232

Ability: BLOODLINE-Archangel of Vengeance(SSS)

Attributes:

Str: 56+(11.2)

Dex: 56+(11.2)

Vit: 56+(11.2)

Int: 56+(11.2)

Spr: 56+(11.2)

Free points: 15

Equipment:

Sword of Vengeance: Grade-E

All Attributes: +20%

Active skill: Holy wrath- Transform the sword into a bolt of holy lightning that instantly strikes the enemy dealing 125% magical and physical damage. 50% chance to paralyze the enemy for 2 seconds. Costs 10% total mana, cooldown 1min. (instantly returns to the owners hand in sword form after striking the enemy.)

Passive skill: Forged in thunder: reduce the mana cost for channeling lightning skills through the sword by 15%

Passive skill: Born from lightning: attack speed increases by 20% each attack deals 10% additional lightning damage."

"You've got to be fraking kidding me!" Aden shouted in his mind, shock and disbelief were making it difficult for him to come to grips with what he was seeing. 

There in front of him was the most perverse stat sheet he had ever seen. Not that the attributes or skills were better or stronger than his own, but that Joseph had just stepped into the E grade and was already showing stats at the peak. Not only that but that was with only one piece of gear, it would take a full set of peak level E grade artifacts to reach Josephs strength. And even then it wouldn't be uniform.

"Well boy I don't really know what to say at this point. You have truly shattered the conventional perceptions of strength."

Hearing such praise brought a broad smile to Joseph's face. He knew only that such words of affirmation, when coming from Aden, were truly genuine. And being acknowledged made him happier than he had been in a long time.

"If I keep growing like this, how long do you think until I am ready?" This question immediately ramped up the intensity of the moment. He could see in Aden's eyes the brief flash of anger and pain.

"Don't get ahead of yourself boy." Aden growled warningly, "There are powers in this world that you couldn't even fathom, don't be too hasty to rush to death when it will come for you on its own."

Joseph didn't really know how to respond to this. He assumed that it had something to do with his parents, and he'd be right, but without Aden providing further information he would be making shots in the dark while blindfolded if he tried to guess what Aden was talking about.

Shaking his head, Aden placed his large hand on Joseph's shoulder and said. "Be patient son, all good things to those who wait."

Joseph frowned when hearing this but he knew better than to press the issue. 

Aden then clapped him on the back once and continued to speak, saying rather excitedly. "Now, its time to really think about what your going to do in the coming delvers duel."

This unfortunate reminder brought Joseph's thoughts to a grinding halt. He had nearly forgotten the future ending trouble that Aden had gotten him into. Well he had done a bit of it himself, but it felt much easier to put the blame elsewhere at the moment. After all there were a plethora of ways to end the whole Olsen conflict short of a delvers duel.

"What choice do I have Aden?" Joseph replied exasperated. "I can neither afford to win or lose this thing, so what the frack am I supposed to do eh?"

A small chuckle escaped Aden's mouth as he looked at the expresion on Joseph's face.

"Calm down," He replied, Not even trying to hide the large grin spreading across his face. "You can and will win this thing because the system itself will guarantee the victors safety, plus this may be the only chance we have to prevent a future pillar of humanity from being totally lost."

"What are you talking about?" Joseph spat back, "Olsen is hardly a pillar of anything, let alone humanity."

"He may not be much now," came the sage reply, "But just like his father he has awakened an A grade blessing. And will one day be a formidable force for good, if we can simply correct the flaws in his character. Breaking him down now might be the only chance we get. You know as well as I do that this war is only going to get worse, we need him like it or not."

Aden was right, he didn't like it, but it was also true that he knew or rather felt that things were about to get much worse.

Sighing to himself he determined that whatever happened he would deal with the consequences, it was his own stupid fault for letting Olsen get under his skin.

Smiling Aden gave Joseph a quick nod before exiting the room to return to his study, leaving Joseph alone to contemplate the things he had told him and what he planned to do in the near future.

Having cleared the F ranked tower and risen to E grade Joseph now had the opportunity to delve into higher grade's. The closest one was the E grade tower on the opposite side of town. 

Each city in the Haven-Loft kingdom was built encompassing at minimum two towers. Generally they were of varying grades but there wasn't always two towers of varying grades next to one another, as a result travel was necessary to reach different towers of whatever grade was appropriate.

Being a newly advanced E grade it would be typical for Joseph to run a couple more F grade towers till he was a bit more experienced within his level. But with the absurdity of his ability it wasn't necessary and would, in fact, stunt his growth.

Joseph noticed that he didn't receive as much Exp as he expected after killing the boss. This was of course because he killed an F grade boss after he promoted to E grade. The difference caused the Exp received to be cut by 50%. And that percentage decrease would only grow the farther apart the grade of the beings were. That also worked in reverse, meaning if he were to defeat a being of D grade his Exp gain would increase by 50% instead.

In any case the delvers duel was about 5 days from now, which gave him plenty of time to prepare. Not that he was really worried about it, he had been beating Olsen even before being blessed. Now it was just unfair.

"I suppose I should manifest my next artifact." Joseph mused to himself excitedly. "After all this sword by itself is insane, I can only imagine what would happen by having two of these ridiculous things."

Sitting in the sealed room was the best place he could think of to activate his ability. So just like before he gathered his energy and activated the skill, transporting himself into that white room with 9 pillars, one of which was now empty.

Quickly approaching them he gazed amazedly at their majesty and grandeur, daydreaming about the future where he wielded all of them at their peak. But that was far far in the future, shaking himself he focused on what he needed at this moment.

He forced himself to study the stat sheets of each item individually, instead of repeating his previous mistake of grabbing the first thing he came across. One thing he noticed as he browsed was that all of these artifacts projected to give the same stat boosts as the sword, but not only that they also amplified his lightning and holy magic capabilities.

Each item, while unique, were geared for war. Granting either single target or AOE skills and boosting the ones he already possessed. It was mind numbing to think about the power he would one day wield but again that was a far and away time from now. 

The biggest thing, however, was that he was able to find that these were set artifacts. Meaning that the more he had, the more unique abilities would be available to him. He couldn't currently see what they were but, he began to slightly salivate at the thought of the first skill he could unlock when he manifested his next item.

Coming to the end of the row of pillars he finally made his choice, "Manifest!"