Through the tower again

Joseph was extremely frustrated, he had naively expected to get the items at their peak powers when he saw them in the glass pillars. But in his excitement to activate his skill for the first time he didn't fully read or understand what it said.

Taking several deep breaths to calm himself down he thought to himself, "I should at least check this thing out. It might look like a piece of crap but I refuse to believe that a divine artifact, even an F grade one, is useless.

Pulling up his systems interface he selected the new item to view its attributes.

[sword of Vengeance (F grade)

STR: + 10%

DEX: + 10%

VIT: + 10%

INT: + 10%

SPR: +10%

Skill 1: Forged in thunder (reduced energy cost for channeling skills through the sword by 10%)

Skill 2: Born from lightning (attack speed increased by 10%)]

Joseph's heart almost couldn't take it anymore with the up and down emotions. First he was super excited then borderline depressed now he was just numb to the stupidity of his own ability.

Not a single F grade weapon, EVER, had given so much as a single attribute point as a bonus much less possess a skill.

But here it was sitting in his hand. A weapon that would, by itself, replace a full set of peak E grade set equipment. Most pieces of equipment gave individual points as bonuses to the users attributes, this changed however if the equipment used belonged to a specific set. It would then give percentage bonuses based on how many of the set equipment items you had. It was easy to see which one was better, the problem was it was extremely difficult to find set equipment and even harder to forge it.

In any case all bad feelings Joseph had once had for the sword were erased, he was now more than ready to run through this tower again.

He began the same way he did last time, by beginning to make a map of where he was and where he had been. Despite going through the tower once before, there was no guarantee that the layout would be exactly the same.

Once he was done he quickly and quietly moved through the tunnel that was in front of him. He was able to move much faster than last time, not only because of his increased attributes, but because he could see so much better than before. The reconstruction had changed his eyes somehow, now the little light that came from the fungus that clung to the walls was more than enough for him to see.

It took only a couple minutes for him to come across a bend in the tunnel almost identical to the one he used last time to ambush a couple of unsuspecting goblins. He planted himself next to it and waited, there was no reason to take more risks than necessary. This strategy had worked for him last time, why wouldn't it work for him again?

He waited patiently with his sword drawn expectations building as time passed. After about half an hour he heard the familiar sounds of approaching footsteps. It was the same as before, two goblins were coming down the hallway, one slightly in front of the other. Their gait was uneven most likely due to the torch they were holding causing their balance to be slightly askew. They were 30 meters away closing at a walking pace of 4km per hour, would take them only 27 seconds to reach his position. At this moment Joseph paused, "How the f#$k do I even know all that?" Before his awakening he had been very good at judging distances and timing, he was also trained in tracking so he could find his prey. But now it was like he could function on a whole different level, all the training he went through over the last twelve years was as fresh in his mind as if it was yesterday. He could recall everything perfectly and now he had a brain that could utilize it in ways he simply couldn't before.

A smile slowly made its way across his face as he contemplated the true depths of his new abilities. But before he could get too lost in thought he forcefully shook himself to return to the present moment. "I can still die if I'm not careful," he said reprimanding himself. "I need to remain focused, there will be plenty of time to play around later,"

Turning his attention back to the situation at hand he was surprised to see that the two goblins had only advanced by less than 3 meters. He thought he had spent at least half the remaining time lost in thought, but now it seemed like he thought much faster than before. He just shook his head at the drastic changes to his abilities, it truly was like he was an entirely different person and he was eager to test his limits.

Waiting the last few seconds Joseph got ready to once again ambush the two approaching goblins. His grip tightened on the handle of his sword, his breathing slowed, and all his muscles were in a sort of relaxed tension ready to explode into motion at a moment's notice.

The arm of the goblin then peaked around the corner signaling Joseph to act. He immediately swung his blade in the same upwards arch cleanly slicing through the goblins arm. He then whirled around the corner bringing the blade down forcefully towards the goblins head slicing clean through its body. He then kicked the corpse towards the remaining goblin causing it to crash into the wall with a sickening crunch. Joseph rushed towards it to finish it off but discovered that the second goblin was already dead. The kick had launched the corpse at it so hard that it died upon impact with the wall. After he stood for a moment wondering what just happened he heard a dull thud he hind him. Whirling around ready to strike whatever was there he gazed puzzled into the darkness of the tunnel that lay before him. There were no new enemies, no animals, no traps, nothing except the severed limb of a once living goblin still clutching a torch.

It took several moments for Joseph to comprehend exactly what this meant. He replayed the scene over and over in his head before he finally reach the inescapable conclusion, that the had dispatched the two goblins before the first ones arm could hit the ground.

"This is insane!" Joseph cried inwardly, the full weight of what he had just done causing him to fall to the ground on his backside. He simply sat for a few moments until he got himself back under control. "Are all awakened beings like this?" He wondered to himself, and the answer to that was a resounding, NO! Not all awakened are able to kill enemies in the blink of an eye. The usual benefits of awakening were rather limited when it came to increasing attributes. You might get one or two in stats that were aligned with your abilities but that was about it. Normally the awakening simply gave you a small boost in your mana capacity along with an appropriate skill, assuming your ability had combat skills. Life occupation abilities usually had passive skills that assisted them, but those are not important right now.

What is important is the fact that Joseph's attributes had directly increased to nearly the peak of what could be considered F grade. And was in fact beyond that if we take into consideration that most awakeners would focus their 1 or 2 attributes gained during level up on specific ability based stats. It was simply unheard of for an individual to gain points in every stat equally on each and ever level up, not to mention the free attribute points that would put him even further ahead.

The true weight of his potential was just beginning to dawn upon Joseph, and it would be a long time until he fully grasped what it meant to be the progeny of the divine. All he could say for certain right now is that he was far stronger than any newly awakened delver ever, and he was determined to make the most of it.

Returning to his feet he dusted himself off and turned his attention to the system messages that he got when he killed the two goblins.

"Ding! Congratulations you have slain 2 grade F goblins (low tier) received 30% exp, 14 copper coins."

"Quite generous." Joseph thought, looking further into the exp breakdown he could see that each goblin would have normally only given him 10% exp each. But with his passive skill giving him a bonus while killing evil aligned beings he got 50% more. "Looks like I'll be able to level up much more quickly than I thought." After saying this he turned himself back towards the direction that would lead him further into the tunnel.

"Just you wait you bastards," he growled in a low menacing voice, small white sparks coming from his eyes as they began to glow subtlety. "I'm coming for you!"