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Evan D. Sherden, Strengthened (6)
[You have evolved to level 21. It has been one of the greatest performances indeed so far.]
[Even the core of the dungeon itself will have trembled by now due to the destruction of every hidden secret of the dungeon. We commend your achievements and have decided to strengthen Cheonjung 3 to Cheonjung 4. No one would have expected that you could have achieved this feat on the 20th floor of the dungeon.]
Evan had expected to be rewarded here because he knew the skills could not be strengthened on the 15th floor. He looked into the distance as he felt his high-ranking martial arts Cheonjung being strengthened once again, breathing new power into his whole body.
This would now allow him to attack targets over 100 meters from a distance! Since it wasn’t really practical, a heavier technique was being given than a fair amount of weaponry.
Of course, he hadn’t used it in the dungeon yet!
[I will evolve all your abilities to the next level. So, keep working hard in the future… But why don’t you use Heavens Throw at all? Do you not like it?]
‘Are you asking me about the skill that you gave me? Then I’ll do it.’
Evan spoke in a very firm voice to the god who asked him the question.
“It’s a throwing skill, for sure. But it’s impact area is very wide! How can I even use it with my party!”
[Hmm.. I didn’t think of your fragile colleagues. It was irrelevant.]
“It’s just because the structure of that skill is so bad!”
Heaven’s Throw was a skill that one of the gods had personally given to Evan when he cleared the dungeon’s 15th floor. It was in response to Evan asking for a skill related to throwing after having cleared the 10th floor.
Of course, Evan was pleased when he first acquired that skill because he finally had an attack skill that he could use in real life but soon realized that it was not the case.
‘I should have guessed it from the time I heard its incredibly grandiose name, ‘Heavens Throw’… I just thought it was named similar to Heaven Press. Damn it!’
Once Evan activated the skill and threw a Battle Bead or any other projectile as hard as he could, it was sucked into a subspace-portal that suddenly appeared in front of him.
The next moment another portal opened above the target’s head, and the projectile popped out of it. By this time, the projectile’s trajectory had changed dramatically.
‘With this skill, I could simply attack the enemy by just aiming at them.’
The problem was that the projectile protruding from the subspace increased in size and gained momentum as it passed through the portal.
There was no problem with the increase in power itself. The real problem was that they got bigger, tens of times in size, which resulted in a devastating impact!
‘The little Battle Beads that I throw increase to the size of a rock comparable to an orc, and then pop out. How the hell should I use it while fighting alongside my party?’
At first, Evan tried to devise a way to use it, but no matter how much he tried, even Raihan was wiped out along with an orc he was fighting when Evan threw a Battle bead at them.
It was a sticky situation. Were it not for Raihan’s magical shield technique; he would surely have died. For reference, the shield had cracked for the first time since Raihan had entered the dungeon. Fortunately, the Echo Shield was also an artifact and had an auto-repair ability, so it recovered instantly!
“No matter how devastating and powerful it is, I cannot use that skill. Please change it to something else.”
[I can’t take back a blessing that I already gave, and I can’t give you a new one right now, so you should give up complaining and just use it.]
“….”
What had he expected from the gods?
Evan agonized over what kind of ability he had to deal with, which was a curse given to him in a novel way, but soon gave up thinking about it any further and shut his mouth. However, the nameless god kept talking without knowing what was in Evan’s heart.
[You have not yet reached the level of existence required to acknowledge the value of this blessing. I will continue to devote myself to your betterment child, as you show great promise.]
“Stop chattering!”
Evan, who thought he was being made fun of, stopped talking with the gods and turned back at the party while still furious.
Surprisingly, however, everyone except for himself was still in the process of leveling up. The prolonged time meant that they were receiving many rewards for their achievements and were talking with the gods like Evan did every time.
“What…? Oh, Master.”
“What happened, Shine? What did you get? Did you change your class?”
“No, I did not. I like this class.”
Except for Evan, the first one to finish leveling up was Shine.
He had evolved his dungeon level to 21. He was now strong enough to the point where it can be said that he had become a completely different guy compared to before entering the dungeon. He was smiling with confidence, which meant that he was sure of his abilities.
“I got a new skill instead.”
“Oh, what is it?”
It was ‘Shadow Dagger.’ Evan already knew about that.
It was a skill that could only be learned by the owner of a dagger-type weapon, and it was one of the attack assisting skills, which was particularly high-ranking among the countless other skills that appeared in the Yo-Ma Great War series.
“That’s an assist skill that unconditionally doubles the damage of every blow!”
“You already know about it, Master?”
A dagger made of shadow would appear and hover around the dagger you were holding when you activated this skill. It attacked the enemy with the same amount of force as the original dagger.
It was used as a one-shot skill and had a long delay, but it was still a very good ability to inflict damage at a crucial moment in the battle as it couldn’t be used with other active skills. It could only be applied to help increase the damage of the dagger attacks.
“Since you have already learned double swordsmanship, the effect of the Shadow Dagger will also be doubled!”
“That’s awesome!”
Evan was in a state of pure admiration. In fact, the Silent Night Shine that appeared in Yo-Ma Great War 3 hadn’t gotten the Shadow Dagger ability!
In the beginning, Shadow Dagger was a skill that could only be acquired in the dungeons with divine blessings, so luck played a very significant role in obtaining it.
Therefore, it was almost impossible to learn the technique of Shadow Dagger while also learning one of the highest aptitudes, the double swordsmanship. However, Shine had achieved both of them!
“Mater Evan, you must have been waiting for a long time.”
“Ah, Lua. Took you long enough.”
While Evan was thrilled about how much stronger Shine could be than in his previous life, Balois also came up to him after leveling up.
She started telling him about her own changes before Evan even asked her.
“Thanks to the blessings of the gods, my Flame and Ice Magic have reached the intermediate level.”
“Uh….”
Evan was now drooling. He didn’t expect to have his mind blown away at the fact that Belois’ magical abilities had evolved to an even higher level than they already were, which was great!
All magic developed into the domains of beginner, intermediate, advanced, and then unique magic. Most wizards died without even exceeding the intermediate level.
‘Magic training was very difficult. So much so that even Eloa von Sirpe, who was later praised as the best mage in the dungeon city, hadn’t gotten farther than advanced magic…’
There were only three people who were known to have achieved the unique magic level in the game.
One of them was the great ancient mage, the protagonist of Yo-Ma Great War Zero; the other was the Demon King, the arch-enemy of the Yo-Ma Great War series, and finally, Belois, the most fearsome enemy of humanity in Yo-Ma Great War 3.
‘That was why the Blood Witch was treated as being stronger than the Silent Night… Yes, I did believe that Belois would someday achieve her own magical realm. But no matter how much I look at it, to have learned intermediate magic at the age of ten is preposterous!’
If a child was ten years old, they would already be regarded as a genius if they succeeded in obtaining elementary level magic. And to say that a child had reached intermediate magic was unbelievable!
It didn’t end at that; she did not only evolve Flame Magic but Ice Magic too! Even if you thought about it without considering the attributes’ backlash, she had still accomplished a task that was more than twice as difficult!
Evan rubbed his cheeks as Belois quietly waited by his side, expecting to get praise from him. Then he said in a hoarse voice.
“Well done, Lua. It’s really great. But don’t tell other people about it yet. You can only tell my mother.”
“Yeah, I thought so too, Master.”
Belois knew well that something too special would attract the attention of others more than necessary. Wasn’t that true just by looking at Evan?
Evan laughed joyfully as he watched her nod and then asked her.
“What about your class? Has your class changed?”
“It’s the same, Master. My class being a Mana Maid is the best.”
“… … .”
Her answer was the same as Shine’s. Even if the gods had changed their classes to a better one, it didn’t mean that they had an obligation to tell Evan about it, right?
He looked at Shine and Belua alternately with suspicious eyes, but the two only caught his gaze with extremely confident expressions.
“Master Evan, have you been waiting for us?”
“Evan, I changed my class.”
In the meantime, Raihan and Arisha approached them after completing their long leveling up.
Evan was convinced this time. Both of them had changed classes!
“As Evan said, I have now become a Knight of the Whirlwind.”
“You got the class as a Knight by breaking through the 20th floor of this dungeon.”
The Ironwall Knights who couldn’t even get the Knight class would have died of envy after hearing this. Evan made a firm commitment to not let this fact out as well.
“I also got a riding skill. It makes the ride more comfortable, but I’m not sure what to use it for.”
“That’s a common skill you get when you become a Knight. Congratulations anyway, you got stronger. Probationary knights and knights are completely different.”
“…Still, compared to other people, it is still lacking. If you leave the dungeon, I want you to pay attention to me.”
“Yes, I understand. I am sorry.”
Evan had grown wary of her attitude in the past but seeing her now; he realized Arisha was also an ordinary child.
She was a child who only had a lot more goodwill and curiosity than others and was a little clumsy when dealing with people.
No matter how much she was Evan’s main enemy in the game, it was evidently Evan’s fault that she respected him even in a world without such a causal relationship.
‘In particular, there was something she said on the 5th floor… Nope, from now on, I’ll have to get along with her as well. We could be close friends…’
Evan tried to turn his gaze away from Arisha, who was staring at him as if she had something more to say as he was still scared of her! Then his eyes met Raihan’s, who was making an awkward expression.
“So what about your class…? You know what, let’s forget about it. Let’s go check out the achievement box.”
“…Thank you, Master Evan.”
Later, Raihan secretly informed Evan of his class, which was named ‘Steel Shield.’
When Evan heard that, he formed a deep coalition with Raihan.