He opened his status screen to check for the changes.
_________________
Name Cassian Locke
Level 2
Experience 23/1585
Grade F
Class Swordsman
Health 43.5/43.5
Mana 25.2/41
Stats
Strength 8.4
Agility 6.9
Stamina 8.7
Intelligence 8.2
Free Stat points: 1
Attributes
Defense 1
Penetration 0
Critical Rate 1%
Critical Bonus 50%
Skills
Pseudo-Immortality
Sense Enhancement - Level 3
Swordsmanship - Level 2
Sword Cut - Level 1
Sword Slash - Level 2
Skill points: 0
While not unexpected, he did not get lucky enough to receive any of the benefits besides stat points. And for his stat point, there was no hesitation about where he should place it.
Intelligence 9.2
He needed to be able to use his skills more often, and in the future, he would gain a variety of other skills that require mana all at once.
Swordsman was that kind of class that stacked every buff on top of each other, and to do that required a lot of mana.
There was another reason for his selection. He noticed that while increasing his stats through torture, his intelligence increased at a different rate.
The other stats grew a little with every torture, but his intelligence only grew in rare but big bursts. He did not know exactly what those bursts were related to, but with it out of his control, it was better to make sure he was not lacking there.
Cassian continued hunting wolves until he heard a scream.
He immediately started running in the direction from which the noise originated. To his suprise he found a girl getting mauled by a wolf.
She was wearing a heavy chestplate and was equipped with a shield, so she probably had a defence-oriented class.
He dashed and sword slashed the wolf's back.
Immeadilty it jumped off the girl and faced him. The girl in question retreated ten steps immediately, screaming, "HELP!"
"Do not yell! You are going to attract more!" He urged her to shut up.
She placed her hands on top of her mouth, freezing in place.
Meanwhile, the wolf jumped at his neck, which he simply dodged.
It was a single level 5 wolf, something that would usually trouble a solo fighter.
After a couple of exchanges of sword cut the wolf was on its last limb. He saw the moment when its eyes shifted from fight to flight, and he took advantage.
The second the wolf shifted its weight, he dashed closer and activated sword slash, killing the wolf.
Cassian looked around to check if any wolves were remaining, and when he turned back, there was a floating white orb.
'Equipment?'
Filled with excitement, he touched the equipment and in his hands appeared a pair of boots.
[Boots - Common - Agility+1 Stamina+2]
After strapping the boots to his waist, he turned back to the girl. She had long brown hair and was taller than average.
"You're really lucky, getting equipment." She looked at the boots.
"Nevermind that, do you want to tell me what happened?" He walked closer, slowly wiping the blood of his body.
"My team was assualted by two wolves, and they actually left me behind as bait, ungrateful bastards!"
He nodded; it was what he expected. Otherwise, why would somebody be wandering in the dangerous part of the dungeon alone?
He finally wiped the blood from his face-
"Are you Cassian Locke?" The girl asked, shocked.
"What about it?" He focused cruelly on her eyes.
"N-nothing." She flinched back at his stare.
He paused to think about his next actions, 'What should I do with her?'
"Actually, can you accompany me to the elite monster?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Actually, there is a large group of people coming together to fight the elite mob. Since its power is likely outside the bounds of a single party."
Elite monsters provide several times the experience and have a high chance of dropping equipment. However, to counter that, they were many times more powerful.
It did not have increased damage, but while normal monsters convert one point of stamina to 10 health, an elite mob converts 25. Meaning if it had ten points in stamina, it would have 250 health points.
"Okay, bring me to the elite monster."
The girl then started leading them in a certain direction. For some reason, they did not have any encounters.
Instead, she bothered Cassian the entire time, asking questions about him, his life, profession, skills, stats, power, and whatever other topic she could come up with.
"If you talk too much, you will attract wolves."
An hour of walking, and the sun was setting on them, but they had finally arrived at the coalition of forces for the elite monster.
There were fewer than twenty people gathered, but being able to make their way through the higher-level part of the forest showed their cooperative abilities.
"Angelica?!" A tall blonde boy with a sword yelled out.
"Dustin, how could you use me as bait?" Angelica gritted her teeth.
This turned the heads of the entire group; an accusation like that was something people would latch onto one way or another.
"Dustin, is this true?" A handsome boy with short black hair pushed himself forward. He was equipped with long flowing robes, a necklace, several rings and an expensive-looking staff.
Dustin started to avoid his stare, "Of course not, she doesn't know what she is talking about."
"I, Han Fletcher, am nothing but not a fair judge; I will hear both sides of the story before deciding the truth," Han announced to everyone around.
"How righteous!"
"What a good person."
People started throwing words of support.
Dustin quickly summed up his side, "Angelica was part of our party, but he had some small difficulties when we first encountered a pair of wolves. It seems we got separated during the battle. I decided that it would be faster to return here instead of wandering to find her."
"I see so you think it was a tragedy of circumstance." Han was slowly gathering people in a half circle around him.
"How about you?" He looked towards Angelica.
"That bastard is lying through his teeth. When our party first encountered a pair of wolves, we tried fighting, but the second we actually clashed, Dustin and the other members of our party ran away like the cowards they are."
"So you claim that Dustin and the other members of your party left you behind."
"Now that I have the claims of both sides, I will begin judging the truth." Han spread his arms in a grand gesture, and several people began to cheer.
"There might be a simpler way to handle this. Let us ask the other members of the party."
Two other people stepped forward, and they aligned their story with Dustin's.
'What a freak.' Cassian thought.