Death's Disciple [Sys Apoc, OP Villain MC, LitRPG] Chapter 36: 1.36 Disciple Upgrades

Read chapter 36 of Death's Disciple [Sys Apoc, OP Villain MC, LitRPG] by TTReynolds on NovelPedia.

1.36 Disciple Upgrades Chapter 36 “Gerard is telling everyone it’s all a part of his plan and that 'Azazel' is just another ally,” Richard said. I merely nodded. “How did you even change your face like that? Even I didn’t recognize you in the meeting room.” “An item, something I got from the last Dungeon,” I explain, leaving out crucial details, of course. “It was rather fortunate really, it let me change my plans a bit. I was thinking I would have to do far more cloak and dagger stuff. Possibly, kill Gerard and have you take his place at the head of the Guild.” “Really?” I looked back at my friend, he had stopped practicing with his sword, and was looking at me in shock. “Yeah, who else could I trust?” I shrugged. No one. I could trust no one. But Richard was the closest person I had to being able to trust anybody. Maybe Barry, or my sponsor? But those two options didn’t feel right. One was a cosmic entity beyond understanding, the other was someone I was lying to every day. I was lying to a lot of people, really, but it was necessary. Luckily, the new item would let me do that far more easily. “Thanks, man,” he said before going back to his training. “So… the item… lets you change… how you look?” He grunted out the words in between thrusts, swings and footwork as he practiced. “Yeah, I set up a whole identity and everything. It even gives a nice stat boost,” which was an understatement, if anything. The mask gave way more to my mental stats than I could actually utilize for some time. Even with my level-up, free points, and the stats I harvested from my kills, I wasn’t close to having them high enough to have a plus fifty bonus being within my ten percent equipment cap. [Name: Adam Pierce Class: Death’s Disciple Level: 15 Titles: Pioneer III, True Prodigy, Death Harbinger, Heir to Death, True Defender, Horde Breaker Stats: Strength: 44 Dexterity: 117 (123) Vitality: 76 (81) Intelligence: 56 (61) Willpower: 68 (73)] I would need to get my mental stats up past a base of 500 before the mask’s boost was below that ten percent max. Something I didn’t see happening all too soon. My stats were still growing, thanks to my level up and free points, as well as the upgraded Pioneer title, for being one of the first to clear an Uncommon Dungeon. In fact, the last level up I received was even a bigger boon than any before it. All classes upgraded as a Hunter leveled up, meeting certain thresholds. Reaching level fifteen, being the first. Every upgrade was different, and increasing the per-level stat gain one received was on the rarer side, but not horribly uncommon. Expanded skill trees, or increased ability potency was the usual. The class upgrade for Death’s Disciple turned out to be deceptively simple, but huge in its own right. Firstly, it increased the per-level stat gain I received from a plus two, to a plus three. Though this increase wasn’t retroactive to my previous levels like first gaining the class was. But also, it came with a new Class Skill, which was far more rare when it came to upgrades, at least for the first class upgrade, anyway. [New Skill Acquired; Soul Strike Effect: Tap into your Soul Usher ability to spend gathered essence and enhance your strikes. Soul Essence becomes weaponized to target your opponent’s soul, causing damage directly. Spent Soul Essence is lost once used. Increased expenditure further increases damage.] I didn’t know what direct soul damage would do, but it certainly sounded strong, something I doubted basic healing spells, even from someone like Norton, would be able to do anything about. The problem was that it required me to spend my well earned Soul Essence. A pool of energy that I was already finding myself more and more in need of. The cost for the various options that the Soul Usher ability offered was far steeper than I realized. And that was just the options I had attempted so far. I hadn’t even tried to consume essence for experience yet, not even to mention the ‘Dominate Essence’ opt