Impenetrable Dungeon - Chapter 13

Martial Skills, simply known as Skills in the world of adventurers, were techniques that required precise body movements in order to execute the skill with the occasional assistance of mana to further boost the power of the skill and consequently the user. This way of exerting power is not commonly used in the world of adventurers however to warriors this was a necessary part of their training. There was a saying that millions could use magic as long as they had the ability to sense mana in the air or were given the ability, but within those millions only one would be able to fully execute the power of a Martial Skill. There was also another saying that a single Martial skill would equate to hundreds of Magic Skills. Although this was highly exaggerated it had some truth to it. All the races capable of using magic had a physical body, even the most adept at magic – the elves – had one. This made it hard for them to fully display the power of magic which was abstract and intangible. On the other hand, Martial Skills required the use of the body which all the races had used since birth and they were extremely adept at controlling their bodies to do a variety of things. This allowed them to better demonstrate the power of Martial Skills however this did not take away the difficulty of learning Martial Skills. To learn Martial Skills, one put themselves through rigorous training that lasted years. As such most people opted to learn the less difficult Magic Skills.

Martial Skills Skills were ranked: Mortal, Ancestral, Earth, King, Heaven, Emperor, Supreme, Immortal Saint and Void. Each one was divided into 9 grades with 1 being the lowest and 9 the highest. One’s achievement in skills would be ranked: low, medium, high, pinnacle, perfection, source, creation.

Meanwhile, Magic Skills were ranked from 0th Tier to 12th Tier. Each tier was broken down into 9 circles with the 1st circle being the weakest and 9th circle being the strongest. Most magic would fall under Elemental Magic which is the most prominent type of Magic but there were other less well-known types as well like Dungeon Magic.

Usually, the skills used by a person would be ranked in comparison to the adventurer who could use that type of magic. For example, a 0th Tier 1st Circle Magic would usually be referred to as a Low-Rank Apprentice Magic as all Apprentice Ranked Adventurers would be able to use them. However, less talented adventurers would be able to use 0th Tier 3rd or 4th Circle Magic so this would be known as Medium-Rank Apprentice Magic. This was how the ranking of magic usually worked in the Dungeon World but it was incredibly inaccurate at times. For example, a weak 1st Tier 2nd Circle Magic would be referred to as a High-Rank Apprentice Magic instead of a Low-Rank Amateur Magic. This was simply due to the reason that the magic did not have enough destructive power. However, it is undoubtedly a Low-Rank Amateur Magic if used in the right way; if someone were to see a demonstration of the proper usage then they would declare it to be a Low-Rank Amateur Magic but people would still argue that it was a High-Rank Apprentice Magic. This was mostly due to the unclear difference between each rank of magic. As such more magic reliant races such as the elves developed a new clearer system.

Currently, Marcus was sitting in a meditative position in the middle of his room. He was thinking of what skills to make. To a prodigy like him, it was easy to create any kind of skill, whether it be Martial or Magic he could do it. In fact, even an Apprentice Ranked Adventurer could do it! However, the difference was whether the skill would be an effective one or utter garbage. An effective and successful skill should be able to achieve the desired effect with little energy or mana used as possible. However, the decrease in the amount of energy or mana shouldn’t decrease the strength and effectivity of a skill. This was why a treasure abundant world such as the Dungeon World only had a Grandmaster Ranked Adventurer. They had the materials to make the foundation but the ones who made the foundations had skills that could only be described as inept. Marcus was looking at the skills that the adventurers had unleashed against his Honour Guards and he couldn’t help but be disappointed. Their way of manipulating mana was so crude that even barbarians could do better/ Even worse was that there was not a single person who used a Martial Skill! This meant that this world was extremely primitive in its ability to inflict damage upon their enemies. Even their way of swing their swords and raising their shields had lots of flaws in Marcus’ eyes that it looked like a sieve to him!

Right now he was thinking of universal skills that he could use to train the youngsters in his dungeon. After all, his goal was to build a mini world within the confines of his dungeon. The problem he was running into was that he couldn’t find a way to account for the different physiques of different races without sacrificing effectivity. This was completely unacceptable to him. He would rather not make a skill than a flawed one that could cause harm to its user. However, no matter how hard he tried he was unable to create even a single suitable skill. He decided that he would leave the universal skills for last and first create specific skills. This was an easier task as he had less to take into consideration. Even if there were some parts of the population that the skill couldn’t cover he simply had to make a new skill to cover up the hole. He couldn’t do this with the universal skills since it meant that the inhabitants of his dungeon would have to specialise in one way of fighting. For example, an elf would specialise in kiting their enemies while an orc could just run up to him and clobber him. This wasn’t even considering that each person had a different elemental affinity.