{You cannot consume any more of your held cores. Their power is too low to advance you.}

{DING! You gain 41 levels. You are now level 345.}

{You gain 492 DEX, 492 STR, 738 VIT, 574 MAG, 287 PSY, 287 DEF}

{Reaching level 310 has granted you advancement. Choose one of your progression paths other than [Hellfire].}

"Looks like I landed at 345," she told Dazel.

"Not bad, but not a huge game-changer," he said. "Especially since most of your available upgrades will still be ones that you retained from tier 2."

"I could just clear them," she said. "But some of them are pretty nice."

They were both standing atop the tower at the center of their hijacked nexus bastion. After Ashtoreth had decided on their next move, they'd warped out of HQ to set it on a slow and steady course back to its initial position.

Tomorrow, they'd be using it as a launching-off position to attack the higher-level forces of Hell that were still on the approach.

"I still don't understand why you wouldn't level up to 345 before," said Dazel. "You have the cores."

"That's easy," said Ashtoreth. "More tier 3 upgrades are definitely a good thing, but levelling past 300 to fight the initial invasion is like a heavyweight boxer doing steroids to prepare for a fight with a toddler. It's just an unnecessary increase in strength."

"You spent the last day wondering if level 300 or higher humans are going to attack you."

"I don't know, the humans don't feel that threatening," she said. "Unless one of them headshots me from far away before I can spot them, I can't really see how they'd beat me."

"Doesn't make sense to me—you're the one who thinks so highly of them."

"Of their potential," she corrected. "Elite human soldiers aren't going to be able to wield magic weapons and manipulate magic well enough to threaten me, not yet." She frowned. "I guess I'm building specifically for 1v1, now. [Drain], please!"

{Advance [Drain]}

{Choose an upgrade to gain, then choose to retain or replace all other options}

Gain the [Power Tap] ability:

You can briefly increase one of your stats by a very high amount.

After this buff wears off, you receive a temporary (6 second) penalty to all your stats equal to one sixth the value of the buff. You cannot use [Power Tap] again while this debuff is active.

Upgrade [Aura] with [Aura: Tithe]

Add 30m to the radius of your [Aura].

Enemies affected by your [Aura] will have all their stats reduced by a low amount. You gain an equal amount of stats.

This effect is slightly reduced for each added enemy it effects.

Upgrade [Aura] with [Aura: Thirst]

Add 30m to the radius of your [Aura].

Enemies affected by your [Aura] will have their [Mana] or other resources drained at a low speed, replenishing your [Bloodfire].

"Thirst, huh?" she said, looking at the newcomer. "I think I just got the same aura that Famine has."

"Huh. Any good?"

"I don't know," she said. "My class really doesn't need a lot of area-of-effect upgrades to kill armies, but even if the drain effect on this one is stupidly slow, it'll still be very good." She shrugged. "But I have all these hearts I can eat to replenish resources anyway."

"Think it'll help you fight Famine 1v1?"

"Somehow I feel like his aura had a lot more upgrades than mine," she said. "I was guzzling down the hellfire that I created by burning my life harvest buff just to keep up with it." She peered at the ability. "Still, I suppose it'd help. Anyway, I knew what I came here for. "[Power Tap], please!"

{You gain the [Power Tap] ability.}

{Reaching level 320 has granted you advancement. Choose one of your progression paths other than [Drain].}

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

It was an unusual [Drain] ability, in that it drained her, not her enemies. She been carrying it around in her advancements for a while, but hadn't taken it on account of the fact that she hadn't really needed it.

Now, however, she was deadset on doing everything she could to attain the speed and power necessary to strike War and Famine with decisive, combat-ending blows. Her shots from Rammstein and her mighty blows and strikes from Luftschloss were already massively powerful. [Power Tap] would hopefully give her even more of an edge.

She was hoping that she could build enough magical power that her hellfire could dismiss War's weapons and armor.

And there was one aspect in particular that would help her with that.

"[Hellfire], please!" she said.

{Advance [Hellfire]}

{Choose an upgrade to gain, then choose to retain or replace all other options}

Upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Rune II]

Doubles the amount of [Bloodfire] that you can spend on an individual hellfire rune.

You can now have two thirds of your [Bloodfire] invested in hellfire runes.

Upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Penetration II]

Your hellfire now ignores an amount of your enemy's highest resistance against it equal to five times your level.

Upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Elemental]

You can invest a high amount of [Bloodfire] to create a hellfire elemental. The elemental is a minion made of hellfire, and you can command it telepathically.

Ashtoreth gasped and burst out into a grin. "[Hellfire Elemental]!" she exclaimed. "Oh my gosh. Dazel, do you think I could summon one as like, a little cutie?"

"Is that going to help you save Earth?"

"Just because the System doesn't quantify morale bonuses doesn't mean they don't exist," she said reproachfully. "Is someone perhaps… jealous?"

"No."

"You sure?"

"Certain."

"A lil' bitty ember of damnation could really steal your kittycat thunder."

"...Really, boss, I don't think I want whatever you mean by 'thunder.'"

"Tch," she said. "Everybody wants thunder. I think I'll get the elemental on the second pass, anyway—I'm just here for the dispels. [Hellfire Penetration II], please!"

{You upgrade your [Hellfire] ability with [Hellfire Penetration II].}

{Reaching level 330 has granted you advancement. Choose one of your progression paths other than [Hellfire].}

"Thanks!" she said. "Okay, now what?"

"Beats me," said Dazel. "I've never planned your build for you."

"Except for that time you grilled me about my [Defense]."

"That perfectly justified time, you mean."

"I've got another rank of penetration for Rammstein in [Armament]," she said. "But [Aura: Tithe] is stronger when it's effecting fewer targets. I may be pretty fast at pulling out my cannon, but I'm not sure how fast I am compared to War. [Drain], please!"

{Advance [Drain]}

{Choose an upgrade to gain, then choose to retain or replace all other options}

Upgrade [Aura] with [Aura: Tithe]

Add 30m to the radius of your [Aura].

Enemies affected by your [Aura] will have all their stats reduced by a low amount. You gain an equal amount of stats.

This effect is slightly reduced for each added enemy it effects.

Upgrade [Aura] with [Aura: Thirst]

Add 30m to the radius of your [Aura].

Enemies affected by your [Aura] will have their [Mana] or other resources drained at a low speed, replenishing your [Bloodfire].

Gain the [Spellsteal] ability.

You can slowly charge this ability with up to a high amount of [Bloodfire].

You may launch this ability as a bolt of draining power any time after you've begun charging it. You may also release this ability when you touch a spell effect or a creature under a magical effect.

Doing so will attempt to absorb the magical effect and allow you to create that effect once yourself. Whether or not you are successful depends on the spell's strength compared to your [Magic] stat as well as how much [Bloodfire] you have charged into this ability.

"Huh," Ashtoreth said. "Talk about tier 3. I got [Spellsteal]. That's better than [Aura: Tithe], right?"

"Yeah. Probably. Especially if you surprise them with it."

"I can be surprising."

"I'm not sure you'll be able to take War's armor or weapons," Dazel said. "But who knows? Even if you just use it to block whatever he did to clear your [Energy Drain] debuff you can keep the initiative long enough to get a deathblow."

"And isn't that what Christmas is all about?" she asked.

"What."

"I'll have to practice with it," she said. "[Spellsteal], please!"

{You gain the [Spellsteal] ability.}

{Reaching level 340 has granted you advancement. Choose one of your progression paths other than [Drain].}

"Thank you! And I'll take [Hellfire], please!"

{Advance [Hellfire]}

{Choose an upgrade to gain, then choose to retain or replace all other options}

Upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Rune II]

Doubles the amount of [Bloodfire] that you can spend on an individual hellfire rune.

You can now have two thirds of your [Bloodfire] invested in hellfire runes.

Upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Elemental]

You can invest a high amount of [Bloodfire] to create a hellfire elemental. The elemental is a minion made of hellfire, and you can command it telepathically.

Upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Volley II]

Doubles both the maximum number of javelins you may have conjured at a time and the rate at which you can conjure them.

"Dang," she said. "I was kind of hoping for one incredibly strong single-target hellfire spell." She sighed. "Maybe that took the form of a giant beam? But I guess we're going with the original plan of lil' bitty ember of damnation isn't exactly a loss."

"Unless you lose later."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'll take [Hellfire Elemental], please."

{You upgrade [Hellfire] with [Hellfire Elemental].}

"All right," she said, yawning and stretching out her wings. "Want to give us a circle? Time to go catch a few Z's and then gather the team for the assault."

She put her hands on her hips as she looked out over the expanse of unpainted metal beneath her, smiling and letting out a wistful sigh. "It's nice to level up," she said. "I feel like it's been forever."

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