by Arthur Stone
Opening his inventory, Dark began dragging essences onto his skill icons in batches, tapping the small check boxes in the confirmation dialogs that appeared. After a few seconds, he had only three level 9 cores remaining.
The icons flashed with their familiar light. Dark knew they would fade about a minute later. When they did, though, the Skill Tree appeared.
X’s skill system was complicated. Start abilities were practically worthless, and difficult to level in any normal style of play. Once your character reached level 10, you could choose a specialty, complete a related quest, and get a couple of decent abilities. Most players contented themselves with these abilities—obtaining others required magic books, which were too difficult or expensive to obtain. They were rare, obtained only from hard-to-reach chests or, occasionally, as drops from the most powerful bosses or as rewards from random complex quests. Due to their minimal supply and astronomical demand, dealers often charged a price high enough to buy a prestigious apartment in a decent megalopolis.
That didn’t mean that players attacked each other with nothing more than raw physical attacks and a pair of specialty icons.
After all, skills didn’t just level up, they also activated skill tree branches. Leveling up high enough let you select a more advanced ability. This didn’t merely upgrade the ability: It added a brand new ability for you, a new icon in its own slot. The new ability shared things in common with its predecessor, but also had unique aspects. These branches were leveled just like start abilities, and independently of one another.
An ability could branch several times, whether during normal leveling or by completing certain tasks. So one ability could become three—or even more. Thus, many players ended up with far more icons than two at their disposal.
This was where Dark found himself. All three skills reached level 10 and, in addition to the standard power boost when leveling up, gained new properties automatically. Each icon received above it a stylized icon of a branching tree. Now, Dark needed to select a branch for each ability. Then all of the others would disappear, and new icons would be at his disposal.
Examining the available options, he quickly concluded that there were not enough of them and that those which were available were, for the most part, useless, unless he simply lacked the experience to understand why he would want them. Sadly, he could not view the later options the game would offer for each branch. Nor did the forum elucidate anything, since start abilities were not even discussed there. It was the norm to avoid developing these abilities in the world of X: They were too weak to spend time and energy on.
As he continued mindlessly chipping away at the cave wall, Dark stepped through each branch and selected the best.
His starting skill now looked as follows: Avalanche of Feeling, Level 10. Active skill. Activating this skill increases sensation by 200%. Magic energy cost: 75. Duration: 40 seconds. Activating this skill for 40 seconds restores your Stamina to 100%. Cooldown: 45 minutes.
Now Dark was able to use this ability not just to gain extra XP but also to recover Stamina, at the expense of a small amount of Mana. That might come in handy.
The branch ability of Avalanche of Feeling was aptly named “Suffering.” Activating this skill increases the target’s sensation by 200%. Magic energy cost: 100. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 0.5 hours. Note: If the player has not enabled “Accept negative effects, including those which increase painful sensations,” their level of sensation will not increase.” In this case, if the target is an ally, the only effect will be an increase in experience received. If the target is an enemy, they will receive a different negative effect, including disorientation, partial or complete sensory shutdown, partial or complete paralysis, seizures, or temporary unconsciousness. Monsters and NPCs receive similar effects. If the target is affected by pain factors while Suffering is acted, the duration of Suffering may increase in proportion to the potential pain. Note: If the target is not affected by pain factors at all, there is a chance that this ability will not have any effect.
Suffering was clear enough: a debuff with a long cooldown time. Once per half hour, he could spend 100 Mana for a good 10-second control ability. The target would be unable to flee, attack, or even defend itself in most of the listed states. If they had that option checked, they would also scream in pain—and possible suffer a real-life problem with their neurosynth links. Assuming the enemy was taking some kind of damage during the ability’s duration.
At character level 1, Dark had received Stream of Regeneration. Now that it was at level 10, he could recover exactly 10 Health per 1 Mana spent. Plus, there was a new effect—and an increased cooldown time: Remove randomly 1 negative effect from self, an ally (or pet of an ally), or a neutral character (or pet of a neutral character). Cooldown: 15 seconds. Quite useful: He would live in less fear of mobs like the tougher ghosts with their long-acting debuffs.
The branched ability from Stream of Restoration was called “Pillar of Light.” When this ability is activated, the target gains 100 Health, plus an additional 100 Health regenerated evenly over 10 seconds. Magic energy cost: 100. Cooldown: 2 seconds. Another healing spell, but more costly. However, the cooldown was so quick that it was good for casting a couple of times in a row if he had to flee the battle. It would enable him to withstand a few attacks to his rear. Even if he was paralyzed, the delayed 100 Health would increase his chances of surviving past the control effect’s duration. Perhaps there were other use cases. At any rate, that was the best option Dark could see from those often.
The most interesting development was that received by Onslaught of Light, the offensive ability he had obtained at level 3. Now it drained 8 Health per unit of Mana spent, and in addition, its maximum range jumped to 15 meters. It also gained a control effect: any target hit with it had a 5% chance of being blinded for 2 seconds. The ability’s cooldown was now precisely 10 seconds.
But that was all insignificant compared to the branch unlocked for Onslaught of Light: “Possessed by Light.”
Active skill. Spend all Mana, or a part of it, as determined by the caster, to charge a weapon or a consumable that deals damage with pure Light Magic. Successful attacks with the charged item will not only deal physical damage but also one-time Light Magic damage. Note: A magic weapon can be charged with this ability, but this effect will only activate when an attack physically contacts the enemy.
Level 10. Every 1 point of charge deals 3 Health points of damage. Cooldown: 30 seconds. This effect lasts 20 minutes. When this duration expires, the item loses all charge.
Dark read the description another three times, trying to find the catch. It seemed to be exactly what he thought from the start.
Picking up the closest stone he could find, he used Possessed by Light on it, spending 100 Mana. The stone flickered slightly, and then a countdown was added to it, including potential damage dealt by the magic energy it now held.
In theory, if Dark threw this stone at an enemy, it would take some tiny amount of physical damage plus 300 Light Magic damage.
Tossing this at a regular ghost would take most of its hit points. And he could attack from any distance: the skill’s description did not forbid projectiles from being possessed.
Actually, he doubted it would work on ghosts. Arrows, stones, and so on just flew through them, without dealing any damage at all.
But with other creatures...
It seemed this world had no resistance mechanic against Light Magic. So, if the damage dealt varied from case to case, the variance would be minimal. A significant level difference would reduce it, but that was only about a 25% reduction for every 100 levels of difference. Dark would never approach mobs which were that much more powerful than he.
His natural Intellect was now 12, and his items gave that a bonus +14. Every point of Intellect added +25 max Mana. That plus his 50 starting Mana and the 50 gained with each character level gave him a total of exactly 1000 Mana.
Pouring all of that into an arrow would make that arrow about to
knock out 3000 of the opponents Health in a single blow.
Impressive. This was what the stranger had meant by being “imba,” short for “imbalanced.” With this ability, only elites and bosses could scare Dark. Any mob, up to level 35 or so, was now vulnerable to his new ability. One blow from an arrow, assuming he hit.
Of course, even if he did hit, he would have to do so from a place of safety. After all, his Mana regenerated at a paltry 7 per minute. A full refill would take 2 hours and 23 minutes. Meaning that he couldn’t mow down a dozen huge mobs in a day. Sure, big mobs granted lots of experience, but he could get much more for killing two or three hundred low-level ghosts.
So it wasn’t a life changer for him, but still, he couldn’t shake the scent of opportunity.
He would think carefully about how to take advantage of Possessed by Light.
All the while, he would be reevaluating his character leveling strategy. The ghosts would be unable to provide Dark with soul essences of the levels he needed. He would need to find a source of mobs at levels 11 and 12. And lots of them. His abilities required more and more soul essences with each level. Plus, now he had six abilities to work on, not just three.
Sadly the branch abilities were not leveled along with their foundational abilities. Their progress was now completely separate.
Chapter 45
The Second Task
Total stat levels: 42 +2.
Character level: 7.
Mastery level: 5.
The hut did not seem to be abandoned. Yes, the logs had been darkened with time, and the roof was clearly not new. Everything was overgrown with moss. But none of the desolation of centuries of abandonment was visible. Even the grass leading up to the door seemed recently trampled.
Dark was used to bad surprises by now, so he made no move to hurry out of his place in the undergrowth.
For fifteen minutes, he had moved along the edge of a sparse oak forest. The path that ran around the city had led him here. It had started out as a serious paved road. Then, it had dwindled into a dirt road, and then a forest path, and then almost nothing. Only the absence of bushes and frequent notches in the trees on either side continued to evidence its presence.
He had encountered none of what he was searching for—mobs levels 10 and up—on the road or in the forest. Just rabbits, squirrels, deer, and one wild boar. Those provided hides, meat, and bones, but none of the soul essences he needed.
This hut was the first interesting place.
It was likely Ethrian.
Dark received a bonus for discovering a new location. Nothing about the location name seemed ominous, but that meant little. The hut could be empty, or his death could be waiting within. He didn’t want to risk teleporting back yet. He charged another arrow with Possessed by Light. 100 Mana. That was enough to take down most level 7 mobs in a single shot. If the opponent was more serious, Dark’s Mana reserve was full enough to win with other methods.
Of course, if the opponent was much more serious, nothing could help him.
Bow at the ready, he circled the hut and looked into its tiny windows. It was too dark, and the windows too dull, to see anything. The dust of time had fogged up the windows, and if there was a current owner, he did not take time to clean them.
Should I just pass by? Anything truly dangerous inside would send Dark back, a hard hour’s walk away from here. But how could he pass up a house?
A massive wooden door often held great treasures behind it.
It creaked so loudly that he feared the zombies in the city would hear him and start their endless pursuit. No one rushed to attack him. He stepped inside, and began to relax.
The house was one large room, so there were no hidden corners nor hallways. No skeletons, no zombies, no monsters. Just rough wooden furniture, everywhere covered in dust. The only strange element in the place was the hefty boulder in the center of the room.
Wait... on that table, in the middle of those empty bottles... Yes! It was a sheet of parchment covered in mysterious scribbles!
Dark would, of course, read it right away.
Sitting on a wobbly stool, he ran his eyes across each and every character. A message appeared, but not the one he expected.
You have read the following letter:
“Kavira, you promised to return before one day has passed, but it has been a week. It seems the demons have taken you. I did not agree to this. I’ve had enough. I’m leaving this cursed house. And I don’t give a damn about all those degenerates. Let them die in their holes and be eaten by worms, or by each other. I have covered the place with a stone so that they cannot escape. Now the cellar will be the farthest they can get. I wish you nothing but nightmares. Goodbye forever, you fool.
P.S. I drank all of your pisspoor brew in one shot. Thank you. I wouldn’t have survived a week in this shithole if I was sober. But you’re going to have to try now!
Note: You have read an ancient note and unlocked a quest: Secret of the Locked Hatch. To complete this quest, find out what secret the hatch is hiding. Quest Reward: +100 Luck progress points. Do you accept the quest?
Yes/No.
Without hesitating, Dark selected Yes. He was already in the house. It would be stupid to leave without seeing what was in the basement. It seemed, of course, that the relatives of this ancient Kavira were there. But he’d get a good Luck boost, and perhaps the “degenerates” would have turned into zombies or something similar.
He hoped they were level 11, or higher.
* * *
After killing another mob, Dark found himself agreeing with the author of the note. These had been degenerates. He cursed Kavira and her spawn, all ugly, stupid creatures. And smellier than pigs. Instead of digging out of the basement, to the surface, they had dug a system of tunnels in the basement that required him to nearly crawl. They had done nothing over the centuries, it seemed, except for expanding the dungeon under the house, covering it with luminous mold, and breeding vigorously in its greenish glow. He had killed thirty-six of them now, and still they came. One woman could not have possibly produced so many monsters, so they must have gotten busy on their own.
They had grown too fat on the “worms and each other” and had difficulty pursuing Dark through the narrower tunnels. He showered them with arrows and magic as he retreated and took hardly any damage himself. Much less damage than with the ghosts, at least. His gag reflex was growing tiring.
All of the mobs he encountered were the same, down to their inbred facial features, and their levels ranged from 5 to 7.
This was clearly a location for starting players. He would need to find another place.
Still, he had discovered new mobs, and that was worth some bonuses. They had been predictably named “Kavira’s Degenerates.” Each bonus from these discoveries added something to a skill and to his immense Knowledge.
Wait, what is that? The tunnel ended in a small chamber with a comparably large chest standing in its center.
Note: You have discovered an ancient moderate-level hiding place. Bonus: +50 Perception progress points, +10 Luck progress points.
The game always rewarded its players.
Dark opened the chest and at last received the quest ending he had been yearning for.
Note: Secret of the Locked Hatch quest complete! +100 Luck progress points received.
The chest contained a pouch of 17 silver coins and a Superb Invincibility Potion. Its level requirement was 7, so Dark could use it right now. The potion gave its consumed total protection: neither damage nor debuffs could harm him for its duration. And that duration was a full 12 seconds.
There was no need to search every nook and cranny. He might find a few more degenerates. What of it? They would just be a waste of time. He had bigger quarry. Somewhere.
Chapter 46
Deceitful Eyes
Total stat levels: 42 +2.
Character level: 7.
Mastery level: 5.
The oak forest ended. A message notified him
of his new location: Shallow Slope. That provided no helpful hints whatsoever. Crouching in the shade by the edge of the new location, he studied it. The gentle descent justified its name and ended at an elongated lake. He could not see the far ends of the body of water to the left or right, but the opposite shore was quite visible. A tall, rocky cliff rose over the water on that side. It looked like a continuation of the cliff he had flown off of several times.
No mobs were in sight, save a rabbit slipping through the grass.
In fact, there was nothing suspicious, nor even notable. Dark headed for the water. As his altitude dropped, some things formerly hidden came into view, in particular, ruins on the far side. They were not of a full city, but nor were they just a dilapidated cottage. Something like a small castle, a palace, or perhaps a temple. Evil spirits liked such places, so he might have a good chance of finding the mobs he needed there.
Or at least some new discoveries.
Dark headed along the coast. Along the way, he checked the description of his loaded arrow. Its charge still had eleven minutes to go, and he would likely reach the ruins well before that. But charging another arrow was a good idea—there was no telling what might be waiting for him there. The lake was suspiciously gloomy and devoid of living things. Although the water was pure enough to see every pebble at the bottom, nothing could be seen moving. No algae, no moss, no slime, no bugs. Certainly no fish. Despite the windless weather of the day, he failed to notice a single ripple on the surface, some sign of something breaking it.
The lake was lifeless. Of course, the opposite was potentially true: something so mighty could live in this lake that it killed everything else, all while staying invisible itself.
Dark emerged into the valley by a stunted stream that flowed into the lake. He drank from it, then climbed the slope behind which he had seen the ruins. His estimate that they were two or three hundred yards away proved correct.
