by Nikita Thorn
“This is amazing!” he shouted to Ippei.
The samurai had walked to the end of the cliff and was looking out at the scenery. He smiled and pointed out the snow-capped landmark. “Kyouhou Peak.”
Seiki could have guessed. He was in no mood to ruin the moment with a joke about the Archers, and so he simply nodded and continued drinking in the view. He now understood why a clan would be protective of such a territory, and why it would perhaps be worth trying to see it once, but even that thought seemed faraway and irrelevant in the face of the wilderness before them.
He finally let out a deep breath, and tore his eyes away and climbed down to join Ippei by the cliff edge. “This is worth the detour.”
Ippei nodded back toward the side of the clearing. “Oh, this isn’t a detour.”
In his excitement for the view, Seiki had completely missed the sole manmade structure on the ledge. Following his friend’s gesture, he now noticed a small wooden construction nestled between two giant spruces. The tree branches hung low, hiding much of its faded green roof from view.
Ippei was suddenly grinning like a ten-year-old who was showing off his secret backyard base. “Your first Free Slot definitely deserves better than the same old Mani Shrine.”
Seiki’s eyes widened. “Is this—”
He did not even finish his own question as he dashed off to look at it. The small building was of simple but tasteful design. About ten feet across, the structure was on a raised wooden platform. Without walls, its four bare pillars directly held up a green tile roof, while another two pillars marked the entrance under its small decorative gable. The thick woven shimenawa rope hung across the top, marking it as a spiritual place.
“Houkaku Shrine,” Seiki read from the small wooden plaque as he approached the building. Two more lines of text detailed how the place was commissioned in the reign of Emperor Genmu for local villagers. Next to the sign, by the entrance, was a small wooden shelf, stacked with sake offerings in paper-wrapped barrels.
Three shallow stone steps covered with soft lichen led up to the entrance, and as Seiki walked onto the first, a familiar notification greeted him:
Welcome to Houkaku Shrine! Sacred grounds. PVP status: disabled.
He turned to look at Ippei.
The samurai smiled. “Go ahead, you know what to do.”
Within the shrine, in front of a checker lattice wood panel that served as half its back wall, was a large wooden rectangular altar. A carved sign on it bore the word ‘Citizens’, denoting that it was usable by all classes to apply or change their Enhancements, Modifications and other Skills.
Seiki somehow had already unconsciously retrieved the Shussebora Scale of the Protector from his inventory. Wasting no more time, he knelt down on the wood floor and read the text out loud.
Are you sure you wish to apply the following ability to your Free Slot? Ability: Protection of the Sea – place a protective shield over a single target within 60 feet for 6 seconds, absorbing damage equal to up to 200% of the target’s maximum health but not exceeding 200% of the user’s current health. Damage exceeding the absorbed amount transfers back onto the user after a 3-second delay if the user is within 60 feet of the target. Lockout: 3 minutes.
“Yes,” said Seiki.
You have successfully applied the Ability: Protection of the Sea to your Free Slot.
Unlike the previous times when he modified or enhanced his abilities, which had been a simple transaction, he felt an unexpected rush of energy flush through him, like a glass jug filled with too much water from too far up a height that it spilled more than it could hold. Suppressing a shiver and a gasp, Seiki leapt to his feet, almost out of reflex, and shook off the urge to burst into a run.
The feeling disappeared as soon as it came, and, with it, the description on the Shussebora Scale in his hand faded away. Most Enhancement or Modification Scrolls were single-use items and disappeared shortly afterward.
“So you do get to keep it,” said Ippei.
Seiki turned to see his friend walking up the steps to the shrine.
“Yeah. I’ll put it on Master Tsujihara’s altar.” He chuckled, somehow liking the idea very much. “The description is gone, and I can now only see the item label, so I guess they’re letting me have it as a keepsake.”
The samurai shook his head. “I think you still have it. The description disappears in order to prevent you from putting it in more than one Free Slot at a time.”
“Oh, awesome.” Because of how he had gotten the ability, he doubted he would ever remove it from his Free Slot, so it would most likely not matter.
“There was a major Shogun Achievement scroll that someone once got that worked like that,” the samurai explained. “The scroll was enchanted paper wrapped around a metal roller, and it gave him a permanent ability he could switch out at any time.”
Seiki nodded, as he returned the Shussebora Scale to his pocket.
That earned him a long look from Ippei. “You have no idea how good your Free Slot is, do you?”
Seiki blinked.
Ippei laughed. “You don’t understand. That Shogun Achievement was for clearing every war event up to the Siege of Awahara Castle on 5:1 odds. No one has ever done that after Beta, ever since they buffed the fire-spitting demons in Nenshou. Permanent scrolls only come from exceptional achievements.”
“Oh.”
“And what the guy got was a universal Free Slot that allowed him to dual-wield any of his moves once every two minutes. And you know what that means?”
“Uh…”
“His X-Cuts were un-Parry-able.”
“Okay.” Seiki was starting to understand where his friend was going. Most Swerve Cuts were not completely Parry-able in the first place, since there was often no time to block the immediate follow-up second strike. Seiki guessed being able to dual-wield meant you were pretty much guaranteed to get three slashes in on an already powerful move. “Yeah, that’s incredible.”
Ippei nodded. “And I say class-specific because you’re meant to use it with the X-Cut as it’s on the exact same lockout rotation. I’m sure your shield is ronin-specific as well, and, trust me, it’s going to be ridiculously strong.”
“Hopefully.” Seiki grinned. “Once every three minutes, we survive a Kano Castle one-shot.” From the description it looked that way, but there were several things he still needed to try out to get a real feel for it.
“Let’s see what it can do, then.” Ippei led the way into the middle of the clearing, and Seiki wondered if the place was designed that way just to give space for people who wanted to immediately test their new abilities.
Checking his menu, Seiki found Protection of the Sea now listed. He then realized he had no idea how to activate the shield. All his abilities so far had involved physical action and energy contact points. This one was different, and was free to use, and so he was not sure how to go about it.
He turned toward Ippei and willed a shield over his friend.
Nothing happened.
He then tried raising his hand and activating a mental command.
Again, nothing happened.
Grimacing, he started waving his hand, hoping something would catch, and at this point Ippei started to break down into a laughing fit.
Seiki gave up grappling in the dark before he could be tempted into trying something more embarrassing. “Okay, any idea how to do this?”
“For anything magic, it’s… breathing.”
“Like… uh, meditation?” Seiki guessed.
“Nothing that difficult. You just have to make sure you have enough air in your lungs.”
That sounded simple enough. Seiki looked at Ippei again as he consciously drew a breath, slightly skeptical about the result.
To his surprise, a faint shimmery shape appeared in his consciousness, not exactly an overlay on top of his vision, but something he was aware of at the back of his mind, like the knowledge of war instance t
errain that had been mapped out by someone else in the group. The multiple graceful curves of the symbol were deliberate, but did not form any character Seiki could recognize. As he continued to let oxygen into his lungs, the shape filled, from one end to the other as if an invisible hand was drawing it in the air. At the end, it flashed like a glowing rune of light.
Suddenly, Seiki’s thought leapt to the blue-green ripples on a sunlit ocean, and the wind and the air and the crashing water upon rocks. A feeling surged in him, giving him an overwhelming urge to fling it forward.
Seiki focused his eyes on Ippei, and he could sense a stream of energy bursting from the filled rune toward the samurai, enveloping him in a very faint mist.
You have placed Protection of the Sea on Ippei.
“It actually worked,” Seiki cried. The feeling was a delightful novelty, and he suddenly understood the attraction of magic-based classes. The obvious notification was unexpected, but he guessed casters had no other way to directly gauge the success of their abilities.
Ippei seemed amused at his reaction as he looked down at his hands. “Well, I can tell you it’s nothing like a houshi Ward,” he said, moving his fingers. “This feels… liquid.”
The shield lasted for only six seconds, and so that was all the observation Ippei had time to make before the mist around him dispersed.
Right then, Seiki was struck by the feeling of a tree shaken by the wind that was shedding off rainwater.
Seiki shivered, and then yelped as it happened again, much stronger than the first time.
“What was that? It was…Oh.” He realized the two effects happened exactly three seconds apart. “I see.”
The ability placed a shield over his target for six seconds, absorbing a significant amount of damage. After six seconds, Seiki then had three seconds to put sixty feet between him and the target, or all the damage sustained by the shield would transfer onto him. It was therefore vital that he could sense when the shield actually ended.
He supposed that being able to sense when the damage would apply would also mean that he would know when he was finally safe.
By the time he finished reporting this find to Ippei, the lockout expired, and he could try again. This time, Seiki cast the shield on himself. It was a little tricky to activate at first, and in the end what triggered it turned out to be imagining spraying himself with a garden hose. The effect was unexpectedly pleasant, and he felt as if an invisible pool just appeared around him, sending waves of liquid air lapsing against his body.
“So you can cast it on yourself,” said Seiki in relief, before continuing to muse. “I wonder if the damage calculates from the target’s original location when you apply the shield or their current location when the countdown ends.”
“Good question,” said Ippei, “I would say the target’s current location. Otherwise, it would give you the ability to… tank and run.”
“That doesn’t sound bad.” Seiki chuckled.
“Imagine you can absorb damage twice your total health, run out of there within nine seconds and have it simply be gone. No, let’s make that almost three times your total health. You take the hit, two-thirds get absorbed, one-third hits you, bringing you down really low, but you’re still alive. You run sixty feet, the two-thirds absorbed damage never gets applied. That is just ridiculous.”
That definitely sounded too good to be true, but Seiki was still a little hopeful. “It’s only once every three minutes,” he reasoned. “And I’ll still have to time it quite perfectly.”
Ippei laughed. “Okay, don’t forget it doesn’t even cost energy. So that would be totally OP. You know what, after your next cast, I can try jumping off the cliff to test it.”
Seiki thought for a moment. “Technically, if the cliff is less than sixty feet high, I would be the one to end up dead after three seconds.”
The concept was indeed a little strange to wrap their minds around.
“I bet you can pull off some crazy stuff with that,” said Ippei.
“Well, I have a few Coins we can use to rent the Palace Training Ground…” Seiki paused when he saw a smirk creeping up on Ippei’s face.
Chuckling, the samurai retrieved a wooden stick from his inventory. “Catch.”
Seiki accepted the trade prompt and he caught the item in his hand. It was slick and smooth to the touch, and was much heavier than he anticipated.
You have received: Tsubaki Training Bokken. +46 attack. Damage 3.5. Speed 2.1. Range 1.1. Effect: Usable only on targets equipped with a similar weapon and cannot reduce the target’s health beyond 1% of the target’s maximum health.
The carved hard wood sword was simple, but elegant, and Seiki immediately recognized it as an exact replica of the standard Hikari, with the exact same stats scaled to his level. It was one piece of material, and the hilt section was wrapped with tight fabric in a criss-crossing pattern for grip.
“A training sword?” Seiki read the description over again.
Near the top of the hilt was a phantom rectangle overlay, labeled [Menuki Slot]. Before he could ask what it was, he noticed that the bokken was marked Made by Ippei.
Seiki looked up at his friend and grinned. “Is this why you’re leveling Woodcrafting?”
The samurai shook his head as he produced another identical sword for himself from his inventory. “I was doing it for Favors, but, yeah, this is a really nice perk.”
“And this Menuki Slot?”
“That’s where things get good,” said Ippei, holding up two tiny metal items in his hand. “Now in retrospect, I think I should have gone into the Metalcrafting strand in Blacksmithing, considering what I had to pay for these.”
He handed Seiki one of the tiny silver items. At first glance it looked like a decorative button, fashioned into a long cloud-like shape with intricate swirling patterns.
You have received: Kumoyori Menuki. Effect: passing energy directly through the menuki removes all existing lockout effects and recharges all abilities.
Seiki nearly let out an exclamation as he realized what this meant. Despite not having slotted Charms onto gear before, the process was straightforward. The fabric grip of the training sword parted to receive the silver trinket, and it snapped easily into the location marked [Menuki Slot] on the hilt.
“Equip it first,” Ippei reminded him as Seiki was about to do a test swing. “Or it’s just another piece of wood.”
“Right.”
Replacing his Hikari with the bokken prompted another notification:
You are equipping a training weapon. Upon unequipping this weapon, all your abilities will be placed on lockout and reduced to no charges, and your energy will be reset to zero. Are you sure you would like to equip it now?
“I see. Yes.” He guessed the lockout precaution was to prevent exploitation in real encounters, although at the moment he could not quite think of a way to do it, considering weapons could not be changed in the middle of combat.
Stepping aside as Ippei was changing his weapons, Seiki activated a trial Upslash to spend some of his energy. Then, feeling for the silver menuki with his thumb, he pushed a tiny amount of energy through it. A cool, refreshing sensation flushed through his body.
Kumoyori Menuki activated. Your lockouts have been removed. All your abilities now have full charges.
“This is incredibly useful,” said Seiki.
“A really good one can also refill all your energy,” said Ippei. “But it costs twice as much. So we’ll have to do with energy potions for now.”
Seiki looked at the item in his hand, then up at his friend. “How much do I owe you for all this?” He would not be surprised if they all amounted to at least a year’s rent.
Ippei grinned. “A beef bowl?”
Seiki was about to protest, but then realized it would be futile. “Thanks,” he said seriously. At the back of his mind, he could not help wondering what Ojisan would do if he was around.
The samurai was ca
sually testing the sword, and Seiki had a feeling this was also Ippei’s first time using one. That was when he realized his friend had never had the need to before now, because he had never seriously engaged in PVP.
“You have to be at least Level 15 to use a training sword,” said Ippei. “It doesn’t show you the requirement on the weapon right now because you’re over the threshold.”
“Isn’t Level 15 a little late?” said Seiki.
“Well, I guess it’s the halfway point,” said Ippei. “You’ve done dungeons, you’ve done missions, you’ve earned your troops for War Games, and now you’ve unlocked enough of your class abilities to start having real options. I think the logic is if you’ve stuck around this far, you’re probably serious about the game.”
“I thought I got serious about the game when I committed every Tuesday for the rest of my life,” said Seiki. “That was way before Level 15.”
The samurai smiled. “Hey, early birds reap the benefits of fast-tracking. Now let’s see what your shield can really do since it might help keep us on that track. Ready?”
They spent the next hour trying to figure out the new shield, and Seiki was rather surprised to learn that despite the bokken’s inability to cut, the damage was still equal to that of the Hikari, numbness and all. When the damage applied back onto him, regardless of where the target had been hit, it also felt like an ice bucket all over Seiki at once. After a while, they agreed that a menuki that also instantly healed would be incredibly desirable.
“Those ones that do everything can cost up to twenty thousand gold,” Ippei explained at one point, at which Seiki nearly choked. “And there are ones that take away the numb altogether, but I think it trains you to soak stuff, so not recommended.”
Ippei did have quite a methodical way to go about testing unknown abilities. First, they tried different ways of casting the shield. It turned out that keeping a direct line of sight on the target was helpful, but not completely necessary. Seiki learned that this was very much like a houshi Ward, which could be cast on any target within range as long as the houshi knew where the target was.
