by Sean Oswald
The second magical emphasis that he considered was Spell Mastery. This allowed for vastly greater control over a single spell, which while it would not affect the attributes of the spell, was still significant because it would reduce the cast time, mana cost, and cool down of the chosen spell. Again, the obvious choices that came to his mind were Ablative Armor and Enlarge, although he would be lying to himself if he said he didn’t want to use it on Lightning Bolt.
So many decisions, and he realized he had already been sitting there for two hours contemplating choices and looking at character screens. Ultimately, he made a decision which might infuriate many a professional gamer were they to be able to see him but which he still felt was the right choice in giving him options to deal with the myriad of challenges Eloria might throw at him. He decided not to put all his eggs into one basket but, instead, spread them out.
Toughness: 15
Current Damage Resistance: 6
You have reached Initiate in this skill. Initiate Perk: The value of each point of toughness is increased from .2 damage resistance/pt to .4/pt.
Regeneration: 60 Gain .2/health per level each tick.
Current Health Gain/Tick:18.
You have reached Initiate, Apprentice, and Journeyman level in this skill. Initiate Perk: Skill will remain active even if you are unconscious. Apprentice Perk: Skill will have a burst of 5x effectiveness for 1 minute whenever you received new damage. This perk may only activate 1/hour. Journeyman level perk: Base regeneration per level is increased by 50%.
Magic Focus: 50 Abjuration. This increased the range, damage resistance, duration, and area of effect of all Abjuration spells by 50%. Apprentice Perk: Concentration checks for casting or maintaining abjuration spells are 25% easier.
Frost Armor: 10
Activates an aura of extreme cold around caster exuding out 3 feet. Ice will reduce damage taken 20+1/level. Melee Attackers take: 20+1/level damage each time they attack. Melee Attackers have a 1%/level chance of receiving the Chilled debuff every time they make a physical attack. Melee attackers have a .1%/level chance of receiving the Frozen debuff every time they make a melee attack. Skills cost 50 mana to activate and 1 Fury per tick to maintain.
Mana Barrier: 41 Allows skill wielders to create an immobile magical bubble which acts as a health shield around caster’s person. The bubble has Health equal to 15 points/level You have reached the Initiate, Apprentice, and Journeymen Tiers. Initiate Perk: Bubble formation is instantaneous. Apprentice Perk: Bubble may have a diameter up to 10’. Journeyman Perk: Bubble may move at ½ caster’s move rate.
Mana Cost: 100 (health may be substitute for mana)
Duration: up to 1 hour
Cool-Down: 1/sunrise
Shape Change: 10 Grants skill wielder the ability to store 1 + 1/5 levels forms to be shape changed into. The changes performed by this skill are instantaneous and absolute. Skill may be used 1/2 ticks per 10 skill levels. Forms must be non-magical animals at this level. Cost: 50 mana.
Note: Form must be dedicated to memory through detailed study.
Spell Mastery: 10 Ablative Armor- Cast time reduced to: Instant, Mana cost reduced to: 80, Cool-down period reduced to: 4 minutes.
Spell Mastery: 10 Mass Lesser Enlarge- Cast time reduced to: 8 seconds, Mana cost reduced to: 90+30/target
Spell Mastery: 10 Lightning Bolt
Cast time reduced to: 3 seconds (max improvement)
Mana cost reduced to: 60
Cool-Down period reduced to: 4 minutes
Well, he had managed to spend all the points. He was pretty happy with the distribution of options, but he knew it would take time to get used to such radical changes. The final regeneration perk was impressive in that it brought his time required to heal to full health down to eight minutes and that was if the burst healing wasn’t in effect. Sure, it could only activate once per hour, but it would still add up to him being completely healed in less than a minute.
It made Dave wonder if there was a way to find out about what the perks were at each Tier for any given skill or, for that matter, if they were always the same for everyone. He figured that there probably wasn’t a repository of knowledge given how secretive people were about such things. If you asked someone about their build, it was reacted to as though you had asked to see their underwear. Dave understood how it could be seen as a private thing, but it was yet another thing that he would strive to change here in Eris’ Rise. Shared knowledge would only make them all stronger after all.
The power of having instant cast defensive spells was phenomenal. Between Magic Focus and Spell Mastery, his Ablative Armor was now a beast of a defensive spell. It granted 1275 health worth of protection and converted 30% of the damage caused into mana, thus recharging him for up to 765 mana over the course of the spell between the 50% that the armor absorbs and the 50% that he had to take while wearing the armor.
He took one last glance at his revised stats before heading to bed.
STRENGTH: 50 (20% bonus)
Bravery: 15
Regen Rate: 5/hour
Melee Damage: +100%
DEXTERITY: 8
Ranged Damage: +16%
Rogue Skills: +16%
AGILITY: 16
Movement Rate: +32%
Defense Rate: +80%
CONSTITUTION: 30
Health: 1450 (300)
Regen Rate: 11.4/hour
Fury: 9
Regen Rate: 3/hour
ENDURANCE: 30
Stamina: 18
Regen Rate: (6/hour)
Needed Rest: -60%
INTELLIGENCE: 85 (20% bonus)
Mana: 1450 (300)
Spell Damage: +170%
WISDOM: 30
Mana Regen Rate: 900/hour (450/hour)
Faith: 9
Regen Rate: 3/hour
CHARISMA: 21
Social Skills: +42%
Teamwork: 6.3
Regen Rate: 2.1/hour
LUCK: 8
+8% chance to avoid catastrophic effects
+8% improvement on chance of loot drops
+8% improvement on quality of loot drops
As he finally laid down next to Emily, he wasn’t sure he would be able to fall asleep, but weariness won out. He was soon dreaming shadowless dreams, shape-changing into a sparrow hawk and flying free. He spread his wings and flew across the empty sky above a world of islands sprinkled amidst an endless sea.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
If life has a secret sauce, it’s the unknown. You just never know how much bite the sauce has. — Chronicles of Alucien: a statement from the early days before the Great One was understood.
Eris’ Rise/Dungeon - Dave and Jackson Nelson
When Dave woke up, it was still dark outside. He mused to himself that it would be nice not needing very much sleep now. He needed to get done what he wanted to before breakfast anyway as they would have to send Jackson off soon. Once he was dressed, he roused Jackson quietly and then went outside the house.
As early as he was, he found Daichi already waiting out front. “I thought I might have gotten up before you. Didn’t you sleep?” Dave asked.
“You know what they say about the elderly. We don’t sleep much.”
Dave chuckled at the dry way in which the old elf spoke. “We have an expression like that where we are from, too.”
“Oh, and where is that, if I may ask, Baron Murkwood?” Daichi asked with the faintest of grins on his face.
Dave realized he had walked into that one. “The funny part though is that the elderly may not sleep much at night, but they take naps all day. Is that the same with moon elves?” Dave asked, trying to sidestep the question.
“I guess there are some mysteries that we are not meant to know, Baron Murkwood.”
The back and forth was broken up as a sleepy-eyed Jackson stumbled out the front door. His leather armor was disheveled and not properly buckled. Dave said, “So do Ozakai and Morganthal know what to do this morning?”
Dave and Jackson just looked at each other and laughed before Dave said, “My wife is the most gracious woman I know, full of life and willing to give just about anyone a second chance, but it’s never a good idea to wake her up if you can help it.”
Jackson added, “Especially without coffee.”
The elf could only shake his head as he didn’t understand the relationships between the Nelsons at all. “Well then, should we head out? Even riding the horses hard and then running through the forest, it will still take an hour to get there.”
As they rode and then ran, Dave explained to Jackson what the plan was and smiled as his son got more and more excited. Eventually, they arrived at their destination and without any more words zoned into the Bastion of Thralls. Once inside, Daichi said, “Be careful not to enter any of the tunnels or activate any parts of the dungeon. None of us can enter the raid wing for a week, but we don’t want to risk getting trapped in any of the other wings. We only want to use the lobby as a training room.”
Dave watched as Jackson nodded in understanding. From there, Dave just sat down on one of the benches against the wall and then spent an hour on the Tome of Magical Enhancement. The moon had still been outside when they entered the dungeon, so he had time. The book opened up and, for lack of a better term, holographic runes appeared and started spinning in the air in front of him. They each had different colors and moved in oscillating patterns around him. Dave studied and stared at the runes. He knew that they meant something. He could feel to his very core that there was a profound truth to be found in these runes. Still, try as he might, he couldn’t make heads or tails of the runes.
Jackson watched his dad sit down to study. This was going to be an intense experience for him, but he was thrilled that dad had thought of it and honored that Daichi had agreed to it. Since being back in Eris’ Rise, he had watched the old elf, but once he had been offered the Ironwood Monk class, he had paid even closer attention. The way the monk moved and his fighting technique were subjects of intense fascination for Jackson.
Back on earth, he had done martial arts with his dad. It wasn’t his top priority. He loved baseball. It was a thing that had felt natural, but martial arts was something that he could share with his dad. Now, he got to train with a true master.
“We have two hours in the outside world which will translate into 34 hours in here. You will likely need some sleep, but we must try to maximize our time,” Daichi said.
“Okay, do you want to see some of my fighting techniques? I can show you punches or kicks or whatever you want, Master.”
“No nothing like that. With our limited time, we need to focus on your stances and footwork. Any structure which is intended to last must be built upon a foundation. Now, show me your basic fighting stance.”
Shouting out a quick, “Yes, Sir” on instinct, Jackson shifted his feet to a 45-degree angle. He balanced his weight and rolled up onto the balls of his feet. His hands raised up to protect himself, his left fist in front and right in back with his elbows in tight.
“Okay, that is a good enough stance for a beginner. It shows that you know how to protect yourself and that you have some sense of balance. If you only hope to be a mediocre fighter, then I would be happy for you to build from here, but if you wish to go beyond, then you will need to rebuild.”
Hearing that particular turn of phrase, Jackson couldn’t help but snicker at the way it sounded like half the anime shows he had watched. The lapse in self-control however cost him dearly as Daichi hit him square in the chest with a palm strike that traveled too fast for him to block. He felt all the wind knocked out of him as his body was flung across the room. Somehow impossibly quicker than he had ever moved before, Jackson was able to twist his body mid-air and spring off of his hands to then land on his feet twenty feet from where he had been standing. These stat increases are crazy.
Last night he had gained the XP from his time in the dungeon, and it had been enough to push him up to level 15. This time, he made the effort to speak to his parents, and they both helped him assign his points but didn’t force him to do anything. Jackson knew that in many games it was a bad idea to try and split your stats too much, yet that was what he was doing here. He had to keep up his Constitution and Endurance if he wanted this class. His Strength was critical for damage, and his Agility gave him mobility. He did make a couple of odd choices. First, he opted not to put any points into Wisdom despite his racial bonus, and nothing went into Charisma or Luck. He figured he didn’t have enough points to make the kids at the academy like him, and he didn’t really believe in luck. His papa used to always say that a man makes his own destiny by the decisions that he makes.
Perhaps the oddest decision was to assign 5 of the 21 points he had accrued by leveling up into Dexterity. He didn’t know if he would regret it but had a sense that it was the right thing to do. His thinking was that it would help him with climbing as well as grappling. After that, he assigned his Tier 20% stat bonus to Constitution which canceled out his racial bonus and gave him a net 10% bonus. Then, he divided his points up and put 4 into Constitution, Strength, and Endurance. The last 4 points, he split between Intelligence and Agility. The rapid changes last night had left him shuddering. His parents said that it wouldn’t always be like that when he gained groups of stat points in big chunks, but that whenever he did, he would feel the dramatic changes. Looking over the stats, he felt content with the balance that he had achieved in his physical capabilities. Even if it wasn’t optimal, it felt right.
After that, he had applied his Watcher’s Ongoing Preparation bonus and doubled the 5 skills he had brought with him from earth. Unarmed Combat doubled its base up to 10, and he sunk the maximum allowable character points from his total 118 character points with the result that his Unarmed Combat went up to 30. Since this pushed him into the Apprentice level for this skill, it gave him that perk:
You have reached Apprentice Level (Tier 3) in this skill. You now have the trait: Feet are Hands- your flexibility and ability to kick is dramatically increased, so you can kick as easily as you can throw a punch. Kicks do twice as much unarmed damage as punches.
Next, he chose Speak Language which went to level 4. He chose Faelorian and Miromaran as the two languages and felt his mind fill with a rush of knowledge. These might prove useful in dealing with foreign nations as well as for communication with a certain princess of Miromar.
His blunt weapon skill was increased to 10, and he resisted the urge to put any more points into it. He wasn’t sure what direction he would go with weapons, but his points were precious to him, and he wanted to have as many options as possible. Likewise, Engineering doubled up to 10, but he didn’t add any extra points. He wasn’t sure how useful this would be. And to think, being in Lego League as a boy was what was going to give him the skill.
The final of his base earth skills that was increased was his running skill. He had always had an innate skill for it. The track team wanted him so badly, but he wasn’t interested because it interfered with baseball. His speed has won more games for him than his skill with a bat or the strength of his arm. Stolen bases were almost a lost art, but he was a junior Picasso even at 13. This meant the base skill doubled up to 50 now and increased his top speed to close to 70 mph and his ability to maintain it for up to a quarter mile. Or, if he had more distance in mind, he could run 33 miles per hour for about 65 hours, so it would take him just under two hours. He decided to come back and look at that skill later.
For his non-watcher skill, he first raised Unarmed Specialization to 20 for the cost of 10 points. He had been tormented about trying to learn a school of magic and whether or not he should diversify his skills. His family had urged him to learn some magic or at least save points for it, but dad had also told him that he needed to feel comfortable with the skills that he had. That last part clicked with him, and ultimately, he decided to add 10 more points to
Stealth since he couldn’t shake the sense that even powered up he might need to be able to hide. Then, since running already seemed to be such a highly ranked skill for him, he just added the maximum of 20 points into it. The results were even more impressive than he had hoped and still left him with 68 character points for future options.
Running: 70, +700% maximum speed and duration. You have received the Initiate, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Adept perks. Initiate: Reduce sweat and respiratory distress while running by 25%. Apprentice: Marathon- may now run at 50% of max speed for 24 hours without stopping. Journeyman: Sprint- may now expend 1 stamina point to reach 150% maximum speed within 3 steps and maintain it for up to 300 feet. Adept: Conditioning- your cardiovascular system is now vastly more efficient. Stamina cost for all skills is reduced by 25%, rounded up.
STRENGTH: 21 (-10%)
Bravery: 6.3
Regen Rate: 2.1/hour
Melee Damage: +42%
DEXTERITY: 16
Ranged Damage: +32%
Rogue Skills: +16%
AGILITY: 20 (18, +15%)
Movement Rate: +40%
Defense Rate: +100%
CONSTITUTION: 26 (+10%)
