Anton’s Bone Wand of Ice turned out to be a unique mid-level weapon of exceptional power, equivalent to legendary rarity level 180 wands, making the wand that much better. He needed those three additional levels asap, however, it took over ten pulls of over twenty-five Medium Lava Elementals to gain a single level now. Gabrielle was still rounding out the next bunch in this magma-ridden cavern. She’d suggested to bump Rowan up to level 120 before continuing further down. He agreed, naturally.
A burp from a molten stream splashed Rowan’s Mana Shield with drops of lava. He’d purposefully stood as close to lava as possible as they’d delved deeper into the mine to level up his shield. He’d gained three tiers, all from meeting damage-taken thresholds at ten thousand, one-hundred thousand, and one million damage. Lava dealt an incredible amount of fire damage to his low fire resistance character, unsurprisingly.
You have taken 0 damage (1673 fire damage absorbed)
Rowan chugged the remainder of a mana potion as the river readied another pop, his original stack of 500 now down to 273. His mana bar refilled and more drops rained onto his shield.
Skill level up (X1): Mana Shield
Skill Level: 88, 53%
Skill Tier: 3
Mana Cost: 1% mana drained per minute
Effect: 88% additional shield points.
Tier Effect: 1 shield point per available mana point. Forms a thin, patch-work bubble shield around your character. Weak to piercing projectiles and weapons.
With his current number of Magical Capacity points, the shield granted roughly two thousand points worth of damage absorption. Not as beefy as a tank class of his level, but decent. And he wore a set of uncommon rarity, control oriented level 60 gear. He’d need to visit Ambiguous’ mansion soon to access that market box.
Speaking of which… Rowan had purchased a unique rarity ring yesterday morning.
He fished it out from his pouch and Examined.
[Retained on Death] Sazar’s Sapphire Ring of Corruption
Some say the ghost of the Death-Knight Sazar still looks for this ring to this day
Rarity: Unique
Class Restriction: Death-Knight, Necromancer, ?
Requirements: Level 87
-500 Armour
250 Dark Resistance
-30 Vitality
+5 Strength
+55 Control
+15 Magical Power
+25 Magical Capacity
+35 Undead Minion Limit
Emits a Dark Mana Aura (Aura effect and radius scales with character level and total mana)
Undead minions are also imbued with dark mana within the aura radius
Deals 0.5 dark damage to the wearer per minute (scales with total mana, 0.5 per 250 mana)
The mana in his flesh surged as Rowan read the stats. It granted over sixty additional Undead minion slots and about five hundred points of mana shield. His vitality couldn’t be reduced below ten—100 health points—and his total armor was already shabby. And—
Quest Update: Dark Mana Source
You have found a minor source of dark mana. Though it will not indefinitely sustain your followers, it will surely slow their demise.
Exceptional! Too lucky.
Rowan slipped it onto his right hand. A wave of nausea sent him to him to his knees while a foul ache bit into his ring-finger. He struggled away from the lava and lifted his hand, curls of fear rising from his chest. His flinger blackened. The corruption spread to his knuckle as the sapphire fed dark mana into his limb. The damage wasn’t mitigated by his shield. An icon for a Dark Mana Aura appeared by his status bars, the air laced with ab additional buzz on top of Gabrielle’s auras.
A series of identical dialogs popped into view and vibrated below the party list.
Gabby LeMort suggests you RETREAT!
The ping system, he recognized after frowning. A red outline silhouetted his slowly draining health bar. Gabrielle had noticed within seconds.
Rowan smirked despite the ache in his hand. She did care about him as he did for her.
The whoosh of her broom sounded, a pack of fire and lava elementals chasing Gabrielle down the cavern. A larger elemental threw smoking blobs of lava that sparked against her shield. Her expression was unclear from the distance in the low magma light but Rowan had a nagging feeling that her beautiful face was marred by worry. Or maybe he was simply projecting his own hopes onto her.
Rowan stood and pointed his wand at the lot and prepared a blast of tainted ice. The skill had gained a few tiers as well, its damage and blast radius increasing exponentially. Gabrielle neared and her broom soared overheard. He fired several consecutive blasts, the single-word incantation rolling off his tongue, the pumps of Ice-Dark mana second nature. The cool rush of power through his body into his limb was extraordinary—like tiny little dark orgasms.
Black ice exploded among their ranks, melting or sublimating on contact. Close to a hundred lesser elementals died in shrieks, their fiery bodies turning to smoke or stone and crumbling. No corpses.
Gabrielle threw two water bombs from behind. Twenty-meter splashes ended the pack of medium elementals and slowed the large one. Rowan followed up with a series of ice blasts. The thing froze in a jagged tomb of black ice.
Then shattered.
Damn. It didn’t look like he’d be raising any of the elementals here.
You have leveled up!
You have 48 unallocated stat points!
You have 118 unallocated skill points!
Sweet. Two more levels till 120.
Something grasped his hand—Gabrielle. Party members could reach through the shield if their intent wasn’t harmful.
“So…” she muttered, “What do we have here?” Her lips were pinched as she examined his hand and ring, her features strained by a tiny amount. She grumbled cutely. Only she could grumble cutely. No one else. That was definite worry and care—for him. Even if she was trying to hide it. Though perhaps she wasn’t. Something had changed in her during the three hours of fun they shared.
But he had to play it slow, play it steady else he’d risk losing his Gabrielle to her psychotic side.
He said with a light tone, “Just something I bought off the real money market yesterday.”
"Wow, this is reaaaally good… It'll help out with the dark humans," she said, awed, "But ya don't have the right gear to sustain your health. A shame. You'll be potion bits in no time!"
Or maybe nothing had changed. A real shame.
Rowan attempted to smile through but his health dropped below 80%, his whole hand black.
Better take off the ring.
Gabrielle caught his fingers. “One second,” she said and reached into her pouch. She took out a couple lumps of dark metal and a small green gemstone. And then a little forge-like structure a meter high and wide, followed by an elegant shovel. She dropped the forge by the river far enough to avoid the splashes and shoveled lava into a chute before depositing the ore into another. “You’re lucky we’re here,” she said without looking at him.
Rowan had played far too many MMOs to not know what she was doing. “You’re crafting me some gear? An accessory?”
“Mmhm!” She nodded.
Or maybe something had changed in the slightest. Small progress. Small steps.
“Awesome.” And he had wanted to see how crafting worked in this game. The miniature forge looked quite realistic—much more so compared to other games.
The primordial language fluttered off Gabrielle’s lips in complex verses and cadences which Rowan couldn’t catch. It had to be specialized vocabulary only taught to crafters. She chanted and chanted for minutes on end, her mana pouring into a third chute. The forge glowed and shook and puffed like in a cartoon for over ten minutes as Rowan grew bored. This was certainly boring as real-life work, though it lacked as much physical labor.
Eventually, after what felt like days, Gabrielle’s chant slowed. She dropped the emerald into a fourth chute and sang one more line.
“Is it done?” Rowan drawled. He’d drank two whole health potions to keep himself alive in the meantime. Health potions and dark essence potions could heal him, unlike dark humans. Their character makeup was more specialized.
“Yup.”
The forge puffed once more and an emerald ring of dark metal fell onto a tray. Gabrielle plucked it up and made a flowery pattern with her glowing wand. She intoned two short dark incantations and pointed at the ring, bathing it in black miasma twice. She chucked it to Rowan, who caught it after a fumble, and said, “That should keep ya alive for now.” Her features returned to normal, cherry and relaxed.
“Thanks.” He Examined.
[Retained on Death] High-Quality Emerald Ring of Greater Dark Regeneration
Rarity: Mythical
Requirements: Level 100
Restores 5% of total health points to a wearer with dark mana per minute.
Good enough. And good work too. Intricate patterns decorated the dark band, the emerald neatly cut. At 100 health points and under 2000 mana points, the ring would heal 5 points a minute while he took 2 dark damage per minute before resistances counted. He was truly lucky to have Gabrielle on his side—at his side. He slipped it onto the other ring-slot of his right hind: his index finger. Each hand had two ring slots. A flood of relief coursed through his flesh, his health bar no longer shining red. “Thanks,” he said again.
“No problemo!” she chirped and poked his side and held out her palm. “That will be fifty gold, please.”
He staggered back. “What?”
“Just kidding.” Her sweet laugh echoed in the chamber as lava popped.
He huffed—but tossed her a coin anyway. She deserved that much, at least.
“Yippie! All that work for a whole gold coin!” she said as she packed up her forged. It shrunk as her pouch gobbled it up cartoon-style.
"All you did was chanting." It was too true. "Is that how everything else is made?"
“Nope. Only high-level crafters can do that. Regular jewelers do it the old fashion way with little magical help.” She picked up her broom.
Fair enough. A good balance of realism. Rowan would’ve thought crafting was too… convenient otherwise, in a hyper-realistic world like this. The scorching air and lava would’ve roasted him and Gabrielle if it wasn’t for their wards and shield. A painful death that would be.
Gabrielle started the next pull. Another population of elementals would’ve spawned by now. The sheer concentration of lava and fire mana was so intense that an elemental could burst into life right next to Rowan. The Water Mage spire must have been overrun with elementals at some point if this place wasn’t sufficient for a dark mana source.
Rowan strolled back to the lava and let it pelt his shield while Gabrielle rounded up the dumb elementals. This place had to be designed for powerleveling.
* * *
Another half-hour and ten more blasted packs passed. A handful of medium elementals broke apart and Rowan dinged level 119. The exponential experience curve had come to an inflection point. It'd take close to an hour before the next level-up by his estimate. They'd already spent four of the seventy-two, the bonus granted by his new ring not included. Ambiguous was searching through her mansion and a small library for other dark mana sources. Nothing came up other than a few items that would delay the inevitable by a day at most.
The next wave of elementals came a minute later. They mowed it down, as usual, Rowan’s experience bar filling by 2%. He sighed. It’d take fifty more pulls to hit level 120. He strode to Gabrielle as she waited for another set to spawn. “Let’s move further down. I only got 2% from that one.”
Her cheek puffed as she thought it through and Rowan had to resign to her judgment. She was more experienced in this particular game. "Okay. But my detection ward picked up level 170s and 180s the levels below. The rock is really thick though and—"
“Let’s go.” Time was limited.
“Ya sure? It’ll set us back by a big big tonne if ya die.”
Rowan restrained his tongue. She didn’t have supplies for a resurrection potion, with her or in her base. And resurrection stones were gated at level 180 for some stupid reason. He’d be dead for six hours at this level and respawn at the temple. It was a huge risk.
Level 180 was more than a thirty level increase compared to the medium elementals. They'd know more powerful skills too. And he hadn't raised a single demon yet to utilize his control limit. Was he wrong about this dungeon? Possible. He mulled over the choice for a minute as a fire elemental swirled into life. He flicked a blast at it and it puffed out. The medium elementals died to two shots comparatively. Weak and offering little experience despite their higher level.
He shrugged as Gabrielle waited patiently and hovered on her broom. “Let’s go. We need to find some demons.”
“Alright, kay. You better not die. I can’t heal shields.” She pulled forward at a slow speed.
Gulping, Rowan dumped all 118 unallocated skill points into Mana Shield as he jogged behind, bumping the effect bonus up to 211%. It was worth it. The shield was a crucial skill in keeping the linchpin of their future army alive—himself. He now sported four and half thousand shield points. The experience needed for each additional skill level was linear, explaining the linearly scaling bonus.
Rowan jogged behind, ending any elementals that spawned along the way. Gabrielle hummed her track-list of tunes, throwing a water bomb here and there when a large group spawned. By the time they arrived at the end of the long, zig-zagging chamber, Rowan’s experience bar filled by another 5%. A painful, slow grind. Howbeit it was a dungeon by a starter town full of unintelligent, skill-less monsters. The chances of demons lurking in here were slim.
“Do you sense any demons?” he asked when they entered one of four descending passages. This was the largest.
Gabrielle clicked her tongue. “I dunno. Like I said, the walls are thick. It messes with detection wards.”
His breath rumbled at that. It stopped the good players from detecting them but also greatly limited their own scouting range. It could be—
Something glinted in the blue light of Gabrielle’s mana lamp around the corner.
Rowan crouched, leaped behind a volcanic stalagmite, and readied his wand, Ice-Dark mana building at its tip.
Gabrielle flew ahead, then said, “Huh.”
Not a monster? Rowan ran to catch up and scanned for a—
A large piece of straight-cut black-grey stone jutting out of the wall. Ruby gems laced with ebony streaks decorated the middle of the slab, several unknown symbols of the dark language engraved in a circle around it. The colors of Fire-Dark mana. The only other dark summoner-type mana in the game. Which meant...
"Deeeemoons," Gabrielle whispered with renewed giddiness as Rowan thought the same word. They were truly alike in some ways. Meant for each other? Dare he to think that way?
He peeked around the bend. Bits of dark stone laid splattered around an entrance. The slab was a door, blown out from within. There had to be demons in there. Perfect.
But level 170 was too high for him to raise. A conundrum. It’d take weeks to power level from 120 to 170. “Do you sense anything lower than 170?”
“I’m not sure…” Gabrielle picked up a piece of the door and held it to her eye. “This stuff similar to what the dark temples are made of. Not nearly as strong. It would make good building materials.”
Leave it to her to make a comment like that. Rowan chuckled and let Gabrielle lead the way. Her Mana Shield was far stronger. She made a good tank. In fact, she was excellent in all aspects. Support, damage-dealer, and tank. Overpowered. He made a note not to mention that, ever. In case the AI controller nerfed her one day.
This temple was huge, the roof fifty meters over Rowan’s head. Many of the walls and supporting columns had crumbled, revealing much of the outside rock. No similar gems or engravings. Trails of lava flowed into hallways and empty rooms. The first pack of lava elementals loitered by a l
arge pool in a circular chamber, slow and dumb. Rowan examined the hulking ten-foot humanoids.
Greater Lava Elemental: Level 172
Health: 9,530
Mana: 7,300
Stamina: 6,400
Thrice as much mana compared to the medium elementals. Twice as much health. These had to know quite a number of spells.
Gabrielle handled several water bombs and ignited the fuse on each. The spheres blinked in black-blue. “On three.” She held up three fingers in her wand hand.
Rowan crouched and readied a spray of Tainted Ice Blasts. He fired as Gabrielle’s pinky finger curled. She waved her wand, flinging the bombs at the elementals as the blasts hit, melting the pack and granting Rowan a large chunk of the level.
Aeon Chronicles Online_Book 1_Devil's Deal Page 26
