“Okay, I can respect that,” Hawke said.
He’d had thoughts along those lines himself. Maybe ruling his Domain and staying out of trouble was the way to go. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the answer, or at least, not for him. He wanted to know why this had happened to him and his fellow gamers, for one. The only way to find those answers was to see things through to the end.
“I’ll tell you what I found out along the way,” Jake said. “No, I’m not reading your mind, just your face. I was like you once. Wanted to figure out all the whys and wherefores.
“It happened in the Battle Realm – it’s got a lot of names: the Plane of Battles, Valhalla, the Land of Discord. Nasty Realm, and I was a very small fish indeed, being level twenty-eight. I met a high roller there, also from Earth. Level forty-nine. Younger than me, too. He’d been dragged over during the 1960s, and gotten there in a few years. I’d been at it for nearly fifty and barely broken level twenty-five.”
Noticing Hawke’s frown, Jake explained: “Time here doesn’t match Earth’s. I’d been here for decades before this fellow got dragged here, even though I arrived at the Realms only fifteen years before him.”
“Yeah, I’d noticed that. I think they may be going to different versions of Earth. Or maybe they and Earth aren’t in synch, time-wise.”
“Damfino,” Jake said with a shrug. “This fella, though, he’d mastered all the schools of magic, could wrestle gods bare-handed, and made me look like a piker when it came to how many people he’d killed along the way. He was about to cross over to the Highest Realm, when he discovered that the Makers saw us – Eternals, Adventurers, demigods – as nothing more than cannon fodder for some big war they’ve got going at the highest Realm.”
“Crap. Is that it?”
Cannon fodder. It made sense. The whole leveling system increased your power to godlike levels. For what purpose? To fight in some kind of conflict was as good a reason as any. Hawke shook his head. He didn’t like the idea of fighting on behalf of the bastards who had abducted him. Although he was already doing that.
“I have no reason to doubt him,” Jake said. “He abandoned the Path, took over a Stronghold, and as far as I know he’s still there, up in New Asgard, where he’s set himself up as a god, more or less. Name’s Auron Golden-Hand. If you keep advancing, you’ll likely run into him or his followers and agents sooner or later. He’s a big player in the Battle Realm.”
Hawke filed the name away before replying. “Maybe the Makers intend us to be nothing more than playing pieces for their game. It doesn’t mean that’s all we can be.”
“There is that, I suppose. I decided I wanted some peace and quiet. Then the Nerf Herders showed up. Damned if I know what a ‘nerf’ is, by the way.”
“It’s from a movie from after your time. Also a toy.”
“If you say so. They used dozens of devices and artifacts to take us down. Broke through our defenses, and picked off several high-ranking mages with their guns. Never thought I’d see guns again. I knew how to shoot and take apart an M1 Garand, back in the day, but was no kind of gunsmith. Looks like your friends found a few of those.”
“They aren’t my friends. When I’m through with them, they won’t be anybody’s problem, either.”
“There’re only four Wise Masters left,” Jake admitted. “We claimed more of us survived, but there were only two Eternals in the bunch, and Soul Jars are expensive and almost impossible to find in the Common Realm.”
“How much would one of those cost me?” Hawke asked as soon as Jake explained what a Soul Jar did.
“You don’t need it. And it doesn’t work on our kind.”
“It’s for someone else.”
“Your sweetheart, I bet. The gal with the fancy bow and the big pet bear.”
Hawke nodded.
“There are few happy endings to that story, kid. Mortals and Eternals. It always ends in tears.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“The greasy merchant at the Emporium can probably sell you one. You’ll have to pony up eight or ten Soul Shards, or the equivalent in gold or platinum. Do you even know what those are?”
“Yes,” Hawke said. “I’ve got a few, actually.”
A hundred and forty-one, to be exact, the spoils Greg the Necromancer had left behind. It was blood money; Greg had extracted them by killing the abducted players over and over. Hawke still felt uneasy about profiting from the deaths of his fellow Eternals, but if it meant not having to worry about Tava having a better chance at survival, he’d spend them all without a second thought.
“You do? I’m surprised you haven’t used them to raise your level. That’s the best use for them at this stage.”
You can do that? Hawke almost said out loud.
The sword had told him that Adventurers and Eternals could manufacture the shards by spending 5,000 XP, so the exchange wasn’t perfect, but, Holy Crap, he could have hit level 20 with only ten of those shards. Now…
Why didn’t you tell me this before?
Hawke was angry at Saturnyx for treating him like a child, but he had to admit the sword knew him, and she was right, both about the temptation being too strong to overcome, and how torn-up he’d be afterwards. Now, he had a little more perspective about using power, and the responsibilities that came with it. He wouldn’t like making some decisions, but would make them anyway because they would benefit all the people he had made it his mission to protect.
“In the Common Realm, they are effectively worthless,” the wizard said while Hawke had his mental chat with Saturnyx. “If you own some, you’d be better off using them to jump up a level or two, although now that you’re one level short of twenty, it would take quite a few to get you there.”
If I used them all, I could level like crazy.
All right. I’ll use them to level up to twenty, and to get a Soul Jar for Tava. After that, I’ll see.
Current XP/Next Level: 19,236/100,000
Eighty-thousand and change XP to level up. He’d have to use thirty Shards, leaving him with a hundred and eleven. Using the energy of dead Earthlings still felt wrong. I will have to make it worth their sacrifice, somehow, he decided.
“I have enough Shards to reach level twenty,” he told Jake. It wasn’t as if the wizard wasn’t going to see the change next time he saw it.
Jake’s eyes narrowed. “There’s a lot more than meets the eye, isn’t there?”
“I’ve been lucky,” Hawke said with a shrug.
“Very lucky. I can see you’ve opened several Mana Gates. Chakras, as the mystics like to call them. I didn’t even know about them until I traveled to Crystal City and studied under the Adepts of the Third Eye. I was level twenty-six when I opened my first Mana Gate. You’re something special.”
Hawke shrugged again.
“It’s not a compliment, kid. You stand out too much, and someone will be more than happy to hammer you down. Watch yourself. If that Kaiser sumbitch hadn’t taken down my Council, we would have kept a close eye on you. Maybe done more than that, too.”
“Like what?”
“Make you an offer to join us. Or remove you from the board as a potential threat if you didn’t. We aren’t the only ones who would see things that
way. If you succeed in saving the city from this threat, your name will circulate beyond Akila, and you’ll meet many whose first impulse will be to use you, or take you out so that their enemies can’t.”
“What about you?”
“I’d have voted to leave you alone. Like I said, I was happy with how things were. But everything is changing. The big kahunas wouldn’t have brought thousands of Eternals to the Realms unless something major was in the cards. Maybe sitting back is not an option anymore. Not for me, not for anyone.”
Jake stood up. “I’ll leave you alone so you can raise your rank in peace. Be careful with your choices. Level twenty is a Major Milestone; last one I went through, and the last time I felt like I was invincible. If all that power doesn’t go to your head, you’ll be fine. Might be we’ll work together.”
Or try to use each other, Hawke thought. He wanted to trust Jake, but he’d learned that trust should not be given too freely.
“That sounds better than taking me out,” he told the wizard.
“Yes, for both of us,” Jake replied on his way out. “I have a feeling that anyone who tries going against you is going to end up sorry and sore.”
Interlude: The Milestone
“They are beautiful,” Hawke said, holding a Soul Shard in his hand. He’d summoned it after Jake left him in the meeting room.
That was the first time he’d seen one. The Shards had appeared in his inventory after he destroyed the Necromancer’s disgusting machinery, and he’d left them there and not given them much thought until now. It looked a bit like a snowflake the size of a quarter, if a snowflake was made of some prismatic crystal that shone with all the colors of the rainbow, shifting in a near-hypnotic pattern. It felt warm in his hand, almost like he was holding a living thing, which in a sense was exactly what he was doing.
“How do you use it?” he asked Saturnyx after turning off the experience percentage that he usually diverted toward Leadership and Node Mastery. The twenty percent penalty would mean using more Soul Shards, and he wanted to use the minimum necessary. He couldn’t even ‘make change,’ either; consuming a Shard absorbed the whole thing. After he was done, he would reset the experience sharing. He had made it to sixth level in Node Mastery after taking out the snipers, but he hadn’t made any choices yet; he could take care of that now.
Sure enough, a notification appeared a moment later.
You have accessed a Soul Shard
Do you wish to absorb it? Y/N
Shard Absorbed.
You have gained 3,000 Experience.
Current XP/Next Level: 22,236/100,000
He repeated the process until he got there.
Congratulations! You have reached Level Twenty!
You have gained 12 Attribute points to distribute.
You have reached a Major Milestone! A new Class or Class Specialty is available!
You have unlocked new Elite Classes.
New spells available. New Twilight Templar and Monster Trainer abilities available. New Soul Sword Boon available. New Perk available. New High Sidhe Perk available.
Congratulations! You have become a Level Nine Node Master. New abilities available.
The Earth and Realms Defenders Guild has risen to Level Three. New Guild Powers available.
Congratulations! Your Guild
Current XP/Next Level: 100,236/125,000. Leadership XP/Next Level: 49,727/50,000
Current Node Mastery XP/Next Level: 26,138/35,000. Current Guild XP/Next Level: 5,122/7,500
Hawke knew he wouldn’t feel the full effects of his new level until he made his choices, but he immediately felt power gathering inside him. The flow of energy through his Mana channels seemed to accelerate, and all his awakened Chakras grew warmer and started to tingle a little bit, which brought back some bad memories about his recent misadventures with the Root Chakra. The rush of power didn’t stop there, but went on to affect the unopened Chakras.
Congratulations! Because you awakened one or more Chakras before reaching level 20, you have gained a burst of inspiration! You may select one Chakra and acquire the understanding necessary to open it immediately. Choose wisely!
“Holy crap.”
He had barely begun preliminary work on the Crown, one of the two head Chakras. He’d thought about starting the Third Eye next, but he’d gotten the feeling that he should save it for last. He aimed the power rushing through him at the Crown Chakra and understood how to open it with shocking ease. As the energy cluster unfurled, he was struck by a burst of… happiness?
Hawke found himself laughing, feeling like a kid when he saw something wonderful for the first time, the kind of pure joy that was almost impossible to attain after life had its way with you for any length of time. It was intense enough he felt tears in his eyes. The Chakra seemed to expand and touch everything around him. He felt his connection with Saturnyx and her love for him, and he felt closer to her than ever before. A moment later, he reached Tava as well and understood her own brand of love, a love that tasted of home and belonging, different from Saturnyx’s fierce devotion, but just as powerful.
As the emotional rollercoaster slowed down, Hawke sensed changes in his Mana circulation and became more closely aware of the connections between all the Chakras. While the Root had been the foundation, the Crown was the bridge that linked them all. With the two, he had reached a new peak that he would not match until he awakened the remaining three. He also understood a little better the strange ‘hiccup’ that accompanied spellcasting. The jolt to the system happened because the Mana used in the spell had to be forcibly expelled from the body, pushing past the natural barriers keeping it in. He still didn’t know how to overcome it, but felt certain that his Chakra awakening would be the key to doing so.
Congratulations! You have awakened your Crown Chakra!
You have earned 500 Experience.
Current XP/Next Level: 100,736/125,000.
You have gained +10% to Mana Capacity and +1 to Mana Regeneration per minute.
You have gained +3 to your Intelligence and Perception Attributes.
Your Mana Channeling level has increased to Four.
You have learned a new Mana Channeling Ability: Chakra Casting I.
Chakra Casting I: You no longer need your hands to focus and direct a spell. Instead, you can release it through any awakened Chakra in your system. If you have more than one Chakra available, you can use the ability Dual-Casting through them instead of your hands. Prerequisite: Dual-Casting I. Learning this ability automatically increases Dual-Casting by II.
Dual-Casting II: Mana cost is reduced to five times the normal cost of the spell.
“This is huge.”
He had been neglecting Dual-Casting lately, mostly because his Force-enhanced spells were almost as effective and it was hard to aim spells with both hands while wielding a sword and shield. It also added time to the process: even instant spells required he took a moment to focus through his hands. Now he could just fire them off from his Mana Gates. The Solar Plexus and Crown Chakras seemed like the best ones to use; aiming with his Root Chakra would be tough unless he was mooning someone.
“Hey, let me enjoy the moment. I haven’t even claimed my new level yet. If I died right now, would I lose all those rewards?”
“And Vice is probably cursing my name, if he is paying attention.”
“Am I getting twelve Attribute points every level now?”
Hawke nodded and went over his stats. Since he was permanently slowed down, he dropped five points into Dexterity, to increase his reaction time. Four points went to Willpower, and he put the last three into Spirit, which affected his Mana capacity. Even with th
e boosts from Mana Channeling, he needed all the magic juice he could get.
He had neglected to pick a new Node Mastery ability; he might as well choose it now. New choices had opened up at level nine, and he picked one of them:
Greater Ley Line Portal: You can create a powerful dimensional gateway or improve an existing Ley Line Portal, increasing its capacity and reach. Both connecting Portals must be improved, or travel will be limited to the capabilities of the lesser one. Creating a Greater Ley Line Portal requires 600 Mana and 300 Structural Mana (this is halved if improving an existing Portal), and maintaining it costs 100 Structural Mana per day. The Portal creator can determine who can use the Portal by setting Conditions upon its creation. Any number of passengers or cargo can use the portal, provided they meet the Conditions for passage.
That was going to make life so much easier, although at a hefty daily cost. He figured it would be worth it. That didn’t mean he could ignore roads, but it would greatly improve life in the domain.
Which brought him to his class choice. This was his third class pick, and the last one until he reached level thirty-five. Saturnyx had told him that many chose to specialize in one of their previous Classes, unlocking several new abilities that enhanced what they already knew. He had several options along those lines: Twilight Doyen would improve all his Light, Darkness and Twilight spells, and give him even more bonuses to stealth and hiding secrets, including his basic information, along with a 15% boost to both Health and Mana. Monster Master, the Monster Trainer specialty, would allow him to have as many as five active pets at once, control beasts more quickly, and temporarily or permanently acquire some of the abilities and attributes of his menagerie of critters, along with more options to evolve and improve his pets. And he would receive a 30% Mana boost.
Either of those would be very useful, but there were other tempting options available, especially among the Elite Classes that he had unlocked. Elemental Warlord would allow him to learn two new Elements of his choice, opening up a new slew of spells, improve his spell-casting, and also give him the ability to incorporate those Elements into his hand to hand attacks, increasing his damage a great deal. The Slayer Class would give him a ton of fighting maneuvers, plus increase his Health and Endurance by almost a hundred percent. He’d seen how much that choice had enhanced Tava’s fighting prowess and survivability, making her even more lethal at range while letting her hold her own in close combat. He marked both of them as possible choices.
Guilds at War: The LitRPG Saga Continues Page 16
