The crowd broke out into cheering and clapping. Arthur held up his hands for them to calm down.
“The Goddess Lianne blessed the fight and handed us titles for the defense of the city. The biggest news though is that Goddess Lianne has named Samson as a Paladin and Grandmaster of the new Order of Aduro!”
The cheering was even louder this time around, and Samson looked around shyly at all of the attention. Arthur let the crowd carry on for a while with their enthusiasm. When it finally died down, he spoke up again.
“We have come far in this village, but the road still has a way to go. Now is the time to get the battlefield cleaned up and get the village back to work. There are big plans in progress for this village. That being said, my first order of business is to visit our great bathhouse to wash the filth off of me.” Arthur said to a mixture of cheers and chuckles.
He made his way to Daniel and Dalia and hugged them both.
“We did it!” He told them both.
“We sure did,” Daniel said with a smile.
“Thank the Goddess,” Dalia said.
“Thank the Goddess indeed,” Arthur told her.
Arthur made his way up the stairs and stripped off most of his combat armor. He kept his bag on him but managed to carry the other pieces back downstairs. If left upstairs, it would make his room smell like rotten blood, and it needed to be cleaned. He made it downstairs and set it by the washroom and let Daniel know. Daniel just nodded and said he’d have someone take care of it.
Allendria made her way downstairs at this time as well, and he grabbed her hand, and they moved off to the bathhouse. They both soaked in the bathhouse and let the warm water relax their stress away. After an hour of sitting in the warm water, they decided it was time to get to work.
They got back out and got dressed in some extra clothes they had brought for the purpose. They walked out to the wall and helped people as they were cleaning up the mess. The bandits were being stripped of anything that could be used. The cloth from their clothing could be repurposed and none of them had much gear. It was no wonder many of them were so easy to kill. The occasional iron dagger would pop up, and of course, Lazaru had the iron sword he had used, but, for the most part, everything they found was due to be melted and reforged into something useful.
Arthur decided to take the time while doing the mind-numbing work of cleaning up the bodies to work on his stats. He took a look at his current status.
Name: Arthur Firebrand
Level: 15
Age: 26
Race: Human
HP: 50/290
MP: 480/480
Stamina: 290/290
Strength: 8
Agility: 16
Intellect: 20
Wisdom: 10
Endurance: 14
Charisma: 5
Luck: 7
Experience: 12580/15000 (25 stat points available)
Skills (125% boost to any skill for level up)
Combat Skills:
Archery: 6 (525/1900)
- Aim Shot: 2 (495/750)
Block: 2 (380/750)
Dual Wield: 5 (975/1900)
Identify: 1 (75/500)
Light Armor: 6 (300/2500)
Parry: 3 (550/750)
Scan: 4 (100/1400)
Small Blades: 6 (795/2500)
Spears: 2 (200/750)
Stealth: 1 (370/500)
- Detect Hidden: 1 (50/500)
Swords: 6 (605/2500)
Unarmed: 1 (275/500)
Magic:
Earth Magic: 18 (3525/38000)
- Earthen Wall (2)
- Excavate (1)
- Flatten Earth (1)
- Magical Prospecting (2)
- Raise Stone Wall (1)
- Stone Building Wall (1)
- Transform Earth: Stone (1)
- Transform Stone: Gravel (1)
Fire Magic: 17 (17945/30000)
- Arcane Forging (2)
- Arcane Furnace (1)
- Basic Firebolt (1)
- Weak Flame (1)
Professions:
Barter: 3 (100/1000)
Blacksmithing: 8 (5010/3800)
- Alternate Heating: 1 (160/500)
- Arcane Smithing: 7 (130/2500)
Cooking: 2 (400/750)
Enchanting: 7 (1075/3200)
Farming: 7 (0/3200)
Firemaking: 2 (700/750)
Herbalism: 5 (660/1900)
Leatherworking: 7 (195/3200)
Mining: 6 (2400/2500)
- Magical Mining 6 (2025/2500)
Skinning: 4 (175/1400)
Woodworking: 1 (40/500)
He was somewhat surprised to see his name had changed to add in his surname. There was no way to tell if that were something others would be able to see or not, though. It was time to round out his stats a bit. He put 4 points into Strength to give his attacks a little extra damage and added 4 into agility for a speed boost. He put 3 points into intellect for the added mana and 2 into Wisdom. His mana regen rate was already formidable but a little more never hurt. That and it also gave him a slight boost to his mana pool. Six points went into Endurance to provide him with a larger health pool and decided he wanted 4 into Charisma. He was hoping he would be able to do more of this diplomatically instead of having to always fight over everything. Finally, he dropped 2 in Luck to make it up to 9.
The skill percentage boost could wait for now. There was also 7500 experience to play with for skills. He also had four combat skills that he needed to dig through the talent trees for. The talent trees would be the first order of business. He brought up his new talent tree for Dual Wield.
You have 2 unused Talent Points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Off Hand Power (0/5)
Increases damage of your off hand weapon by 5% per point.
Deflection (0/5)
Increases your chance to successfully parry by 5% per point.
Arm Strength (0/5)
Increases damage of your main hand weapon by 5% per point.
All of those were pretty straight forward. Arthur decided to go with Deflection for his first choice and then pulled up the tree again to see the second-tier options.
You have 1 unused Talent Point
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Off Hand Power (0/5)
Increases damage of your off hand weapon by 5% per point.
Deflection (1/5)
Increases your chance to successfully parry by 5% per point.
Arm Strength (0/5)
Increases damage of your main hand weapon by 5% per point.
Tier 2
Off Hand Coordination (0/1)
Allows you to use an off-hand, full-size, one-handed weapon without additional penalties to off hand speed or accuracy.
Main Hand Dexterity (0/10)
Increases swing speed with main hand weapon by 3% per point.
Arthur decided he was going to put another in Deflection. He was more worried about survivability than anything else. He next decided to check his talent tree for Light Armor.
You have 4 unused Talent Points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Reinforced Armor (0/5)
While wearing at least 4 pieces of Light Armor, increases the base armor of all pieces of Light Armor worn by 3% per piece.
Flexible Stitching (0/5)
While wearing at least 4 pieces of Light Armor, increases your speed by 3% per point.
Proper Care (0/5)
While wearing at least 4 pieces of Light Armor, increases the durability by 3% per point.
He weighed the options and thought all of them had merit. He decided to put a point in Reinforced Armor and checked it again.
You have 3 unused Talent Points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Reinforced Armor (1/5)
While weari
ng at least 4 pieces of Light Armor, increases the base armor of all pieces of Light Armor worn by 3% per piece.
Flexible Stitching (0/5)
While wearing at least 4 pieces of Light Armor, increases your speed by 3% per point.
Proper Care (0/5)
While wearing at least 4 pieces of Light Armor, increases the durability by 3% per point.
Tier 2
Leather Repair (0/1)
An ability that allows you to close any cuts or holes in light armor leather pieces and restores 15% of its durability.
Cooldown: 24 Hours
Armor Modification (0/3)
Each point in this skill grants you a special ability as follows:
1 point - Allows you to add additional leather pieces to your armor to increase its base defense rating.
2 points - Allows you to add small metal bands to any light armor you have to increase its base defense rating.
3 points - Allows you to add beveled metal bands to add block rating to light armor pieces you have.
Leather Armor Expertise (0/10)
While wearing at least 4 pieces of Light Armor increase the base armor and durability of all Light Armor worn by 3% per point.
It was nice having the boosts to armor stats, and the second tier not only boosted the armor rating but also the durability. That being said, Arthur decided he wanted the Leather Repair ability. He needed a quick way to patch up his armor after a day of fighting. The other two points went into Armor Modification. He looked down and saw the cuts he had in his leather from the fight and knew the skill would come in very handy. He went ahead and activated the ability and watched the leather pieces of his armor all meld back together. He also noticed the durability had returned on his armor pieces. He then pulled up his Small Blades talents.
You have 4 unused Talent points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Bleeding Strikes (0/5)
Wounds caused by Small Blades will deal 4% additional bleed damage per point.
Blurring Speed (0/5)
Attack speed with Small Blades increase by 3% per point.
Riposte (0/1)
If any of your attacks are parried you are able to activate this skill for a guaranteed hit with your Small Blade.
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Arthur didn’t hesitate and chose Riposte. A guaranteed hit on a target to get past their defense was great. He looked at the tier 2 options.
You have 3 unused Talent Points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Bleeding Strikes (0/5)
Wounds caused by Small Blades will deal 4% additional bleed damage per point.
Blurring Speed (0/5)
Attack speed with Small Blades increase by 3% per point.
Riposte (1/1)
If any of your attacks are parried you are able to activate this skill for a guaranteed hit with your Small Blade.
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Tier 2
Twist (0/10)
Each point causes wounds inflicted by Small Blades to deal 3% additional damage.
Blade Weaver (0/10)
Increases your chance to parry blows with Small Blades by 2% per point.
He decided to put all three points into Blade Weaver. They were all decent options, but he typically used his dagger for parrying while blocking with his sword. There was only one new talent tree to look through, so he pulled up his tree for swords.
You have 4 unused Talent Points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Powerful Strikes (0/5)
Increases base damage of swords you use by 1 point per talent point.
Blade Forms (0/5)
Each point increases your swing speed with swords by 2%.
Passata Sotto (0/1)
A melee ability that allows you to avoid an incoming strike by ducking down low and then counter-attacking with an upward angled thrust.
Cost: 10 Stamina
Arthur wasn’t going to turn down another melee ability so he put the first point in Passata Sotto. He then pulled up Tier 2 talents as well.
You have 3 unused Talent Points.
Talent
Description
Tier 1
Powerful Strikes (0/5)
Increases base damage of swords you use by 1 point per talent point.
Blade Forms (0/5)
Each point increases your swing speed with swords by 2%.
Passata Sotto (0/1)
A melee ability that allows you to avoid an incoming strike by ducking down low and then counter-attacking with an upward angled thrust.
Cost: 10 Stamina
Tier 2
Heavy Guard (0/10)
Each point increases your chance to successfully block attacks by 2%. More points also allow you to block stronger attacks.
Deflection (0/10)
Increases your chance to parry blows with Swords by 2% per point.
The final three points went into Heavy Guard to complement his style well. He would worry about his bonus points at a later time, though. There wasn’t anything he just had to have.
His group and many of the villagers worked into the afternoon to clear the field of bodies. They managed to get the bodies stripped of useful items and all piled up in one location outside the walls. They had planned on burying them all but decided against it. Instead, Arthur and Allendria were going to use their Fire Magic to incinerate the bodies to avoid a lot of extra work. It would take them more than a day to dig the holes and bury all the bandits, but they would be able to turn them to ashes in much less time. Arthur was going to have to learn a new fire spell for this, though, so he was sure it would cost all of his mana to pull it off on fire this big.
After everyone else had cleared away, he stepped up next to Allendria for this spell.
“You need to focus on refining your magic into a hotter form. You can’t just pour out fire magic until you run out of mana. Instead, you have to concentrate and circulate the mana in front of your hands until the temperature of the spell reaches the right height. From there, you can push the fire outward from you, and the circulation will keep the fire hot.”
Arthur nodded at her explanation. He wasn’t about to second guess her when it came to fire magic.
“Alright, let’s do this.”
Arthur put his hands up and focused on his Fire Magic and started to swirl his magic to build the heat as Allendria had told him. He could feel the heat rising in front of his hands and had to instinctually increase the power he channeled to protect himself from the heat. When it reached a temperature that would work, he pushed forward on the mana and poured the magic through the swirl. He pictured it like a heater from Earth with a heating coil that pushed air through it to warm it. This was the same principle but all with rapidly heating magical currents instead of metal coils.
The fire flew forward and started rapidly eating away at the corpses. The sight of it threatened to make Arthur hurl. He had to fight his impulse and push onward with the flame. Allendria added her fire to the mix when she had seen he had a grasp of it. Arthur watched as his mana steadily dove. He couldn’t figure out how Allendria had learned this spell in the first place. She had a smaller mana pool than he did but somehow could still figure this one out. Arthur could only guess she had learned a more modest version and made it stronger with talents.
They let the flames continue to pour, and when Arthur was down to 60 mana, his fire ended, and a message appeared.
Congratulations, you have discovered the Fire Magic Spell: Blazing Inferno. You have gained 250 experience in Fire Magic for discovering a known spell.
You have gained 120 experience in Fire Magic for successfully casting Blazing Inferno.
Blazing Inferno
Requirements: Fire Magic
Mana Cost: 80 MP
Cast Time: 4 seconds
Description: Summons white hot flame to
burn everything directly in front of caster. The damage of this spell is based on the distance from caster.
Dravincia Page 47
