by Aleron Kong
Strength: 5
Agility: 40
Dexterity: 95
Constitution: 14
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 41
Wisdom: 22
Charisma: 16
Luck: 17
SKILLS
Air Magic: 5
Herb Lore: 61
Life Magic: 9
Dark Magic: 3
Water Magic: 7
RESISTANCES
Air Magic: 22%
Water Magic: 22%
Dark Magic: 22%
Life Magic: 22%
ABILITIES
Celestial Pixie Song – Evoke strong emotions, summon images and grant status changes. Stronger songs will be triggered by specific events
Tree Communion – Female pixies can bond to a specific tree and bear young. Being separated from her bonded tree will weaken a pixie over time.
Fate’s Companion – Form a meidon with their destined sprite
Force Blast – Focus mana into a concentrated magical beam
DESCRIPTION
Celestial Pixies receive two points to distribute per level, and each level gives +3 to Dexterity, +1 to Agility and +1 to Intelligence. Celestial Pixies receive a racial boost to movement speed.
The benefits from sharing the Quickening fruit weren’t limited to just stat boosts. Richter enjoyed a relationship boost with every pixie that consumed the fruit. He also collected every rind. As the pixies had been feeding, even more people had come under the canopy. Richter picked up three of the silver fruits and took them to Hisako, Yoshi and Sion. Even the sword adept was moved, as evidenced by a relationship boost prompt. They consumed the fruits, and Richter moved on.
Terrod and Caulder both received one, as did Tabia. Richter was concerned that Randolphus might be offended at being excluded, but the Spy had apparently already guessed that celestial fruit might not coincide with his nature. He just thanked Richter for the consideration and continued marking on his clipboard, recording each person that was given a silver fruit. Krom received one of course, as did Beyan. The Smith was blown away by the wonderful gift, but it was hard to say if he was more moved by the fruit or by the fact that he would get to work with truesilver.
Twenty-seven people had been taken by Nexus for their Trials, including Krom. Richter set aside another twenty-six for them. He also gave one to each of the new corporals, Ox and Schroeder, as well as Sion’s new second, Kentyiro. Five of the precious fruits were allocated to Tabia for potion experimentation. He was hoping that the Professed Alchemist might be able to make something worthwhile from the celestial spheres. He emphasized that he was to get the metal rinds back as soon as possible, something to which she readily agreed.
Ultimately, even including the fruit he set aside, there were still more than a hundred silver orbs left over from this first crop. Richter realized he would have to think hard about the best people to gift the fruit to. It could definitely be a strong motivator. He had already decided that no Quickening fruit would be sold outside the village. Both the secret of the Quickening and the tree itself had to be protected.
Hisako stated that she intended to do some Dungeon diving and requested that he give permission to another ten of her warriors. He acceded with a smile. Richter gave Krom all the rinds and put the extra fruit into his bag. A quick run over to the treasury would let him try out his new skill.
“I’ll be back in the Forge in a bit,” Richter called out. Then he took off at a run. After he built up some speed, he triggered his new skill. It was amazing. Each step let him coast over the grass like he was ice skating. There was no loss of momentum and the lack of friction let him move even faster than if he was sprinting. The downside was the stamina burn. He realized that his stamina was falling faster than it would have just from running. It wasn’t that much worse, but it was still a consideration. After he’d run a bit, Richter decided to try his increased jump as well.
Finishing a glide step with both feet on the ground, he bent his knees and launched himself upward. He got some air! No more bitch Double Dribble clang for him! He was definitely in BOOM SHAKA LAKA territory now! The 20% bonus to his jump was immediately apparent. His stamina dropped by twenty-four points, but he easily cleared six feet. At the apex, he thought about gliding and he kept sliding smoothly forward. Staying at the same elevation made him feel a strain in his calves, but descending at a thirty-degree angle took almost no effort at all.
Richter felt his weight reassert itself the moment his two point five seconds of glide time was lost. He thought he’d feel wobbly or off-balance at first, but either because of the skill itself or his high Agility, he felt like he was in complete control. As he started to fall, Richter thought about jumping again and his descent arrested sharply. He continued to drift down like a marble through honey, but he was able to jump upward again.
Now he was ten feet above the ground and Alma flew around him, peppering him with questions.
*How are you doing that? Have you always been able to? Why aren’t you answering, master? Master!*
Richter just chuckled and skidded in mid-air, thinking about jumping again. This time, he leapt to the side and his trajectory changed. His stamina dropped precipitously and it was harder to jump, but he still managed it. He lunged right at his dragonling who squawked and corkscrewed away. Richter jumped in mid-air again and shot after her. He was having the time of his life!
*You can’t escape your master, Alma! I’m-*
That, unfortunately, was when two things happened. One, his glide time from the latest jump expired. And two, his stamina dropped below what he needed for another midair jump. He dropped like a stone. He landed hard, one arm barely keeping him from doing a full faceplant.
With a groan, he finished, “A leaf on the wind.”
CHAPTER 56 – Day 144 – Kuborn 34, 0 AoC
The sound of a smug dragoness laughing inside of your head is not what you want out of life. The effect was not greatly improved by her audibly trumpeting her superiority. Definitely didn’t help that Sion was laughing and loudly shouting, “Did you see that? He went down so hard!”
Picking up both himself and the few shreds of dignity he had left, Richter dusted himself off and kept jogging towards the hill leading to the village proper. He definitely shot a glare at a guard when the man asked if he was okay. The other guard was smart enough to just keep staring straight ahead. After he was past, Richter allowed himself a small chuckle at his own stupidity and just kept going.
The first order of the day was to start enchanting again. There was always more work to be done. Hisako’s sprites hunting the lands around the village had brought in an influx of soul stones for him to use. There were more than enough to power his own enchantments now. The sprites’ high skill levels in Archery even let them retrieve and reuse the Soul Trap arrows a good bit of the time. Krom was already back in the forge, yelling at people to stoke the fires higher. He was cradling the truesilver rinds like precious children. Richter walked up and discussed an idea he’d been considering for several days. The dwarf stroked his beard with his free hand and offered a suggestion, but agreed that it was a good thought.
Before he started working, Richter made some Core building purchases. Now that Krom was back and more of the villagers were starting to learn Smithing, they needed more work spaces. Richter placed his hand on the central anvil and accessed the Forge of Heaven’s interface. He scanned through the structures he could add to the building and made his choices.
Greetings, Master of the Forge of Heavens. You have chosen to add another Master Anvil (50 points), three secondary anvils (21 points) and another hearth (15 points) to the structure of the Forge. This will cost 86 Alteration Points in total. Currently, there are 100/100 Alteration Points available in your Core building at level one. Do you wish to expend them? Yes or No?
Richter chose “Yes” then just stood back to enjoy the show.
Core buildings were powerful for many reasons, but one of t
he features that truly distinguished them from traditional buildings was their ability to grow. In a Magic Forge, the smiths might one day find that there was another weapon rack in response to them making a great number of swords. It could anticipate the needs of those that used it. That growth could also be directed by using the building’s Alteration Points. Those points only regenerated at a rate of one per day so he’d basically just used three months’ worth, but he had also just greatly improved the possible productivity of the entire mystic smithy.
The locations of the other anvils, tools and hearths shifted to accommodate the new structures. An oversized anvil started growing from the floor. As the elementum flowed upward, the original anvil was moved towards the center of the forge. At the same time, three smaller anvils began to rise from the ground. The other anvils slid across the floor as well.
The new formation had the two large central anvils in the center of the building, directly across from one another like the dashes of an equal sign. The smaller anvils ringed them like a dashed circle. The two hearths stood opposite to each other on the outside of the circle. The columns that ringed the Forge of Heavens moved outward as more flooring was created to accommodate the additions.
Some of the smiths exclaimed in dismay when the changes started. This, of course, was exactly what Richter’s mischievous heart desired. It only took a shout from Krom calling them all “Namby pamby ninny finnies,” to get them over their shock and back to work. The entire process only took a few minutes, and soon the ringing of hammers could be heard again.
Richter started enchanting blades and armor as quickly as they were completed. After only his first hour, he was rewarded for his efforts by finishing not one, but two quests. He also earned the next quests in each chain.
Congratulations! You have finished the Quest: The Power of Two I
You have proven that you are an Enchanter of note. You have successively completed 10 dual enchantments!
Reward: 5 Talent Points. Total Talent Points: 22
Reward: 188 (base 300 x 1.25 x 0.5) experience points.
XP deficit remaining: -98,595
You have unlocked a Profession Quest: The Power of Two II
You have progressed along the path of the Enchanter. Make a total of 100 dual enchantments to complete this quest.
Reward: 10 Talent Points
Do you accept? Yes or No?
Congratulations! You have finished the Quest: Practice Makes Perfect III
You have been true to your Profession and have enchanted 500 items!
Reward: 20 Talent Points. Total Talent Points: 42
Reward: 313 (base 500 x 1.25 x 0.5) experience points
XP deficit remaining: -98,282
You have unlocked a Profession Quest: Practice Makes Perfect III
Dedicate yourself to your new Profession. Honor who you are. Will you enchant 2500 items?
Reward: 30 Talent Points
Do you accept? Yes or No?
Richter gratefully accepted both new quests. The boosts to his experience were small, but the real point of Profession quests was, of course, the Talent Points. Once again, being the head of a village of several hundred people had its perks. Having to pay to have time in someone else’s forge, to find or buy his own soul stones, and to mind-numbingly repeat the same enchantment that couldn’t even rank up due to a lack of a Core building… Richter wasn’t sure he’d have the patience for it. No, that wasn’t right. He definitely wouldn’t have the patience for it.
The influx of Talent Points opened up new options for him. Namely, Richter had found that he liked having a wide variety of enchantments. So much so that he had already picked out his next spells to unlock. He could only choose from Earth or Life magic, unless he wanted to pay another ten Talent Points to unlock a new Basic Element spell school, but that still left plenty of options. Within those two branches there was a veritable treasure trove of level one spells that only cost one Talent Point each.
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Grease. This enchantment can be applied to two mediums: Armor and Items. You must choose which medium you wish to unlock. Unlocking further mediums will require purchase with Talent Points.
Richter chose “Armor.”
You have now unlocked the (Armor) enchantment: Slick
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Earth
You are currently at 0/1,200 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have: 41 Talent Points remaining.
And on it went.
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Summon Insects. …
You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Summon Insects
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Earth
You are currently at 0/2000 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Thorns Underfoot. …
You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Briar
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Earth
You are currently at 0/4,080 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Charm. …
You have now unlocked the (Weapon) enchantment: Charm Humanoid
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/4,800 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Life Aura (Item) ...
You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Life’s Radiance
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/4000 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Life Beacon. …
You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Call for Aid
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/3,040 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Slow Heal. …
You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Heal
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/1,600 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
He chose to double up on the healing enchantments, purchasing both the armor and item enchantments for Weak Slow Heal.
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Slow Heal. …
You have now unlocked the (Armor) enchantment: Heal
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/1,600 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
Finally, he bought:
You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Virol’s Blessing. …
You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Plant Growth
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/6,720 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
You have: 31 Talent Points remaining.
There were a few other level-one spells, Weak Cure Poison, Weak Cure Disease, Weak Call Small Creature as well as other mediums that he hadn’t unlocked for the enchantments he already had, but he needed the Talent Points for something else he had in mind. Zooming back out on the Talent tree, he made another purchase.
You have advanced the Talent: Increase Soul Stone Yield to Rank II for 20 Talent Points. Soul Stone Yield now increased by 50%. Progressing to Rank III will cost 40 Talent Points.
You have: 11 Ta
lent Points remaining.
Richter rerouted his auto-allocation of mana from going to level two of Life Aura and started unlocking Charm. Six hundred MP went into the cost immediately from his mana pool. Losing so much at once caused a tightening at his temples, but he had more than a hundred left. Richter pushed the pain aside. With his mana regeneration rate of 32.4 MP/min, he needed roughly two hours to learn the new enchantment.
The chaos seed put his head down and kept working. Exactly one hundred twenty-nine minutes and thirty-six seconds later, a prompt appeared. It would have come faster if Alma had been close enough to channel some of her mana to him, but she was out hunting as usual. He certainly wasn’t going to complain about the experience she brought in. She had already made a kill that morning, netting him several hundred XP. Besides, he’d still learned a new and powerful enchantment!
You have learned the (Weapon) enchantment: Charm Humanoid, Level I
Enchantment Size: 6
Enchantment School: Life
Effect 1: Charm – Each rank:
1) Increases the chance to charm a humanoid
2) Allows you to Charm a humanoid up to level (rank*5)
3) Increase length of maximum Charm effect by 5 minutes
You now have unlocked the (Weapon) enchantment: Charm Humanoid, Level II
Enchantment Size: Unknown
Enchantment School: Life
You are currently at 0/480,000 for the mana cost to learn this enchantment.
Effects: Unknown
The enchantment cost on Charm was crazy high, but then, making the enemy fight on your behalf was a force multiplier. Apparently, the enchantment would only work on weaklings, level five and below, until he ranked it up. Once he got to the sixth rank though, any archer armed with these arrows would be able to get enemies up to level thirty to fight for their side for half an hour. The only problem was that the sixth rank of an enchantment with a base cost of six was ninety-six gods-damned Enchantment Points! That would make it just about the most expensive enchantment he’d ever created. It would require three high level souls. When you factored in that enchanted arrows could rarely be retrieved with the magic intact, the cost was staggering.
