You currently have 1 unspent Class Skill Point.
Please select an ability from the following list to learn:
Traits:
Improved Familiar Bond
Type: Trait, Class
Duration: Permanent
Trait Requirement: A bonded familiar with Relationship rank ‘Loyal’ or higher.
Description: As your relationship with your familiar improves, the connection that the two of you share deepens, giving you the ability to channel self-targeted spells across your bond and gaining enhanced insight to one another’s senses when in close proximity.
Effect: When you and your familiar are within fifteen feet of one another any spell that could previously only be cast on yourself, can now also be cast on your familiar. Furthermore, when within range you each subconsciously share in one another’s senses, giving insight into what the other is experiencing.
Mana Devourer
Type: Trait, Special
Duration: Permanent
Trait Requirement: Die from the effects of Mana Void.
Description: You have experienced the depths of your body’s hunger for mana firsthand as it consumed your flesh and blood, feeling something stir deep within you. Even now, recovered from your ordeal you can’t quite shake the feeling that there is something just past your perception within you, something more that you could tap into…or allow to tap into you.
Effect: Unknown.
Spells:
Cone of Cold
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: Instant
Arcane Tree: Evocation
Spell Mastery: Evocation - Level 9
Mana Cost: 140
Description: You unleash a blast of arctic wind before you, freezing and slowing any who are caught in its blast.
Effect: You instantly cast a wave of freezing energy centering from either your hand or mouth, dealing 80-120 cold damage to everything in front of you.
Shocking Touch II
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: Instant
Arcane Tree: Evocation
Spell Mastery: Evocation - Level 19
Mana Cost: 170
Description: You charge your hand with electricity, discharging it through the first thing you touch.
Effect: You shock the next thing you touch for 55-95 points of Electricity Damage. This attack can be conducted through metallic weapons, items, and water.
Martial Arts:
Rend
Type: Martial Art, General Skill
Skill Requirement: Swords Level 14
Stamina Cost: 60
Description: Twisting your sword through the target’s flesh, you leave behind a wicked gash that bleeds for a short period.
Effect: You inflict a bleeding wound on your target, dealing 25 damage every 2 seconds, for the next 8 seconds or until healed. This effect scales with your weapon.
Ambush
Type: Martial Art, General Skill
Skill Requirement: Stealth Level 9
Stamina Cost: 60
Description: Taking your target by surprise, you strike them in a vulnerable location before combat has begun.
Effect: You ambush an unaware target, dealing weapon damage+125. This ability can only be used against enemies who are not aware of you, nor are in combat.
Oh damn! I thought, unable to keep my eyes from widening as I read through the list of traits, spells, and abilities that I had available to me. This is like level ten all over again!
Shaking my head, I re-read the list a second time, trying to figure out what abilities I could live without for the time being, and what others I could maybe attempt to learn the old-fashioned way, through endless practice and training.
Assuming I could ever find enough time to devote to doing that, I couldn’t help but think, letting out a low sigh as I began to eliminate choices from the selection. I think I can eliminate Cone of Cold, Rend and Ambush out of hand. Cone of Cold just costs too much mana for the amount of damage it deals…and I don’t have that multi-cast ability that Mozter had to augment it. As for Rend, it’d be really useful to have…but I don’t think it stands out enough from the other options available.
I guess the same thing goes for Ambush too. I continued, looking over the ability and realizing that I tended to favor direct melee combat over stealth. Being able to one-shot an enemy out of hiding would be awesome, but it’ll be useless once the fight begins, and more often than not, I find myself right in the thick of things…
Which I guess leaves the last three options available to me, I scrolled the list in my vision until I was looking at the upgraded version of Shocking Touch. It was easily the most popular spell in my Spellbook and one that was responsible for a substantial portion of the damage I inflicted, something that would greatly increase with this newest rank. Yet I couldn’t help but feel hesitant in taking it as an option, noticing that the spell mastery put it five levels above what my current Evocation skill was. Which means that I’d fail at fifty percent of my casts until I manage to level Evocation high enough, and that would be a bit of a pain considering that I can’t regenerate mana.
Running a hand through my hair, I temporarily took my eyes off the skill list in front of me to look at the rest of the party, seeing the intense expressions on their faces as they too wrestled with their skill options.
Nothing puts the pressure on like spending a skill point, especially considering how rarely we get them, I thought grimly, turning my attention back towards the list hanging in my vision and to the two remaining traits that were available. Now, I guess that just leaves Improved Familiar Bond and…Mana Devourer…which sounds worrying if nothing else.
Pausing for a moment to read over the latter trait’s description for the third time, I couldn’t help but feel unsettled as I recalled my experience resurrecting in Aldford after the battle with Carver. I remembered feeling like there was something trapped inside of me that was actively trying to claw its way out, before it finally went dormant. It wasn’t an experience that I ever wanted to relive again.
But the fact that a specific trait had appeared in response to what I had experienced couldn’t help but make me curious. Was this an option for me to progress deeper into my Ætherwarped condition? Or was this something related to my contact with the Annulment Sphere? Or even a combination of the two? The lack of information made it difficult for me to gauge the risk of taking the trait, especially considering the fact that I wasn’t quite enthusiastic about how it had already affected me.
What if it turns me into one of those ghouls full time? I thought, staring at the trait intently. Even if I retained my sanity this time…how would that make me look? How would it change my playstyle? Would I regret the choice?
But no matter how many times I asked those questions in my mind, an answer never appeared, causing my eyes to drift off the Mana Devourer trait and onto the last, or more aptly, first trait in the list: Improved Familiar Bond.
Amaranth and I are barely ever apart, I noted, glancing over the trait description once again while looking down at the azure-furred puma at my feet, who was busily grooming himself as he patiently waited for us to get moving again. And if I’m reading this trait right, we’ll be able to coordinate better between one another, and I’ll be able to share my Lesser Shielding spell with him, which should help keep him safe in combat. I wish though that I had a few other spells that were more useful, if only I could give him the ability to Blink Step…
I felt my heart skip a beat as I replayed my last thought a second time in my mind, causing me to stare numbly at the trait. Wait a second…Blink Step is a self-targeted spell! That should actually work! Sure, I’d burn through my mana in no time flat if the two of us are Blink Stepping around, but it would give us both a huge amount of mobility and give Amaranth an escape option if he needed it!
Feeling that I was close to making a decision, I looked once more at the Mana Devourer trait, unable to completely let go of the curiosity th
at I felt. I guess it’s possible that I’ll have another chance to take the trait when I get my next skill point at level twenty and there’s also that Class Challenge thing at level nineteen before it, whatever that entails…
Satisfied that the best choice for me, at the moment, was to take Improved Familiar Bond, I mentally selected the trait and confirmed my choice, feeling my awareness of Amaranth and by extension, my surroundings grow even sharper. I could suddenly hear faint sounds of rustling that hadn’t been audible just a few seconds earlier, along with the potent stench of the moldy smelling musk that we had smelled ever since we had entered the chamber.
Whoa, I thought, raising a hand to clench my head as I tried to sort out what I was experiencing, realizing that I wasn’t in fact hearing or smelling everything around me, but that Amaranth was. Is…is this what Amaranth is hearing and smelling down here? Is this what the trait meant by sharing our senses?
I replied to Amaranth, unsure of how to explain what had just changed.
he answered after a moment.
Preparing himself, Amaranth visibly tensed as I went through the mental steps involved in casting Blink Step but stopping just shy of actually triggering the spell, holding it fixed in my mind.
he replied, his mental voice sounding unsure.
Before I could finish my words, Amaranth vanished from in front of me, followed seconds later by several very loud and surprised shouts.
“Whoa! Amaranth! Where did you come from?” I heard Freya exclaim.
“Shit! He just appeared out of nowhere!” Halcyon added with a yelp.
“Wait, was that just a Blink Step?!” Sierra asked, cluing in the fastest out of the three.
“Sooo, Lyr,” Halcyon said loudly as he, Freya and Sierra began to walk over to me, their eyes flitting from Amaranth then back to me. “Learn anything new with your level fifteen skill point?”
“Eh, nothing too exciting,” I replied with a shrug. “Just a bit of a boost to the bond that Amaranth and I share.”
“A boost that lets him Blink Step?” Freya asked, a smile evident in her voice.
“Well, that’s one thing,” I said. “But I can share pretty much any self-targeted spell with him now.”
“Oh, wow!” Halcyon exclaimed. “That’s pretty badass! So, things like Blink Step and Lesser Shielding then?”
“Those and Jump are the only self-targeted ones I have so far,” I replied. “And I’m pretty sure that Shocking Touch doesn’t fall under the ‘self-targeted’ category, as useful as that may be.”
“I think a giant blink-stepping puma is going to be terrifying enough for people to handle,” Sierra stated. “Having it also be electrified may be just a little too much to ask…”
“Considering that spiritual wolf that Carver had, maybe not,” I said, recalling our last battle with the man. “That thing had a mana draining ability on top of being able to do something like Blink Step.”
“I remember that,” Freya commented, her eyes taking on a faraway look for a second before focusing back onto me. “Maybe you’ll have an option to develop more abilities later? I’m not sure what you all had as part of your skill choices, but mine were damn near overwhelming.”
“Tell me about it,” Halcyon grumbled. “I still haven’t made up my mind…”
“Yeah, they definitely were.” I nodded at Freya. “And you’re right. There’s no way of knowing what else we might have available to us when we get our next skill point.”
“Or that class challenge thing at level nineteen,” Sierra mentioned, voicing the same thought that I had a few minutes earlier. “We—”
“Hey, everyone!” Lazarus’s voice called out, causing all of us to turn and look in his and Alistair’s direction. “I know you’re all having a great time enjoying spending your skill points without us. But Alistair and I would really like to get moving so we can hit the next level too. You mind if we sort out the loot?”
“Uh, sure,” Halcyon replied as we all turned to face the pair standing over the Sentinel’s loot bag. “But get moving to where? Aren’t we…done?”
“Don’t think so,” Lazarus replied, motioning towards the far end of the chamber that vanished into the darkness. “The tunnel keeps going onwards, and we still haven’t found the Ley Line. You know, the reason why we came down here in the first place.”
“Should we keep going without the others though?” Drace asked, joining in on the conversation as we all walked towards Lazarus and Alistair. “We’re down a third of the group, and I don’t know about you, but I could use a bit of a break.”
“I hear you,” I replied. “But the others are going to have to make their way back down here anyway to pick up their Soul Fragments. We might as well push a bit further until they can get back down here - if only to make sure that the area is clear.”
“Fair enough,” Drace acknowledged before motioning at the bag that Lazarus was holding open. “What dropped?”
“A hell of a lot,” he said, reaching into the bag and beginning to pull items out, their descriptions appearing in my vision as he handed them out. “Some of it immediately useful; some of it…not so much.”
Nafarrian Sentinel’s Æther Core
Item Class: Relic
Item Quality: Mastercraft (+20%)
Strength: +3 Agility: +3 Constitution: +3 Intelligence: +3 Willpower +3
Level: 16
Nafarrian Sentinel’s Focus Crystal
Slot: Main Hand
Item Class: Relic
Item Quality: Mastercraft (+20%)
Damage: 25-55 (Arcane)
Intelligence: +7 Willpower +7
Durability: 120/120
Weight: 0.2 kg
Class: Any Arcane
Level: 16
Nafarrian Sentinel’s Iron Gauntlets
Slot: Main Hand and Off Hand
Item Class: Relic
Item Quality: Mastercraft (+20%)
Damage: 25-45 (Crushing)
Strength: +7 Agility +7
Durability: 160/160
Weight: 1 kg
Class: Any Martial
Legacy of the Fallen (Ascend Online Book 2) Page 53
