There were five loot bags floating over the spots where the Undead had met their end. Hawke earned six gold, eight silver, and three copper coins. He also got a dozen potions, and an Enchanted dagger with enhanced damage and +1 Strength, Dexterity and Constitution. He gave it to Tava as a backup weapon.
“Is it permitted to offer a pre-courtship gift,” he told her as he did.
“From a dear fellow Adventurer, it is,” she said in the same mock-formal tone.
They were both grinning like idiots while he started opening messages:
For slaying your foes, you have earned 1,200 XP.
Current XP/Next Level: 1,950/4,500
Quest Completed: Lay the Risen Lord to Rest
Experience Earned: 420 (+20% Triune Tenets Bonus)
You Have Found: 10 gold coins.
You Have Found: Ring of the Legion (Enchanted Item: Reduce Endurance Costs by 10%)
Current XP/Next Level: 2,370/4,500
Quest Complete: Destroy the Lair
Experience Earned: 900 (+150 for Optional Quest, +20% for Triune Tenets Bonus)
You Have Found: 10 gold coins
You Have Found: Amulet of Stealth (Arcane Item: When activated, reduces any noise you make, increasing Stealth tasks by 30%. Lasts 30 minutes. Can be used once per day)
You Have Found: Orb of Life (Absorbed into Saturnyx)
Current XP/Next Level: 3,270/4,500
Quest Complete: Kinto’s Children
Experience Earned: 360 (+20% for Triune Tenets Bonus)
You have gained +380 Reputation with Kinto Primes (200 Base, +90% Charisma bonus)/
Current Reputation: +580 (Friend)
Current XP/Next Level: 3,630/4,500
If he hadn’t died, who knew how many more levels he could have gained. That XP wipeout after death was the worst.
Hawke sighed.
Thirty-Six
The Mana Node was beneath a stone sarcophagus that had been the Risen Lord’s resting place and prison. The tomb was covered with magical signs that somebody had melted, destroying them like it had destroyed the seals on the doors leading there. That was the Necromancer’s agent at work. Hawke was sure it had been the Wraith he had destroyed. It had been the only non-corporeal Undead in the bunch.
That’s a big coffin, Hawke told the sword. I don’t think Strength 24 is enough to move it.
Hawke concentrated and sent a stream of Mana towards the Node. Connecting to it was like sticking your finger in a light socket. A shock of pure power ran through his body, paralyzing him. Uh, oh, he thought before a message appeared:
You have accessed: Level 5 Mana Node (Darkness Attuned). You have the following choices:
Leave Mana Node alone: No risk or reward. Y/N
Claim Mana Node: +1,000 Experience, +100 Mana as long as you are within 1 mile/level from the Node. Y/N
Destroy Mana Node: 2,000 Experience, +5 Spirit. Y/N
Absorb Mana Node, becoming attuned to its Element: Access to Darkness magic and Special Secret Bonuses! Y/N
Warning: As a Paladin of Light, Darkness is an opposing force. Trying to Absorb it will be dangerous and have unpredictable results. Great Risks Lead to Great Rewards! Choose Wisely.
Hawke had to think about his choices. Leaving the Node alone wasn’t a choice, of course, not with the Necromancer around; a new Lair would probably spring up in a few days. Claiming the Node had its advantages, but it was in a fairly remote area. Besides, this was the second Darkness-attuned Node he had found; the other was his Reincarnation site. If he was going to claim a Node, that was the better choice.
That left destroying or absorbing it. The first choice was the safe one, and it would give him enough XP to hit level seven. That was what he should do. But then there were the words ‘Special Secret Bonuses,’ calling out to him like a carnival barker telling him a better show was waiting for him at the next tent over.
Great Risks Lead to Great Rewards.
He needed all the advantages he could get to accomplish the things that he had sworn to do. And everything he planned to do was risky as hell. Hawke thought about consulting with Saturnyx first, but decided to take the plunge on his own. Fortune favored the bold, didn’t it? Like Napoleon (well, he did lose in the end), or Leroy Jenkins (actually, that didn’t have a happy ending, either), or… Never mind.
You have chosen to absorb a Mana Node (Darkness). Confirm: Y/N
He mentally ‘clicked’ Yes.
Coils of solid shadow tore through the stone floor and stabbed him. Black energy rushed through his veins like a transfusion of icy water. The Light inside of him reacted the way antibodies would in the face of an infection, swarming the invading Darkness and seeking to destroy it. He started convulsing again, helplessly flopping around like a fish while Tava and Gosto rushed towards him, trying to help. Hawke felt the warmth from the Druid’s healing spells, but it had no effect. His body was fine. Whatever was happening was affecting him on a spiritual level.
Every instinct in his body wanted to fight the Darkness invading him. But that was the wrong move; he had invited it in, after all. A fight would destroy him. He tried to welcome it instead, and push the Light back. That didn’t work, either; the Light began to fight him, threatening to burn him from the inside out. Hawke tried a new tactic, using his healing Light spells on the Darkness, in an attempt to blend the two forces. Meanwhile, he used the other element he had control over, Life, to stabilize his system and ‘heal’ both Light and Darkness.
For the first time, he became aware of the flow of Mana through his body. It was a network very much like his blood vessels. Or like the pipes in a house, bringing clean water in and expelling waste out. And like pipes, there were junctions. He saw several spots where Mana gathered: one in his forehead, right between the eyes, another close to his solar plexus, a third in the center of his chest, and several others. He counted seven of them, each a personal Mana Node of sorts. He also discovered that Mana dedicated to destructive purposes flowed more easily if expelled from his left palm, while healing forces worked better from the right one.
The Mana in his body had been attuned to the two Elements he controlled. Now a third Element was flowing through the pipes. He tried to control the flow, to make it coexist with the Light that was trying to extinguish it. His will pushed Mana around like he would while casting a spell, but this time he just split the pipes so there was enough room for all the different energy currents coursing through his body.
Congratulations: You have gained one level of the Secret Discipline: Mana Channeling. Mana Regeneration has increased by 1 point per minute.
You have unlocked a Secret Quest: Mana Channeler.
Quest Complete: Mana Channeler I.
Experience Earned: 1,000.
(Level Advancement Frozen Until Node Absorption is Completed or Fails.)
Current XP/Next Level: 4,630/4,500
What the hell is happening?
He thought Saturnyx was telling him something, but the sound of her mental voice came through garbled and distant, as if she was shouting from the other side of a thick wall. Hawke ignored that, set aside the notification, and concentrated on maintaining harmony between the two opposing forces. He clenched his left hand, cutting off the outflow of positive energy, and directed it back to his body. Then he opened his right and expelled the negative energies caused by the conflict between Light and Dark.
“Stand back!” Kinto ordered; his voice sounded like it was coming from far away. “His magic is gone wild. Gosto, heal me. Stand back, I said!”
The shouts, the feeling of the stone floor as his body kept thrashing about like a fish out of water, and the pain as conflicting energies were forced to share the same space, they all began to fade away. It looked like he had taken a chance – and lost. Too bad.
Reincarnation Attempted. Reincarnation failed.
Really lost. He hadn’t realized just how great a risk he was taking. Hawke pictured Tava smiling at him and imagined running his fingers on her tanned skin. He had lost everything. As darkness – not the element, but the simple end of the senses – began to close in, his last thoughts were of Saturnyx. He was going to miss her the most.
* * *
Voices echoed in the darkness:
A male voice: “This is nearly unprecedented. I do not like it.”
A woman responded: “Nearly unprecedented means not unprecedented. This has happened before.”
“Eleven times, including this one, over six thousand years. And never involving a Sixth Level noob.”
“He has been selected by three deities as their future champion. Four now, including myself.”
“Are you saying you will intercede for him? There will be a price.”
“I know the rules Arbiter. We all do. This is a time of changes. The Laughing Man saw to that. Who am I to question one of the Makers? Who are you to do so, for that matter?”
“I am the Chief Arbiter. I have to do the best I can with the mess our betters have created.”
“Do not get in their way, Primus. None of us is irreplaceable.”
“Don’t I know it. Fine, the noob is yours.”
Hawke could see again. A woman faced him, wearing a black robe that somehow stood out in the middle of the dark void surrounding them. He felt the same way as when he had met Vitara: like he was insignificant, a pebble next to a mountain, an amoeba facing a blue whale. Another goddess, and why did she care about him? The guy who’d been talking to her – Arbiter Primus, he suddenly realized – had been right. Hawke was a sixth level nobody.
“Greetings, Eternal. I am Tenebra Oculta, Goddess of Darkness and Secrets.”
“Greetings, Your Exalted Divinity,” Hawke said, his Lore Skill reminding him of the proper way to address deities.
“You have achieved much in a short time. Few beings at your current level of development have managed to take control over diametrically opposed Elements.”
“Eleven times in six thousand years, wasn’t it?”
He couldn’t see her face, but something in her voice suggested that she was smiling at him.
“You were listening to our conversation? Curious. Something else may be at work here.”
I probably shouldn’t be telling people – or freaking gods! – that I eavesdropped on them! Hawke thought, and felt disappointed when Saturnyx didn’t call him a dumbass in her own special way.
“Hawke Lightseeker. You have, without a teacher, forged a connection to a School of Magic: Twilight, the point of balance between Light and Darkness, favored by both Lumina Gloriana and myself. In the process, you have also awakened the ability to sense and manage the flow of Mana through your body, something that is normally only available at much higher levels of development.”
Damn, I’m good. If I wasn’t such a dumbass, I’d probably conquer the world.
“Unfortunately, the stress on your body has been great enough to place you on the threshold of death. Final Death, wherein your Identity will be obliterated and your soul cast away from your body, to face its ultimate fate or return to the Wheel of Death and Rebirth, as determined by your beliefs and past behavior.”
Scrap good. I was a dumbass.
“I was made aware of your actions, however, and have chosen to intercede in your favor. Your other patrons, the Triune Goddesses, have agreed to let you follow the Twilight Path, as long as you continue to obey the Tenets as you swore you would. You may make your choice now: to give up your existence and move on; or to change your nature and become something new:
“To become a Twilight Templar, Paladin of Shadows, seeker and keeper of secrets.”
I didn’t go through all this crap to die. And I get to turn into a Ninja Paladin? That’s like having to choose between cancer and ice cream!
“It is not as easy a choice as that,” the Goddess responded to Hawke’s thoughts. “Your new Path will put you at odds with many forces in the Realms. And you will be called upon to do my bidding, while still required to follow the Tenets of the Goddesses of Life, Light, and Wisdom.”
Hawke smiled, nodded, and kept thinking about what life as a Ninja Paladin, or Paladin Ninja, would be like. Pretty awesome, he was sure of it.
Tenebra sighed. “I may have made a terrible mistake, but I am committed now. Choose, dumbass.”
“I choose Twilight Templar, your Exalted Divinity. I swear I will serve you faithfully and to the best of my abilities. I do swear that I will remain true to my oath to the Triune Goddesses while following your commands. I swear to do these things, upon my life, my power, and my immortal soul. May the Arbiters punish me and the Makers cast me down if I’m forsworn.”
“Thrice sworn,” Tenebra said. “Try to think before taking leaps into the unknown, Hawke. You will live a lot longer if you do.”
The lights went out again and Hawke drifted off to sleep. A bunch of messages flashed by his closing eyes before he passed out:
Experience Gained: 1,400
Congratulations! You have reached Levels 7 and 8! You have gained 12 Attribute points to distribute.
New Life and Light spells available!
Some Light spells have Twilight equivalents, with new spell effects. You have learned three new Twilight spells.
You have acquired access to Darkness Magic. You have learned three new Darkness spells.
Some Darkness spells have Twilight equivalents, with different spell effects. You have learned one new Twilight spell. Total Twilight spells learned: four.
You have raised your Lore Skill to 3.
You have learned a New Ability: Mana Channeling I.
Current XP/Next Level: 6,030/6,500
Thirty-Seven
“Thank Shining Father! Thank all the gods! You have returned, and returned victorious, if my eyes do not deceive me!” Patros the Priest said when Hawke and his friends showed up at the Temple of Shining Father, two days later.
It was around eleven in the morning, but the cleric’s unsteady body language, reddish eyes and five o’clock shadow told Hawke that the man had been hitting the bottle again, hard. As he returned the greeting, Kinto simply grunted in displeasure. Patros’ grin faded when he saw the Hunter’s expression.
“A thousand pardons,” he stammered. “It has been a trying few days. Another vampire struck! Killed a guard and fled into the night, the day after you left.”
“There won’t be any more vampires,” Hawke said.
“That is wonderful news!” Patros said, his mood swinging back.
I hope I’m not BS-ing him.
“I wanted to let you know, and also to remind you of your promise to come with me to see the Prefect.”
“Of course! Will tomorrow morning be soon enough? I wish to make myself presentable before we meet our esteemed eminence.”
“Sure thing.”
And hopefully you won’t be half in the bag by then, Hawke thought, maybe a bit unkindly.
“Excellent! Most excellent, most holy Paladin!”
“I’ll see you then.”
Quest Complete: Stop the Vampire Threat
Experience Earned: 420 (+20% for Triune Tenets Bonus)
You Have Found: 5 gold denars
You Have Found: Boots of the Wanderer (Good Quality)
Current XP/Next Level: 6,450/6,500
And just like that, I’m about to hit Leve
l Nine.
He still hadn’t picked up new spells or distributed his new Attribute points. Or even taken a close look at his Twilight Templar status. There were no immediate threats, so Hawke had felt he could take his time. After he had woken up, getting another hug followed by more yelling from Tava, the group had divvied up the loot they had found, with Hawke getting the armor and swords as well as his share of fire lizard skins and the money from his loot bags. Everything else went to his companions. Nobody complained about their shares, which put them ahead of most gaming groups Hawke had been in.
As far as his friends were concerned, Hawke was still a Paladin. Only Saturnyx knew better. Twilight Templar was a Secret Elite Class that only people with True Perception (two notches about his own True Sight) could detect, and only if they were trying to find hidden abilities.
Speaking of hidden abilities, he had picked up a new quest:
You Have Been Offered a Secret Quest:
QUEST: Mana Channeler II
You are now aware of the flow of Mana through your body and the seven Chakras that focus and affect that flow. In most living beings, those Chakras are dormant. A Mana Channeler can awaken and use them to greatly increase his access to and control over the energies that permeate the Realms. Pick one of the Seven Chakras and awaken it. (Note: the Base, Solar Plexus and Groin Chakras are the easiest ones to awaken. It is strongly suggested that you start with them).
Rewards: 500 Experience, +10% to Mana Capacity, +1 to Mana Regeneration per minute; other Rewards may depend on the Chakra that is awakened.
Failure Penalties: If the quest is abandoned or refused, you will not be able to advance your Mana Channeling until you find a teacher.
Accept? Y/N.
Hawke had accepted it without hesitation. Having a way to increase his power that most people didn’t know about sounded great; the secret aspect also fit a follower of Tenebra to a ‘t’. The only problem he had was that the Quest didn’t explain how to achieve its objective. How do I awaken a Chakra?
He’d give it a try when he had some spare time. The last couple of days had been too hectic to put much thought into the Quest. He’d figure it out later; same with increasing his Attributes. They could wait. With the Battle Mage Set bonuses, he was hardcore deadly already. He was going to be a badass Ninja Paladin.
Twilight Templar (The Eternal Journey Book 1) Page 21
