Faith:
10
Spirituality:
10
Righteousness:
20
Fortune:
10
Applied Statistics
Health Regeneration:
34
Energy Regeneration:
20
Spirit Regeneration:
20
Attack Power:
34
Divine Power:
24
Speed:
8
Accuracy:
51.70%
Perception:
5
Block:
31.70%
Block Absorption:
17
Critical Strike Chance:
0.50%
Demonic Resistance:
15
Luck:
0.10%
I spent the experience and gained my fifteenth unused point. My twentieth overall after spending four on righteousness at the start of the Pride floor and another one at the start of this floor. It was enough that I would be able to add another Soul proficiency. The leftover experience points went into Body. That was my next goal, I wanted to use the proficiency Metatron sent me. Then I dropped five unused points into each faith, spirituality, and fortune.
The changes were exactly as I expected, but more importantly, my perception increased to 7.50. I just hoped it would be enough to allow me to see the traps before they killed me. That I might also see hidden rooms was just bonus.
“Okay, done. On to the proficiency dealers?” I asked.
Asher bobbed, “We’ll see if we can find anything exceptional. If not, we go get the basic healing proficiency like we agreed.”
I nodded. That was what we had agreed to.
The proficiency dealers were the same as always. The first floor was a maze of tables, covered in proficiency scrolls, all rather common and basic. The second floor was much less crowded and had far fewer proficiencies. Hammer of light was still on sale and still didn’t interest me. Sword and board had a few more scrolls than the last time I’d been in. There were different proficiencies from my previous visits as well. Spirit hand let the user create a . . . well, spirit hand that could do various tasks, like picking things up, pushing, and pulling objects, even holding a weapon or shield. It was very versatile and very, very expensive.
“The proficiency is common enough, but so useful it doesn’t stay in stock long, hence the price,” the Cherub running the counter said, explaining why the price was so high. In fact, I saw the proficiency get sold to a young woman in robes not five minutes later. There was a charge proficiency that interested me a little, it was a body proficiency, so I couldn’t really use it, at least, not yet, but it still interested me. I put it on my list of possibilities for later.
I was about to go up to the third floor when the girl that sold the spirit hand proficiency returned to her stall with a new scroll. Naturally, I just couldn’t wait to inspect it.
“What’s new?” I asked.
The Cherub smiled brightly. “Good timing, I just got something I haven’t seen in a long time. If you’re lucky and you have the crystals it could be yours for the low, low price of just five thousand.”
That was pretty much everything I had, and I’d been saving it to replace my hauberk with one made of light forged steel. Even the five thousand I’d save was only a quarter of the price.
“And what is it?” I asked.
“Raphael’s Regeneration,” she replied.
Asher gasped, then quickly said, “We’re buying it. Pay her.”
I was slightly confused. Asher never offered to pay full price. Haggling was one of his favorite things to do. And I still hadn’t been told exactly what it was. I asked again, even as I opened my inventory and started transferring tiny crystals to the Cherub, “Fine, but what is it?”
Asher explained, trying hard to keep his voice down, “Raphael is the angel of healing. More specifically, he’s the seraphim of healing. He’s the very strongest and simply the most powerful healer, I mean, except for God. Anyway, a proficiency with Raphael’s name in it is going to be significantly more powerful.”
That did sound good to me. But there was still one question that needed to be answered. “Am I even capable of using it?”
“Doesn’t matter. If you aren’t now, we’ll get you there soon enough,” Asher replied.
Asher’s zeal made me a little worried. If I couldn’t use this immediately, then I was disadvantaging myself. And if I couldn’t use it, wouldn’t it be better to get the basic healing proficiency first? I didn’t voice any of this, choosing instead to trust my guide.
I tucked the scroll away in my inventory and returned to my room. “Mind telling me why you were so eager to get this?”
“Someone has made a monumental mistake. There is no way that proficiency should have been on the second floor. That is a top tier proficiency. I don’t think that should have even appeared in Purgatory. That’s something that only-” Asher’s voice suddenly cut off. His mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. Clearly, he didn’t notice.
“Asher, I can’t hear you?” I said, interrupting him.
“Huh?” Asher uttered, seeming confused until he blanched. “Oh, I wasn’t supposed to say any of that. Well, let’s just say that’s a valuable proficiency and you are extremely lucky to have it. Now, I suggest you add it to your scroll and pray you can use it.”
I pulled out the proficiency and my Scroll of Body and Soul. It only took a few seconds to add the proficiency. When it was done, I flipped to the page.
Raphael's Blessing of Regeneration
Level: 1
Experience to Next Level: 100,000
SE Cost: 150 + 20 per minute
Healing: +0.05% HP per second
Receive Raphael's Blessing and heal from any wounds, recover from any injury, and be cleansed of any ailment.
I whistled long and slow in appreciation. That was amazing and extremely weak. Even though 0.05% of my HP recovered every second didn’t sound like much, it was astounding. That was 1% roughly every fifty seconds, which was just slightly better than my natural regeneration. It essentially doubled my HP regeneration. It really wasn’t much to start but, hopefully after a few levels it would be significantly better. However, there was a cost. A big cost. That was all my SE and all my SE regeneration. And I had a feeling, it would always cost all my SE no matter how much my SE increased. Basically, I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to get another combat soul proficiency. But did I really need one? With this one, if I leveled it up, hopefully that percentage would grow. Still, one hundred thousand experience points to level it up even once. That was less than an unused point currently cost, but who knew how much that would increase with each level. No two proficiencies have exactly the same cost to upgrade.
“I don’t know if your truly blessed by God or cursed,” Asher said, after reading the same thing I did.
“Probably a little of both,” I said. “Still, better I get it now, instead of after getting a dozen or more Soul combat proficiencies.”
Asher grunted. “There were some good ones as well. But as you said, better you get it now than later. We’ll still want to improve your soul. You’ll still need resistance and perception.”
“And I’ll still need to increase my SE pool for essence engineering and calling you and my mace,” I added.
Asher grunted again. “Yeah, I suppose you’ll need those as well. Nothing for it now. Let’s get into Purgatory and find out just how unkillable you really are.”
The answer, I was still very killable. As a bonus, the 0.05% rounded up. So, despite the proficiency supposedly giving me 0.17 HP per second, I really gained one hit point every second. What I thought was only going to double my HP regeneration, nearly tripled it. And I had yet to level it up.
The biggest difference maker was the boost to my perception. Suddenly, I seemed to spot pressure plates and motion sens
ors and hidden doors as if there were large signs pointing to them. Ultimately, that made my survivability significantly higher. That got us back into a proper grind, which meant the experience points started rolling in again.
“On your left,” Asher warned, making me duck a clawed succubus hand, I countered with a strike to the goat leg, making the demon cry out in pain as she dropped to the floor.
I immediately raise my shield in front of myself as the other succubus tried to take advantage of my momentary distraction. I failed to block the attack and got scored across the arm, thankfully still hitting the chainmail. Asher burning armor went to work and she cried out as flames leaped up her arm. I followed up, hitting her with an upper cut from the mace, lifting her from her feet to land painfully on the ground. With that one temporarily dazed; I turned my attention back to the one I kneecapped. Two swings and she was down for the count. There was one left and she was groggily climbing back to her feet. I smashed my shield into her face, knocking her back to the ground then swung overhand and finished her off.
Both bodies melted into the floor leaving behind a few crystals and another whip. In the month since I last upgraded my perception, the whips dropped about one in every twenty of the succubae. The vendors would buy them, but the whip wasn’t a very popular weapon, so the payout wasn’t very good. I supposed, there weren’t a lot of fans of that old movie franchise with the archeology professor who fought the Nazis. I suppose from a practical sense the whip wasn’t the most effective weapon.
“Think we’re any closer to the end?” I asked, taking a few minutes to rest to allow my HP and EP to regenerate.
Asher bobbed side to side before answering, “Who knows. This could be the biggest floor yet for you. Or we could turn the next corner and find the floor boss. Unfortunately, with the floor layout changing every time we enter, there is no way to know for sure.”
That was a fair point. Any yet, I found I really didn’t mind. I was making plenty of crystals farming this floor. I wouldn’t be hurt if I needed to stay here for a while and milk it. Shoving thoughts of riches aside, I started down the hall again, eager for my next hidden treasure. I came to a T-intersection and checked down one of the sides, expecting to see a succubus waiting. It was something of a pleasant surprise to just see a hallway with a dead end. I moved back and creeped up the other side to check. Once again, no succubus. Just a dead-end hallway.
“We’ve never seen a double dead-end hallway before, have we?” I asked.
Asher hummed. “No, we haven’t. Be careful. This feels like a trap.”
Of course, it was a trap. The question was, how horrific would it be. I didn’t spot anything as I went down the left side hallway. At least, nothing in the way of traps. At the end of the hallway, I did find a switch hidden behind a loose brick. I flipped the switch, heard the expected click followed by a loud grinding sound from behind me.
“And there’s your trap,” Asher said with a sigh.
At the other end of the hallway, three stone doors opened letting three succubae loose. Rather than chase after them, I hunkered down behind my shield. I was used to this by now. The ladies would try a few whip strikes, which would light the whips on fire. The women would be unarmed and come rushing at me. So, it was something of a surprise when I heard something make a ‘thock’ sound as it bit solidly into the wooden surface of my shield and start to pull it away from me.
I risked looking up over my shield and was even more surprised when I saw a chain link whip with a metal spike on the tip dug into my shield. Fire still traveled along the whip to the source and the holder winced but didn’t drop it.
“It’s a greater succubus, don’t look her in the eye,” Asher warned.
It was too late. Thankfully, the only thing I saw in those eyes was malice. It felt like she was looking down on me. It seemed to me, she thought she had me, but she held no sway over me. The only thing I saw when I looked at her was crystals and experience points. I jerked suddenly on my shield, yanking her off balance. Then I charged forward, smashing my shield into her, and driving the demon into the ground. I popped her once with the mace, knocking her out of the fight, at least for a few seconds.
Those few seconds gave me time to address the other two succubae. These were not of the greater variety, so when their whips snapped off my shield, the offending objects caught fire. Knowing that would distract them for a moment, I smashed the mace down on the greater succubus twice. That was about the time the first of the other two got to me.
Nails tried to claw through my shield, only for the demon to scream in pain as her hand began to burn. I pushed her back with my shield, making her bump into her partner, halting her advance. I hammered down on the greater succubus one more time and she stopped moving.
I turned my full attention to the pair of succubae now that the larger threat had been neutralized. I played a mostly defensive fight after that. They’d attack, get burned, and I’d smack them with my mace. Rinse and repeat, three succubae dead. And best of all, new loot, the chain whip. It probably wouldn’t sell for much, because again, whips weren’t popular, but it still should sell for more than the regular leather whips. Plus, all the crystals. The greater succubus paid out almost four times the crystals that the lesser ones did.
I moved on to inspect the small alcoves the three demons emerged from and found another switch . . . three switches, one in each alcove. “I think it’s a puzzle. Look around for any clues.”
“I can only see what you can see,” Asher complained.
I rolled my eyes. “Then look for details I might have missed.”
Asher grumbled but floated into each of the alcoves, then complained loudly, “I don’t see anything.”
I sighed and started moving to a different alcove when I noticed a pattern carved into the floor. It was a . . . oh, what did my ex call them? A mandala. It was a mandala pattern. Overlapping lines that created a beautifully intricate pattern. I kneeled and looked at it more closely. I ran a hand over it and felt a slight bump in the pattern where a line was slightly raised above the others. Then I felt another, and another. There were several raised points. It was a pattern hiding within the pattern. If I took the center as the starting point, and followed the new pattern outward, it would point at one of the switches.
I grinned. I tried to memorize the pattern, but it was too complex. I ended up explaining it to Asher and once he got it, he was able to guide me through flipping the switches in order with the pattern.
“The last one points back the way we came,” Asher said.
I nodded and went back to where I started. I flipped the switch. The wall in front of me slid aside revealing another alcove with a treasure chest. I grinned. “We did it.”
Asher, in true Asher style, bought me back down to earth. “Just make sure it isn’t another sloth demon.”
I felt my companion made a good point. I lightly hit the chest with my mace, enough to make the wood creak but not enough to break it. It should have been just enough to spur a sloth demon into action, but it didn’t react. I didn’t see anything fleshy on the chest. At this point, if the ‘inanimate’ object really was one of the demons in disguise, I could usually see something fleshy on in that would give it away.
Feeling confident it was just a chest, I slid the locking bar aside and popped the lid. It was treasure. The chest was about a foot long by a foot and half wide and maybe eight or nine inches deep. It was filled nearly to the brim with tiny crystals. And still neatly rolled up on those crystals was a proficiency scroll. I held the scroll up to Asher to inspect, “What is it?”
“Whirling dervish, a melee attack meant to be used with a blade or two. Not really your kind of proficiency,” Asher said.
I shrugged and deactivated Raphael’s blessing to allow my SE to recover. A few minutes later, I had enough to open my inventory and put all my recent rewards into the storage space, filling up my last open slot.
“Full up, time to head back and sell off,” I said.
That was the first time I’d ever heard Asher push to move forward. It was . . . strange. “We’re still two unused points shy of my next Body proficiency slot. I thought we wanted to make sure we got that before moving on?”
Asher didn’t respond so I shrugged and headed for the exit. It would take about an hour to sell everything and drop the proficiency off at the dealers for them to sell. We could still get at least one more run through Purgatory before calling it a day.
“Two more points and then we push for the next floor,” Asher said, seeming to have accepted my decision to come back.
Chapter 26 – Blindsided
My tenth point came and went as I farmed the lust floor. The rewards were just too good to pass up. Sure, the experience was limited, but I wasn’t necessarily in a rush, especially not when there was easy money to be had. And the treasures, oh the treasures. Loot flowed like rain. I found proficiency scrolls and weapons and armor, and so many crystals. My best find by far was a new heater shield, one that carried a blessing that increased my chance to block by 5%. And I wanted more. This floor was a gold mine, and I was going to farm it for all it was worth. Regardless of Asher’s protests. So long as the loot and experience kept flowing, I wasn’t stopping.
I lost track of time. I couldn’t remember if I had been farming for weeks or months. Only that I was farming up all the wealth I could. I was on my way back in, when Theo came into view . . . with Asher.
I looked over my shoulder where the little ball of fire was supposed to be only to find him missing. In my confusion, I asked, “Asher? When did you . . . uh, huh?”
Purgatory: The Devil's Game Page 28
