15
Spirituality:
15
Righteousness:
30
Fortune:
20
Applied Statistics
Health Regeneration:
40
Energy Regeneration:
20
Spirit Regeneration:
20
Attack Power:
40
Divine Power:
30
Speed:
15
Accuracy:
53.00%
Perception:
10
Block:
32.00%
Block Absorption:
20
Critical Strike Chance:
1.00%
Demonic Resistance:
22
Luck:
0.15%
“We’re agreed we need to get to my next Soul proficiency, right?” I asked.
Asher bobbed in the air next to me. “It would be the wisest move, even if we cannot get a Soul proficiency usable in combat, we might be able to get a buff of some kind that you could apply before activating Raphael’s blessing.”
I agreed, pumping the little bit of the experience points I accumulated clearing the greed floor and the first three demons of this floor into Soul. Then I turned the page to Asher’s information.
Name: Asher
Caller: Victor Goodspeed
Level: 5
Experience to Next Level: 15,625
Path: Defender (Select Unique Proficiency)
HP: 50/50
EP: 50/50
SE: 500/500
Description: Asher is the Divine Call of Victor Goodspeed. Asher is one of the legendary flames of Enoch and a soldier of the Archangel Metatron. Asher was reassigned from the front as a reward for millennia of dedicated and honorable service.
I smiled as I saw Asher’s pending reward. He’d more than earned it. As soon as I gained my next Soul proficiency, he was due for some leveling up. I touched the ‘Select Unique Proficiency’ on the scroll and the ink bled away and returned with the list of available proficiencies.
Available Defender Proficiencies:
Asher's Improved Demonic Resistance: Passively increase demonic resistance by 75%.
Asher's Evasive Maneuvers: Actively cause the next five attacks to be evaded.
Asher's Improved Burning Armor: Passively cause attackers to suffer fiery damage.
Asher studied the list briefly before speaking, “As much as we’ve benefitted from the burning armor, I think we need the improved demonic resistance. Especially as you do not have any unused points to spend on it. And when you do get another nine points, they should be split between faith and spirituality, we need to increase your SE pool if you plan to start using experience to boost your proficiencies.”
Again, I agreed. It would take a long time to gain enough experience to upgrade my resistance using stat points, especially with the current cost of those points. I tapped on the ‘Asher’s Improved Demonic Resistance’ and the ink bled away again before reverting to Asher’s basic information.
I checked the first page to make sure the change took effect. My demonic resistance increased from 22 to 26. A small increase but hopefully it would be enough to properly resist.
The last thing I wanted to do before leaving the room and really starting my day was to use my essence engineering to find out what I had available.
I started with one of the imp tails I’d gotten back on the first floor. As soon as I extracted the essence, I was nearly overcome by the sulfurous smell. It was stronger than anything I’d encountered so far. Worse, I was forced to wait five minutes before I could purify it. Thankfully, the smell vanished almost instantly once it was purified. Another five-minute wait and I was able to use analyze.
Fire Imp Demon Essence
Purity: 12%
Weapon Imbuement Effect: 0.12% chance to afflict target with Burning
Armor Imbuement Effect: Reduce Fire damage effectiveness by 0.12%
That had some interesting potential. The only problem was I didn’t have nearly enough of the imp tails to apply it to my weapon, and I wasn’t sure it would do any good if I applied it to my armor. I put the small vial of purified essence in my inventory.
Next was a ram’s horn chip from one of the pride demons. I was curious what affect it would have.
Pride Demon Essence
Purity: 10%
Weapon Imbuement Effect: 0.10% chance to afflict target with Irrational Pride
Armor Imbuement Effect: Reduce Pride Aura effectiveness by 0.10%
The pride aura reduction made sense on its own, but that irrational pride confused me. Looking to Asher, I asked, “What is irrational pride?”
“It forces an opponent to focus on you, often to their detriment. You can use it to walk enemies into traps and ambushes you set up beforehand. I’ve even seen archers use it or something similar to make a demon continue chasing after them while they slowly killed it, one arrow at a time,” Asher explained.
“So, it’s kind of like a taunt?” I asked.
Asher bobbed, “An apt analogy, though significantly more powerful, hence the irrational part of its name. Someone struck by a weapon bearing that blessing with feel they are more powerful, more important, maybe even like they are unbeatable. That irrational pride in their own power make them want nothing more than to attack and dominate the source of the affliction. As a bonus, they tend to forget they can do more than just attack blindly.”
That sounded pretty good to me. Not necessarily useful in the current situation . . . but maybe that would change if I made it past this floor.
I put the vial I used to hold the essence in an open inventory slot, then pulled out a piece of the demon flesh from the last floor. Fifteen minutes later I had the results.
Greed Demon Essence
Purity: 14%
Weapon Imbuement Effect: Increase rewards by 0.14%
That stopped me for a heartbeat. My initial reaction was along the lines of ‘oh my God, I’ve got to get that as soon as possible.’ My second, more tempered reaction was along the lines of, ‘oh my God, don’t let the greed beat you again.’ Either way, I knew I would need to apply this to my spirit mace. I might have been fighting my inner demons but only a fool would refuse such a valuable upgrade.
Even Asher agreed when he said, “We’ll need to work on that soon.”
I checked my inventory to see how much of the greed flesh I had. I was very thankful that the demon parts all stacked in just one inventory slot per type of demon, because I had a lot of it. Probably more than I would ever need.
That last demon bit I had was a small gold chip I had taken off the gold golems. I extracted, purified, and analyzed it like all the others.
Wrath Demon Essence
Purity: 7%
Weapon Imbuement Effect: Increase weapon damage by 0.07%
Armor Imbuement Effect: Increase armor damage reduction by 0.07%
That was another very valuable essence. It wasn’t flashy, but a straight up increase in offense and defense was valuable to anyone. But the purity worried me. How many of the demons would I need to destroy to get enough essence to apply it to my spirit weapon? Could I withstand that much wrath influencing my soul for that long?
There was only one way to find out.
Sadly, the vault door was back and completely locked up. I was starting from the beginning, which I knew would be the case. I just . . . hoped it wouldn’t.
I spun that lock dial back and forth until the tenth and final lock dropped. Four hundred and thirty-seven. I shuddered to even think about it.
“We go until we get tired,” Asher said, giving me some relief. I wasn’t sure I could fight that many demons in a day, not with as slowly as the golems marched.
I pulled open the vault door and looked in at the five gold golems. I still felt like I wanted that gold, but it was slightly subdued. It also still made me angr
y that greed was being presented to me, but I didn’t feel pressure building in my chest as I had before.
“How is it?” Asher asked.
“Unpleasant,” I answered. “Better than yesterday, but still unpleasant.”
Asher bobbed. “Okay, let’s pay close attention to how you feel as we progress through the groups of golems.”
I nodded. I called on my mace and tapped at the invisible barrier. One of the golems immediately focused on the door and started the slow arduous march toward me.
I started repeating a mantra to myself as I waited, “Deep breaths, Victor, deep, calming breaths.” When the demon finally came through the vault door, I lost my calm. The golem broke and died not long after and my calm was restored. So began my long slog through wrath.
Hours passed so very slowly, and my agitation grew. The demons weren’t even difficult to destroy, which made the irritation worse.
“We should go,” Asher said as I crushed the head of the last demon of the fourth wave.
I was reluctant but I could feel the strain on my psyche. I nodded, dropping my mace. The weapon dispersed into motes of light before it even hit the ground. I deactivated Raphael’s blessing of regeneration. Finally, I slipped my shield back into my inventory. With everything put away, I turned and left Purgatory behind.
As soon as I was outside, the weight that had been pressing down on me was alleviated. It was like I had been trying to breath while underwater and now I was back on the surface. Clean, fresh air filled my lungs and I relaxed.
“Feel better?” Asher asked.
I nodded. “Much. Thank you.”
Asher grunted. “I hate to ask, but do you feel up to going back in? It’s only been half a day?”
That made me hesitate. I knew deep down that going back in was the right decision. At the same time, going back in meant feeling . . . that. I thought greed was going to be the worst thing I faced in Purgatory. It never occurred to me that Purgatory would use one in conjunction with the other like this.
“Lunch first,” I said, buying time but also acknowledging the rumble of my stomach. It would hopefully give me enough time to ‘catch my breath’ before going back in.
I found a stand selling ramen of all things, not that terrible stuff you get in stores, but real, Japanese ramen. It even had seating right in front of the counter. I went to Tokyo a couple times on business. The guy my company assigned as a guide and translator showed me around and took me to a few traditional restaurants, like a ramen stand. I sat, reminiscing, as I took my time eating the noodles and broth served by a Cherub girl with Asiatic features. It was nostalgic and very relaxing. It was just what I needed at that moment.
Reality came back all too soon. I managed to buy myself an hour, but time was up, it was time to go back in and face my demons, in this case my internal demons were the real challenge.
I got fewer demons this time, but not by much, two-hundred ninety-three. I made it through five waves before Asher pulled me out.
Once again, exhaustion took its toll, and I barely had the strength to make it back to my bunk room and crash in my bed. I didn’t even apply my earned experience points. I would deal with them in the morning.
I woke up with a headache again, more proof that Purgatory’s wrath floor was still getting to me. Knowing that lying in bed all day wouldn’t solve anything, I started my day by applying the experience points I earned. There were over eight hundred thousand waiting for me. It brought me that much closer to my next unused Soul point.
“Training, then back into Purgatory we go,” Asher said, sounding unenthusiastic and giving me a sorrowful look.
I tried to smile at him, but I didn’t have it in me. “Thanks for trying. But let’s just get through this floor.”
Asher smiled weakly and bobbed. There wasn’t much else that needed to be said.
The grind through the demons was the easiest ever. The golems marched almost single file to their deaths. They all attacked with the same right hook. I ducked under the swing every time. And then I swung the mace up into their necks, popping the metallic head from the body with a practiced ease. Then I settled in to wait for the next demon.
One after another, the golems were destroyed, and the loot was collected. One golem after another was destroyed, and the weight of wrath grew heavier. So much so, I couldn’t make it past the sixth wave, or I risked completely losing myself to my anger and rage.
The only bright side in all of it, was at that pace, it took just under a month to get my ninth unused point, giving me ten unused in total. It meant I had enough for another soul proficiency. The question was which one did I go with. On Asher’s advice, I held off on purchasing another proficiency until I had a better idea of what I would need.
We still applied the points, bring faith and spirituality up to twenty, which brought my SE up to 200/200. It didn’t do anything to improve my demonic resistance, but it did give me room to spend experience on my Soul proficiency.
Though there was the unintended consequence of using those points. My experience gain and crystal drop rate had cut nearly in half. Thankfully, my proficiencies were all very low level, so the cost was minimal . . . except for Raphael’s blessing which had an exorbitant cost to it.
It took another four days to bring Asher’s call up to level twenty. It turned out he was also quite expensive to improve. However, it was his improvements that left me a little overwhelmed.
Name: Asher
Caller: Victor Goodspeed
Level: 20
Experience to Next Level: 444,089
SE Cost: 200
Path: Defender (Select Unique Proficiency)
HP: 200/200
EP: 200/200
SE: 2,000/2,000
Description: Asher is the Divine Call of Victor Goodspeed. Asher is one of the legendary flames of Enoch and a soldier of the Archangel Metatron. Asher was reassigned from the front as a reward for millennia of dedicated and honorable service.
Asher was significantly improved, and his total SE was . . . well, it put my highest stat to shame. More importantly, after gaining another fifteen levels, he was indeed granted another proficiency, just as Ramy said he would be. Though his cost to call also went up.
Available Defender Proficiencies:
Asher's Advanced Demonic Resistance: Passively increase demonic resistance by 100%.
Asher's Evasive Maneuvers: Actively cause the next five attacks to be evaded.
Asher's Improved Burning Armor: Passively cause attackers to suffer fiery damage.
It was a no brainer. We took the advanced demonic resistance. Anything that would reduce wrath’s influence was good by me. Seeing my demonic resistance climb another four points to thirty total gave me a great deal of hope that wrath wouldn’t have a hold on me after that, or at worst, it would be significantly reduced. At least, I hoped it would be enough to let me get beyond wrath. I hadn’t given much thought to whatever came next. I suppose it was possible the next floor was going to be worse than wrath, I just couldn’t see past where I currently was. Time would tell if I was making a mistake in trying to rush past this floor.
Chapter 29 – Relief
The only way I could describe Purgatory following Asher’s upgrade to his passive buff was relief. The anger faded to almost nothing. Yes, the further I got through the demons, the more it built up in my system, but up until the eighth wave, it was manageable to the point of being nearly ignorable. Despite the relief from the tension in my chest and the building anger, my increased demonic resistance did nothing to curb my impatience.
Asher bobbed excitedly, “Feeling alright? Shall we try the ninth wave?”
I nodded. After the sixth wave, the golems started coming in pairs, two at a time. Still not much of a challenge given their lethargy. What it did do, was speed things along. Now, I just needed to make it through the ninth wave of forty-five demons.
I tapped my mace to the invisible barrier and the room beyond filled with golems, three of w
hich started a slow march toward me. I grinned. Three couldn’t have been much tougher than two, right?
It was and it wasn’t. The three golems were perfectly coordinated. If one swung high, another swung low and the third tried to swing from the opposite direction. For the first time, I was forced to try to block one of the strikes with my shield. One hit nearly killed me. If I hadn’t blocked, that one hit would have killed me for certain.
Suffering that one hit did allow me to strike the weak point of one of the golems, snapping the metallic head from the body, killing it instantly. After that, the other two went down easily. The problem was, three more were already marching toward the door and I had yet to recover my HP.
I needed to find a way to kill all three of the golems without getting hit. The only way I could see to do that was to strike first instead of waiting to counterstrike after dodging.
As the trio came through the large vault opening, I struck first, using shield slam on the far-left golem, stunning it. That stun gave me the time I needed to dodge the other two strikes and counter one of them, going for the throat and breaking it with that one hit. Another dodge and counter killed the next one. As the second golem died, the stun wore off on the third. It died after a dodge and counter.
“Two down, thirteen groups to go,” Asher said. As we’d fought, I started asking Asher to keep track for me.
“I might be imagining things, but it feels like these golems are coming faster than previous waves,” I said, watching as three more of the demons were already on the march.
Purgatory: The Devil's Game Page 31
