I tried not to laugh.
Era eventually turned-on Asher. “This is your fault. I just know it. What did you do? Did you put father up to this?”
“Metatron rewarded your call proficiency to Victor for finishing a floor in less than a month,” Asher said. “I had nothing to do with it.”
Era didn’t like that answer either. “The demons are behind this. That’s the only other explanation. But how did they breach the inner defenses? There must be a traitor. We must warn father.”
Asher sighed, seemingly not finding it amusing any more. “Or father really did award your call to Victor because he sees some kind of potential in the man.”
Era gave me a sidelong glance and tutted. “I think not. Maybe you have not noticed, but I am level one. If he had any kind of potential, I would have started at level two or three. No, this is definitely a mistake.”
“Should I bring her level up to match yours?” I asked.
Asher bobbed. “It might get her to calm down, but don’t hold your breath. Era doesn’t really do calm.”
“I’ll have you know, I am the picture of calm,” Era protested hysterically. She was anything but calm.
I sighed. After leaving Purgatory and having finished the fourth floor, I stepped right back in again to get my base level established with the fifth floor. I wasn’t ready to start fighting and I didn’t want to know what I was up against yet or I would fixate on it instead of celebrating with my friends. So, I left immediately and hoped that would be enough. I grabbed some food and came back to my room intent on applying my new call.
I started applying experience points. It was kind of a surprise when she vanished as soon as her proficiency hit level five.
Call Divine Guide (Path Pending)
Level: 5 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 24,414
SE Cost: 100
Call a Divine Guide to assist you on your journey through Purgatory. Divine Guide is incorporeal and invisible to all but the Caller.
It wouldn’t let me go any higher until I selected Era’s path and probably first unique proficiency. I touched the ‘Path Pending’ on the scroll and the ink bled away then reformed.
Name: Era
Caller: Victor Goodspeed
Level: 5 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 24,414
Path: Unselected
HP: 50/50
EP: 50/50
SE: 500/500
Description: Era is the Divine Call of Victor Goodspeed. Era is a breath of God given life by the Archangel Metatron to serve in the war against demon kind. Era was reassigned from the front as a reward for millennia of dedicated and honorable service.
The description was slightly different from Asher’s, but the real reason she was here was the same as Asher’s. It was a reward, though she, and Asher for that matter, both saw it as a mistake or punishment of some kind. I touched the word, ‘unselected’ and once again the scroll changed.
Available Paths:
Support: Uses Proficiencies to support her caller, shaping spirit energy (SE) to enhance her caller or diminish the forces of hell.
Attacker: Uses Proficiencies to assist her caller, shaping spirit energy (SE) to attack and inhibit the forces of hell.
Healer: Uses Proficiencies to heal her caller, shaping spirit energy (SE) to enhance her caller and heal the damage caused by the forces of hell.
It was almost the same as Asher, except defender had been replaced by support, which sounded very interesting.
“Oh, please make her a support,” Asher pleaded with me.
I chuckled. “While that sounds useful, we need the additional damage.”
Asher sighed. “Fine, you’re no fun.”
I touched ‘attacker’. The scroll updated once again, this time the path was assigned to attacker, which now had a notice to ‘select unique proficiency’. Naturally, I tapped on the words getting yet a different printed message.
Available Attacker Proficiencies:
Era’s Air Impact: Passively cause blunt melee attacks to knockback opponent.
Era's Chilling Breath: Actively cause a cone of freezing air that damages and slows enemies in a single direction.
Era's Wind Blades: Actively increases the number of wind blades by one.
I could only guess that the wind blade was Era’s standard attack proficiency. If I added another blade, would that mean she was able to target two demons at the same time or would it affect a single target but deal the damage of two blades. Or was it a combination of both?
“Any advice?” I asked, looking to Asher for help.
Asher looked like what he was about to say pained him physically. “You should call her out and ask for her input. However, if it was up to me, I would grab the chilling breath, that area of effect and slowing would be a tremendous help.”
I nodded. I agreed about the area of effect ability being useful. It was one area in which I was lacking capability. “Call divine guide.”
Era quickly reformed from the air. When she finished forming, her semitransparent face did not look amused. “You did that on purpose.”
“I did,” I replied. “We weren’t getting anywhere fast, and I still have things I need to get done today. I made you an attacker but now we need to select your proficiency. Asher suggested I get your input.”
Era made a minor scoffing sound at the mention of Asher but quickly forgot about him in favor of her potential proficiencies. “Hmm, wind blades for sure.”
“Will that allow you to strike multiple targets or does the attack only hit a single target? Or can it do both?” I asked.
“Single target,” Era answered. “However, you would think it would double the damage. That is not so. It will more than double the damage as the first blade will cut through defenses and the second blade will cut through undefended flesh.”
I accepted her reasoning and tapped the proficiency. Then I leveled her up to match Asher’s level and get another proficiency.
“My, you do seem to have quite a bit of experience points to spend if you can just level my proficiency like that,” Era said, sounding a little impressed for the first time. “And before you ask, I would elevate wind blade again. I cannot stress just how much damage that ability is capable of.”
I shook my head at that suggestion. “Sorry, I gave you the first one,” I said, then tapped on the chilling breath proficiency.
Era looked displeased once more, then she looked to Asher. “Did you put him up to that? How am I supposed to properly guide him if he will not listen to me? Clearly, you’ve corrupted him. Oh, the tragedy. Father must be so worried about me. I am sure he will call me back to his side at any moment.” She paused, her eyes glancing skyward as if she was expecting Metatron to show up at any moment. After a bit of awkward silence, she loudly repeated, “I said, I am sure he will call me back to his side at any moment.”
Asher just sighed. “You know, I was kind of hoping that would work.”
Era pouted then glared at Asher. “I hate you. This is all your fault. I just know the others are laughing at us from on high.”
“I doubt that very much. But laughing at you, maybe,” Asher said.
Era growled and spat a small blade of wind at Asher, shaving off a little of his flame.
“Hey, watch it,” Asher snapped. “We’re not invulnerable here, at least, not anymore.”
Era glowered but didn’t attack any further.
I wasn’t particularly happy to see Asher’s HP dip. Even if I did have the ability to re-call him, I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.
“Behave,” I snapped, glaring at Era and getting one in return. “You need to get along with Asher. I am going to need both of you to help to navigate Purgatory.”
Era glared a moment longer than harumphed. “Hmph, fine. What are we facing?”
“I don’t know yet. I mean, I don’t know what this floor will hold for us,” I said.
“I meant the theme, though knowing the spe
cifics would have been useful,” Era said.
I was certain she meant the floor but chose to ignore it. “The seven deadly sins.”
Era bobbed once then turning to face the ceiling of my room she suddenly started screaming, “Father, please take me home. I’m sorry for whatever I did, but please . . . please take me home. I promise, I’ll never do whatever I did to make you mad again. Just don’t trap me in Purgatory. I don’t deserve such a punishment. I mean, shouldn’t the crime fit the punishment? I could not have done something so terrible as to be cast down into Purgatory.” On and on she went, pleading until eventually she dropped to the floor and started bawling.
I sighed. “Is this going to be a problem?”
Asher sighed. “No, regardless of the unnecessary drama, she’s a soldier at heart. Once she’s inside Purgatory and there is a fight in front of her, she’ll remember her duty and fight to the best of her ability. Just . . . don’t expect the whining, crying, and praying to stop anytime soon.”
I sighed again. “Ignoring her, we have more experience to spend.”
Asher bobbed. “Right. First, your spirit weapon then essence engineering. Whatever is left after those two we’ll put into Raphael’s blessing.”
I agreed and started with feeding experience points into my mace. “We’re stopping at two-hundred SE to call on it, right?”
Asher bobbed again.
Call Divine Spirit Weapon: Mace
Level: 20 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 18,488
SE Cost: 200
Call a Divine Spirit Weapon in the form of a mace to aid you in combat.
Mace: 40-75 Damage
Sloth Touch: Chance on hit to afflict target with Sloth, slowing attacks, proficiencies, and movement speed.
That was a good improvement. I had enough spirit energy to take it to the next tier of cost, but I didn’t want to improve it too quickly. Plus, this should have been plenty to start imbuing another essence into the weapon. But before that, I wanted to improve my essence engineering to level twenty as well.
Essence Engineering
Level: 20 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 44,409
SE Cost: 200
The ability to Extract and Purify Demonic Essence from demon parts then Analyze and Imbue Purified Essence into Weapons and Armor.
I really wanted to try extracting and purifying now but I had one more proficiency in need of improvement. Raphael’s blessing ate up over seven million experience points just to get it to level ten.
Raphael's Blessing of Regeneration
Level: 10 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 3,844.336
SE Cost: 300 + 50 per minute
Healing: +0.50% HP per second
Receive Raphael's Blessing and heal from any wounds, recover from any injury, and be cleansed of any ailment.
“I think we can go higher,” I said.
Asher shook his head. “You could but you won’t get very far. I know you haven’t necessarily been keeping track, but the experience point cost per level has been increasing by 50%. If I’ve done my math right, and I know I have, you’ll need almost five hundred million experience to reach level twenty.”
I whistled appreciatively. Asher was right. I hadn’t been paying strict attention to the increase in cost with each level, I just knew that each level cost more than the one before it, a lot more. But five hundred million, that seemed . . . well, that was too much. At least, it was too much for now. And as much as I wanted to use my free levels, I dare not, at least, not until much later on. When the price became so expensive it would take months, maybe even years of grinding to level it up.
“Body proficiencies then?” I asked, letting go of my disappointment. I really wanted to get Raphael’s blessing up to the 1% HP per second mark. Seeing as that wasn’t going to happen without a lot more experience points, I turned the page to the first of my body proficiencies in need of improvement.
I still had a lot of experience points to spend. Taking shield slam and quick strike up to level twenty was a drop in the proverbial bucket.
Shield Slam
Level: 20 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 95,242
EP Cost: 5
Damage: 25-30 Blunt
Stun Duration: 7-Seconds
Deliver a stunning blow with your shield to a single target.
A good improvement in damage, but I was more excited about the increased stun duration. Even just two more seconds was a huge gain on what was otherwise a short stun.
Quick Strike
Level: 20 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 95,242
EP Cost: 5
Damage Reduction: -40.00%
Deliver a quick but weak attack to a single target in combat.
Quick strike’s improvement was less impressive having regained just 5% of the damage of a normal attack.
Even after all those upgrades, I was left with forty-eight million experience points to spend, and I had two more proficiencies I really wanted to level up as high as I was able. First, I brought blunt instrument up to level fifteen to match my heavy armor. Then I started trading levels back and forth.
Heavy Armor
Level: 45 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 2,463,356
Armored Speed: +25%
Armored Defense: +25%
Armored Energy Cost: -25%
Proficiency to wear heavy armor in combat reducing incoming damage and improving your ability to move.
That was a very good improvement. I felt I could certainly equip all my chainmail armor now and not worry about it slowing me down too much. My improvement to blunt instrument was just as good.
Blunt Instrument
Level: 45 (+19 Free)
Experience to Next Level: 2,463,356
Blunt Damage: +23%
Blunt Energy Cost: -10.5%
You are a blunt instrument capable of efficiently dealing increased blunt damage and blunting incoming damage.
I loved that the proficiency both increased damage and reduced the damage I would receive, and that was on top of reducing the energy cost, minor though it was.
Now, all told, I thought I spent my experience points wisely. And I still had nine million left to spend.
“Body or soul?” I asked.
Asher contemplated with a soft hum. “Hmm, I think Soul. We are most likely going to need the points to increase your demonic resistance at some point and it wouldn’t hurt to have a reserve of points ready for use.”
I nodded and applied the last of my experience points to Soul. “Alright, one down, nineteen to go. Then we should probably put points into body for a while.”
Asher seemed to agree.
Meanwhile, Era had turned to threats. “Father, please don’t make me go over your head. I will pray to your father. Don’t make me ask grandfather for help.”
I shook my head. “Era, please let’s go. We’re going to celebrate.”
The ball of air demanded, “Celebrate what?”
I ignored the question and kept going. Smiling as I heard her keep repeating the question as she followed along.
Chapter 31 – Real Lust
Asher flew along, whistling a happy little tune. I tried not to laugh as Era groaned in pain.
“Please, I’m begging you, stop doing that,” Era pleaded with the fireball. Era had discovered the joys of alcohol. I had hoped it would help her forget her woes of being stuck in Purgatory. Instead, she turned out to be a weepy drunk. An extremely weepy drunk.
We missed Theo and Rebecca so I didn’t get to celebrate with them or to introduce Era, but we still made the best of the evening.
“Different tune? Sure, no problem,” Asher replied, changing his song to something more up tempo and higher pitched.
I laughed, “Alright, that’s enough torturing her, Asher. We’re about to go back into Purgatory.”
“I suppose,” Asher relented.
&n
bsp; “Oh, thank God,” Era sighed in relief.
I stepped into the tower, prepared to face whatever was waiting for us.
The starting room looked like most of the starting rooms. I hadn’t really bothered to get a good look at it the day before. But now that I had . . . it was somehow . . . nicer than the other starting rooms. The stonework looked like it had been polished smooth. Even the mortar between the stones was clean, lacking the staining of age I’d seen on previous floors.
Instead of a single large door, there were two that met in the middle. They were gothic in style with a peaked center. The door looked like it was made of a rich wood, like mahogany or cherry. And the door handles, they were polished wrought iron. A knocker hung suspended in the middle of the left door, a gargoyle’s face with a heavy ring hanging from it.
“Spooky but doesn’t give much in the way of clues for what to expect,” Asher said.
I asked, “Do we knock?”
Era cleared her throat, “Eh hem. In polite society it is only right that one should knock and be properly announced. However, this is Purgatory, and the other side of that door will be full of demons that want nothing more than to convert you to their cause. In this situation, politeness is secondary to survival. I suggest you try to open the door and do so quietly.”
Purgatory: The Devil's Game Page 33
