The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

  Weak

  3

  3-6

  Basic

  6

  6-10

  Common

  10

  10-17

  Luminous

  17

  17-35

  Brilliant

  45

  45-70

  Special

  100

  100-225

  Resplendent

  300

  300-1,000

  *No further upgrades for this Talent

  You have: 285 Talent Points remaining

  It was even more amazing than he’d thought. The Talent did not disappoint at all. In fact, just by itself, it made a clear demarcation between Tier 1 and Tier 2 Enchanters. Now he could get more soul stuff from the spirits of trapped monsters. The range meant that a lower-ranked soul could give as much as the lower limit of the next rank up. At least that was true until Brilliant rank was reached. Considering the fact that those souls came from the equivalent of lower-ranked angels and demons, it wasn’t something he really needed to worry about. It was true that he was deadly, but he was still outclassed when it came to those kinds of enemies. Even in the Battle of Wills, he’d basically just been able to fight Xuetrix to a draw, and still had some suspicions about that.

  This time only one new Talent was revealed.

  Checking if prerequisite Tier 1 Talent has been obtained: Increase Enchantment Success…

  Congratulations! You have revealed 1 new Tier 2, Orbit 2 Talent!

  For the second time, the key to unlocking the second orbit of the second tier was the first orbit of the first tier. He was starting to see a pattern. The first revealed Talent was called Vital Enchanting.

  VITAL ENCHANTING

  Normally, the amount of extra health, mana and stamina that a creature can receive from enchantments is limited to 25% of their base total. With this Talent, items that you enchant can increase the total boost to Health, Mana and Stamina to 50%.

  Requires +1 extra measure of Powdered Crystal per item

  Cost: 100 Talent Points

  The prompt answered a question that had been in the back of Richter’s mind for a long time. He’d always wondered if there was an upper limit to the stat boosts rings and bracelets could provide. If there wasn’t, then theoretically, if a level five nobody had the right enchanted gear, they could have higher numbers than a level twenty Professed Warrior. In a game that would be considered a cheat.

  Of course, if there was one thing Richter knew, it was that The Land was not a game. Finding high level enchanted gear just laying around was like finding an unlocked Lexus, keys in the ignition and a Rolex on the dash. Even the weakest of magic rings that gave +5 to Health would cost more than half a year’s wages for a basic worker in Yves. The powerful rings that Richter wore, giving +70 and +80 to his stats, would take decades for that same worker to even consider buying.

  That didn’t even take availability into account. Forging rings of the caliber that Richter was wearing took high level materials and even higher-level expertise and skills. There just weren’t that many high-level Crafters around. One needed to be blessed with a high enough affinity for the requisite skills, be lucky and tough enough to survive leveling up, be able to gain the points needed to buy useful Talents, and have access to rare and expensive materials … all to have even have a chance of making such high-class items.

  Luckily, Richter had his own village, perfect affinity for every skill thanks to his Limitless ability, and lands rich in materials. If he was lucky enough to survive what The Land threw at him, he could still learn enough to make super high-level gear. Rings, bracelets and armor that were enchanted to such a high level that he could crush anyone that dared go against him.

  What this new Talent was showing him though, was that while it was still technically possible to enchant yourself into a total beast, there were serious checks and balances. Just like the fact that it was going to take five times as much XP to reach his next level, his plans to become an enchanting god were similarly hindered.

  Richter suddenly realized something. For a while, he’d been enjoying the power and superiority that his advanced level gave him over most enemies. The Attribute Points you gained through leveling didn’t make you a swordmaster, but having a Strength over fifty made it really unlikely that someone would get back up when you hit them in the head. Now he’d hit a wall though, and he’d have to earn five times as much XP to get another level.

  Since he now knew everyone reached a Threshold sooner or later, that meant everyone who hit that wall should have roughly comparable stats and numbers. Seeing as how he didn’t have a combat Profession, it was highly likely that any Warriors, Mages or Rogues would have the edge over him in a stand-up battle as well.

  That didn’t take certain things into account, of course. The fact that he gained 50% more points per level made him an outlier, but he was sure he wasn’t the only person out there who had secrets. Reaching a Threshold was no mean feat. That meant other people who did were probably the nastiest and baddest sumbitches the enemy’s mama had ever squirted out.

  It was like what his uncle had once said. The man had grown up in one of the toughest ghettos in old America. He’d started training in Aikido from the time he was three. Growing up, he’d fought every tough kid within a five-block radius. When he could beat all of them, he’d fought the guys in the surrounding neighborhoods. The average punks in his neighborhood were easy to beat, but he’d swallowed his own blood a couple times before he beat the toughest dudes.

  By the age of thirteen, he’d started competing on a national level, and five days after his seventeenth birthday, he grabbed the title. His uncle said the most important thing that came out of that was when he’d been invited to train with a true Aikido master. His uncle had told him how excited he’d been. He’d expected to learn some next-level ninja moves. Instead, the master had started teaching him the same opening katas that he’d been taught as a child.

  His uncle said that his disappointment must have been easy to read because the master had stopped the lesson and invited his uncle to attack. “Show me everything you know,” had been the simple instruction. Richter had never known his uncle to be a humble man. Apparently, that arrogance had been a hundred times worse right after winning a national tournament with his fists. The way his uncle had described it was that the younger version of him had been a “six-foot cock, full of blood and ready to rock.”

  That was why he’d attacked the master as soon as the invitation was made. What happened next still made his uncle wince involuntarily thirty years later. Apparently, the master had let him go all-out without making a single offensive move of his own for a solid ten minutes. His uncle hadn’t landed a single hit.

  What was worse, the master had only used the beginner katas to defend himself. After ten minutes had passed, the master had used another beginner move that any Aikido student would recognize to strike back. The difference was, he used it with a grace, power and control that even the new “tournament champion” had never been able to accomplish.

  His uncle said he just remembered getting hit, blacking out, and waking up. Three cracked ribs had resulted from a single hit from a man whose head was full of white hair. His uncle had never objected to one of his master’s lessons again.

  When his uncle had finished the story, he’d told Richter, “Just remember, kid, there is always someone more badass than you. Don’t ever stop training, or the one guy that beats you might stick you in the hospital for a month.” Then he’d told Richter, “If you find one of those guys though, there’s no shame in crying or running away so they don’t kick your ass. Later, you can always hit them with a brick while they’re sleeping.” His uncle had been a complicated guy.

  Point was, even though he was a badass, being able to increase his stats past the 25% barrier might help when he ran into a bigger badass. Having a higher health, mana and stamina than others expected would be a great proverbial “brick.�
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  Vital Enchanting would make his enchantments valuable as well. It might even increase their price more than Supplemental Enchantments. Having another two rings was nice after all, but having an extra two rings that could raise your health, mana or stamina by 50% could increase the battle power of a fighter or caster by two or even three times.

  Great as the Talent was though, his own stats were already pretty high up. Health was what was getting the biggest boost from his rings and he still wasn’t near 25%. Even if he was, down here he had no way to enchant items strong enough to take him past the threshold. At one hundred TPs, the Talent was going to go unbought for now, and the Talents that stemmed off it would have to stay hidden.

  He turned his attention back to the next first orbit Talent. Supplemental Enchantments could be useful down the road, but he wasn’t tempted right now. It would be great to have an extra magic ring to wear, but he only knew how to make low level health rings. Getting another +10 health wouldn’t change much, not enough to justify the TP expense. He also didn’t have the materials. He moved on to the next one.

  Shared Enchantments would be useful at a later date, but wasn’t right now. He needed another Enchanter to make it work. Activatable Enchantments offered great versatility. With the high-level enemies down here, it would be great to be able to Freeze, Burn, or Shatter enemies at will rather than just having to wait for his luck to trigger the enchantment. It was a shame that he didn’t have an enchanted weapon, only the club and the ichorpede pincer.

  He’d never tried to enchant random items that he’d just found. He knew for a fact that he could destroy items by putting more soul energy into them than they could handle. A failed attempt could also badly injure him. Even if he was able to find a way to add enchantments to his makeshift weapons, he couldn’t risk destroying his only offensive items, not until he found something better to replace them with. That was why, as much as he’d like to buy the Talent, he had to pass on it for now.

  The next first orbit Talent was one that he just had to buy though. Soul Flavor cost fifty-eight Talent Points.

  You have Purchased: SOUL FLAVOR

  No longer will a soul be judged only by its rank.

  There is a chance that when you use a captured soul, it will bring with it a characteristic of the monster it was captured from. The specific characteristics of captured souls you use in your enchanting may now be used to augment enchantments and add extra abilities and powers to enchanted items.

  *No further upgrades for this Talent

  You have: 227 Talent Points remaining

  Checking if prerequisite Tier 1 Talent has been obtained: Golem Enchanting…

  Stop! You have not met the requirements to unlock these Tier 2 Talents! You are not qualified to glean this knowledge.

  The chaos lord blinked. For the first time, he’d come across a set of Talents he wasn’t “qualified” to have uncovered. Now, the rational part of his mind knew that he just hadn’t bought the requisite Tier 1 Talent. It also knew that the prompt was essentially an inanimate object. A larger part of himself wanted to say, “Who the hell you think you’re talking to?”

  Richter calmed himself down and forced a smile onto his face. It’s no big deal, he thought. Yeah. His head started nodding and his chin jutted out. Yeah. He was fine. Of course, the rapid speed he was blinking at told a different story.

  He decided not to buy any other Tier 2 Talents for the moment. It had always been his plan to convert some of his spells into enchantments and buy more Tier 1’s as well. The fact that he’d just been rejected by the second tier had nothing to do with it. He was fine.

  The chaos lord focused on one of the red spheres. His Essence Specialty let him convert his spells into enchantments if he could pay the TP cost. With more than eighty spells at his fingertips, he had a lot of options. What he really needed was a way to protect himself though. He spent 10 TPs to unlock the enchantment for one of his spells.

  You have chosen to unlock the enchantment for: Weak Static Earth Shield. This enchantment can be applied to two mediums: Armor and Items. You must choose which medium you wish to unlock. Unlocking further mediums will require purchase with Talent Points.

  Richter chose “Items.”

  You have: 217 Talent Points remaining

  You have now unlocked the (Item) enchantment: Earth Boundary

  Enchantment Size: Unknown

  Enchantment School: Earth

  You are currently at 0/10,880 of the mana cost to learn this enchantment.

  Effects: Unknown

  Richter never knew exactly what the effect of the enchantment would be until he finished paying the mana cost, but he was hoping it would let him make a force field around himself. Otherwise, when he inevitably slept again, he’d be exposed. The chaos lord began investing his excess mana into the enchantment. At his current rate of regen, it should take five to six hours to learn it, provided he didn’t have to cast too many spells in the meantime.

  The chaos lord started smiling. He still had more than two hundred Talent Points at his disposal, and he’d already uncovered some awesome new facets of his Profession. He could even make his own powdered crystal! All he needed was some rocks that he could turn into the resource, and a few more he could turn into soul stones. After that, the only resource he would be missing was a captured soul. If his experience so far was any indication, he shouldn’t have a hard time finding a monster to kill.

  Richter started looking around the tunnel with a broad grin on his face, searching for a couple of fist-sized stones to convert into crystal. He might as well get started on that while he decided which Tier 1 Talents to purchase. His smile started to slip as he looked back the way he’d come and didn’t see anything. It slipped a bit more as he realized the only loose rock he’d seen so far were pebbles the size of tic tacs. He looked the other way, and saw more of the same clean bare rock. The smile disappeared completely.

  “Well, shit,” he cursed sourly.

  CHAPTER 26 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC

  Frustrated, Richter placed his hand on the stone wall of the tunnel, hoping against hope, and tried to use Crystal Touch. The Universe slapped him down immediately.

  The rock you are trying to use is too large… Do better.

  “Goddamn it,” Richter muttered under his breath. The jerky tone of the notifications was not helping his mood. The fact that the prompts were only dickish because they were a reflection of his own personality didn’t factor into the calculation for him.

  He hadn’t really thought it was going to work anyway, so he wasn’t too disappointed. If his Talent had worked that way, Enchanters would be more effective than any siege weapon. Also, when was anything ever easy? Richter was about to look at the available Tier 1 Talents when he had the strangest feeling.

  It was like a not-quite-unpleasant itching feeling. He furrowed his brow, examining the sensation. It wasn’t localized to any one part of his body. After a while, he noticed there was direction to it, like every cell in his body was leaning the same way. It was really weird following directions from every point in his body. He’d never really experienced anything like it. It was almost like his body was quietly shouting, “Look over there, dummy!”

  Richter finally understood the impulse enough to realize it was leading him to the remains of the nesting stone slime. He’d already given the lump a cursory examination, but no prompt had been triggered. It wasn’t classified as an herb so his Herb Lore skill hadn’t helped, and it wasn’t an item so his identification Talent couldn’t come into play.

  Now, however, a prompt filled his vision. It was a mix of green and purple. Looking at it, the window honestly looked sinister to Richter. Reading it, he quickly understood why.

  A set of remains has triggered your Epic Vile Bloodline: Petrifying Ghost Harvest.

  The base cost to Harvest the remains of a common soul creature is 10 Bloodline Points.

  Know This! Harvesting a set of remains will severely degrade the tar
geted body. Attempting to use Harvest on degraded, aged and/or altered remains decreases the chances of obtaining a component by a substantial amount.

  Do you wish to harvest the Nesting Stone Slime? Yes or No?

  Richter’s eyebrows shot up. With everything that had been going on, he hadn’t even thought about the Harvest function of his bloodline. He still wasn’t super excited about the “vile” appellation, but he was definitely curious about what his new power could do. Maybe it would turn the remains into something he could use.

  Also, as bad as his situation was, he still had a gamer’s love of discovering new lore. He checked his interface and found that he had nineteen Bloodline Points. That was when something occurred to him. During the battle, he’d zero’d out his BP pool. He regen’d 7.4 BP/hr and he’d had 15 BPs when he’d woken up, which meant he must have been passed out for about two hours after the fight with the slime. He realized again how lucky he was that nothing had eaten him while he’d been helpless. He also had a makeshift way to tell time now.

  Shrugging to himself, Richter decided to spend the points. Before he did though, he figured it was worth examining the slime’s body again before his bloodline “severely degraded” it. His resources were painfully finite underground, and he couldn’t waste anything. His skull-crushing fingers reached into the thick gelatin of the slime’s dead body. This time, he didn’t just examine the outside, he poked and prodded it.

  After only a minute, he felt a hard lump. It took several more minutes to work it free from the slime’s dead body. The skin of the gooey sac resisted him, but his thick sausage digits ripped it apart after a while. He brushed the last few bits of remains off the hard nodule and held it up to his ball of Simple Light. It was then that Richter was reminded that what he didn’t know about The Land could just about be squeezed into the Grand Canyon. He was holding an emerald!