Blood Thief – When you cover yourself in the blood of your foes, you have a chance (15%) of borrowing their magic (for one use) and using it to your own means.
+1 Skill and Knowledge.
Aether Sever – When you attack and injure your foe, you have a chance (15%) of cutting off the aether from the spell, injuring them with the backlash.
+1 Skill and Serenity.
Woah! So, if I took the one on the left, I’d be able to borrow magic from the things I fought. That was a start toward being able to be a mage! I’d take it, but first, to see what the others had going on for them. Though I wondered what the interest in increasing Knowledge would be like for actual magic, if I ever got it since all the abilities in our group seemed to be cool-down based.
Sundar smiled. “For me, it’s Berzerker, lets me use rage to attack and defend—halves damage—but my mental stats are halved too, or the other that allows me to summon animal spirits to buff a single ally. Honestly, since I seem to be the healer—I think I should go with the spirits. It will allow me to be able to buff you all, that and the added stat boosts are nice...”
“Thanks for being a team player, Sundar,” Albarth spoke softly, genuinely to her. “It’s hard not to be the party’s healer, but if it would be anyone, I’d like for it to be the most experienced of us.”
“Aww, you know just what to say to make a lady blush.” The giant orc woman teased him as she bent to look into his eyes.
“And you’ve ruined an otherwise wonderful gesture of trust and friendship with your lascivious ways.” The elf sighed. “My two options are evolutions to my Flame Dart, the first is Bombardier, that makes the spell explode on impact and affect anything within five feet, and the other is Elegant Flame, which is a weapon buff that covers my weapon in flames for an added five percent damage bonus. I can still cast the spell as a projectile, I think, for the second. I take it all of us received some kind of stat boost attached to the ability?”
We nodded, then looked to Monami, who looked to be deeply embarrassed.
“Well?” Albarth prodded. “How about yours, kitty cat?”
“Call me that again, tree-boy and I will claw your eyes out.” She growled as he just smiled, this being a typical interaction of theirs.
She really was embarrassed.
“Mine are to be used in conjunction with Allure,” Monami explained, the fur of her cheeks tinting red slightly. “My options are Dance and Sing. Both are designed to make Allure more distracting.”
Oh god. That was why. Mona loved to sing, but she was terrible at it. I would know because I let myself into her place at her mother’s while she had been singing in the shower. When she had realized I was there, the thrashing she had given me had almost seen me to a hospital.
“They’d be distracted all right,” I muttered before a rough, clawed grip fit snuggly around my left arm.
Mona dragged me closer to her so that I looked her directly in the eyes, her fiery red hair covering her face as she growled low. “Say another damned word, Seth—I dare you.”
“I’m good.” I smiled at her.
Albarth chuckled. “Elegant Flame. I think I make more of a skill type build then and focus on mobility and intellect so I can DPS that way. Any objections?”
The rest of us shook our heads. Being light on his feet would be well within Al’s wheelhouse after years of running around, avoiding being hit as a healer before this.
“I’m going to take Dance.” Monami growled, her hand still around my arm. “I can incorporate that into a fighting style, I think. So, I’ll be a Presence and Skill build. It goes without saying that we still bring our health up where we can, but I saw that there are skill paths that let us take more stat points too. if you focus on your choice you can make them out.”
“And you, Kyvir?” Albarth raised a brow at me.
“I have Aether Sever, it gives me a chance to cut a caster’s connection to Aether to prevent a spell and injuring them if I hit them. Then I have Blood Thief that allows me a chance to steal someone’s magic if I hurt them.” I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, gulping nervously. “I think I’ll be going with Blood Thief. What about you guys?”
“That’s fair, the second one sounds like a mage killer’s silencing ability.” Sundar grunted, tapping her screen. “We know what I’ll do—the spirits do seem cool. And I think Ky should take Blood Thief so that he can cast a little bit, as well.”
“Seconded.” Albarth slightly raised his hand.
Monami let go of my arm, her eyes finding mine. “If it was a reliable ability with a higher chance of proccing, I’d say sever, but it isn’t.” Her reasoning stated, she raised her hand as Al had.
“That’s settled, then.” I tried to hide the relief I felt at their decision.
If they had suggested the other tree, I would have done it so that I could fulfill my role as tank. But now I would be able to use other spells on top of my own abilities. And the possibilities with that seemed limitless with all the spells and abilities out there.
“I’ll focus on Skill, Strength, and Heart, then.” I looked over my actual stats and prepared to spend the rest of the points I had but stopped. “I’ll add a point to Knowledge every now and again if I can, too.”
“I’ll focus on Strength, Serenity, and Heart so that I can help off-tank if needed, but I’m stronger by nature, it seems. Don’t forget, strength adds five HP per point as well. So, there’s merit there too,” Sundar advised as she spent her own points.
“I would advise against that if you can, it might help you stay alive, but we may need you to actually focus on healing. We can play it by ear.” Al looked at me briefly. “You should also put a couple points into knowledge if you’ll be stealing spells, Ky. If you’ll have them, they need to hit hard, and that’s what that stat is meant to help with.” Albarth was spending his own points as well.
I selected Blood Thief, and little fireworks jumped into my vision, making me gasp and laugh. The others glanced my way, their faces confused, but I just told them, “Pick your skill, and you’ll see.”
After a second, they were laughing too. What an absurd, delightful world this was. Amazing.
Chapter Seven
I looked over my stats and saw that I had eight points to use to adequately bump up my stats. With Blood Thief, I got an extra point to both Skill and Knowledge, which would be helpful, as it put them to eight, and six respectively. Thinking about it, I would need to improve my Skill and Heart some more. Plus, my Strength. Okay. Three each in Heart and Skill, and the final two in strength.
Kyvir Mageblood, Level 3, Race: Kin, HP: 145
Strength: 9
Skill: 11
Heart: 10
Knowledge: 6
Serenity: 5
Presence: 5
Unspent Stat Points: 0
EXP to next Lvl: 358 / 400
“I like this rolling EXP thing,” Mona observed to the rest of us with a grin. “I also like the little boosts in experience based on active participation in the fight. Like when I get a point more than all of you because I shanked the absolute guts out of that ram?”
I rolled my eyes at her, and Sundar snorted as Al laughed at her. She seemed to be relaxing a bit.
“It’s likely the easiest way to get people to level ten. There are plenty of ways games offer that; remember that one game—oh, what was it…” Sundar blinked and held her hands in front of her as if it were right there.
“Storm Factor?” Albarth asked.
The large woman clapped her hands. “Yes! Thank you. They had rolling experience until level ten, then it went to a pay system. You get all the experience for the level, and the rest goes away. Unless you have enough to hit the next level on top of that.”
“Could you imagine being most of the way to the next level, and it just all disappeared?” Albarth looked disgusted. “Complete game killer, if you ask me.”
“Enough of all that.” Monami growled, a look of consternation on her face
as she bit her lip. “Let’s not jinx it. What’re your stats all looking like? Here, look at mine.”
Monami Sunfur, Level 3, Race: Helinx, HP: 105
Strength: 7
Skill: 11
Heart: 7
Knowledge: 5
Serenity: 6
Presence: 10
Unspent Stat Points: 0
EXP to next Lvl: 360 / 400
“Looking good!” Sundar raised her eyebrows and nodded approvingly. “Here you all are.”
Sundar Strongtusk, Level 3, Race: Orc, HP: 160
Strength: 10
Skill: 5
Heart: 11
Knowledge: 5
Serenity: 8
Presence: 5
Unspent Stat Points: 0
EXP to next Lvl: 350 / 400
“One hundred and sixty health!” Albarth looked at me with a sly grin. “She has you topped again. Some tank you’ll be.”
I rolled my eyes as he shared his stats with us.
Albarth Remell, Level 3, Race: Wood Nymph, HP: 75
Strength: 5
Skill: 13
Heart: 5
Knowledge: 9
Serenity: 9
Presence: 5
Unspent Stat Points: 0
EXP to next Lvl: 346 / 400
“Wood Nymph? Really?” Sundar guffawed.
“It came with a wonderful addition to the Skill stat and come now if you start calling me ‘nympho’ I will set you on fire.” He looked dangerously close to doing so as he spoke, but Sundar just waved it away as she tried to breathe.
“Okay. So, it seems that the current goal is to get better gear and see about getting to ten where the true game content lies. Right?” I asked, checking the in-game clock against the out-of-game one. It was later afternoon now, but it was around midnight in our world.
“Yeah—sounds good to me.” Monami stretched, more catlike than I would have imagined, but it did seem like something was off. “Call it a night, hit it hard tomorrow? Sundar, you gotta work?”
“Took the weekend off. Wouldn’t miss this for the world.” Her grin flashed her tusks, and her eyes sparkled joyously.
“Then we should reconvene tomorrow morning for you lot, and night for me.” Albarth yawned before he nodded once and logged off. His avatar faded from view slowly and then was gone.
“See you two in the morning, I’ll have the coffee poured by eight, in by nine?” Sundar looked hopeful. I’d seen her this excited once, and that had been a very productive weekend.
“Sounds great.” I nodded and went through the process of logging out while she faded when Monami stopped me.
“We need to talk. I’ll be over as soon as I can.” Then she was gone.
That was weird. I pressed the log-out button, and the world faded around me.
You have opted to log-out, thank you for playing Mephisto’s Magic Online.
Preparing for liquid evacuation in 3… 2… 1.
This may feel odd.
A suction around my nose and mouth sealed so tightly that I felt as if my soul were being sucked from my body. I opened my eyes to see the lid of the Portal closed over me and the house dark around it. I had forgotten to turn the light on. I opened the clear pane with a slight touch and tumbled out of the pod, gasping for air.
“You’re okay, Seth. You’re fine!” I muttered to myself once I had control of my breathing. I stood up and went to quickly shower. I knew it wouldn’t take Mona long to get here, and I wanted to at least get this stuff off of me before she came.
After I was out, I heard the door open. “Seth!” Mona’s familiar voice called.
“Coming out of the shower now, Mo!” I was in the middle of toweling myself dry when she came in, tears streaming down her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I forgot instantly that I’m almost completely in the buff.
“As we were meeting and talking about our classes, I got a message. It was from what could have been a throwaway account—you know like the ones that sell in-game currencies for real money?” Her voice was strained, and she sounded like she was bordering on panic.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“It said, ‘Don’t trust it, all is not as it seems. Grow strong quickly. D.’” Her panic seemed to subside a little when I pulled her into my arms, my towel draped over my hips as best as I could manage.
“Well, I will admit, that is weird.” I blinked as I caught a whiff of something. Something floral, and it smelled fantastic. So alluring. “What’s that smell?”
She looked up at me, her green, gem-like eyes partially hidden by her red hair, and it was so hard to think of anything else at that moment. Weird.
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “What smell?”
“It smells floral.” I blinked, and the sensation was gone, but for an instant in the mirror, I could see the outline of pink around her. I rubbed my eyes, and it was gone.
Like the one that had been in the game. Huh. That was odd too. Maybe it was just a figment of my imagination after having spent a few hours in-game. Yeah, that was it.
“Sorry, but do you know anyone named ‘D,’ Mona?” I asked as I let her go, gripping my towel a little tighter.
“Not really.” She wiped her eyes and stepped out into the hall so I could finish drying off. “At least not anyone who works for that game company.”
“Well, then let’s pay it no mind. Could just be one of the game devs messing with you.” Developers in past games had been known for being insanely crazy about their games.
There had even been tell about one guy who tried to get people killed if they found bugs in his games. A rumor—but still kinda crazy.
I put on the same mesh shorts I had worn earlier and stepped out into the hall next to where Mona sat. “Come on. Let’s get a bite and then go to bed. You can stay here tonight. Matter of fact, I insist. What do you wanna eat?”
“Can we go to our favorite joint?” She gave me her best, pitiful puppy dog eyes.
I sighed; it was a fifteen-minute drive just to get there, but it was twenty-four hours, so it was doable. And I was a sucker for her sad face. Always had been since we were kids.
“You driving, or am I?” I asked.
“You buy, I’ll fly?” She asked, hopefully. When I nodded, she seemed to cheer up instantly.
I changed into a pair of boxers, sweats, and a bright red t-shirt that said “I like to game” on the front. I nabbed my wallet on the way out of the house and walked out to Mona’s car. It was a conservative model, a twenty-thirty-something with great mileage, and it was painted a metallic blue that I loved.
Mona’s driving was as stellar as always, and I only thought we were going to die when she toyed with her playlist. Finally, after the third honking car, I bellowed, “I will handle the music—you drive!”
She pouted, but I put on a song that we both liked and we sang along terribly with each other. She knew the car was a safe space for her to sing, and I loved the sing-a-longs we had.
Once we pulled into the parking lot of the dingy little dive, we parked and walked inside. The neighborhood around here had gotten a little better lately, but the owner of this restaurant would tolerate no violence in his place. No sir. I’d seen him go medieval on someone for pulling a knife in a less than friendly situation between two groups of people. That had been terrifying.
“Mona! Seth!” The gentleman behind the counter walked out to give us a hug. We had been coming here for years, and he felt like family. He was older, in his fifties, grayish-black hair on top of his head with a wisp of a goatee on his face. His deep brown eyes sparkled in the light of the room as he looked us over. His white skin sagging with age didn’t mean he dressed any less dapper than he normally did. His purple dress jacket was starched and ironed over his black dress shirt, a matching purple tie, and his black slacks.
“How’s it going, Bill?” I asked, genuinely curious. It had been months since I’d been able to drop in. I was trying to eat better and all.<
br />
“Not too bad, little Katie’s off to college!” Mona gasped and smacked his arm excitedly, his friendly Brooklyn accent made me think of those old mobster movies. “Hey, watch it, kiddo, that’s my burger flippin’ arm!”
“What’s she going to school for? Where at? How is she doing?” Mona grilled him, grossly ignoring his answers.
“Mona!” I barked at last. “Let the man speak, jeez.”
She looked a little cowed, but Bill just smiled. “She’s goin’ to school for Synthetic Kinesiology and Advanced Robotic Synapse Sciences. She’s at the community college, for now, working on her general education courses, but she’s doin’ fine so far as I can tell.”
“That’s a lofty study.” I whistled, looking pointedly over at Mona, whose smile was plastered on her face. “She apply for any scholarships or grants? I know of a couple she would likely qualify for.”
“She found a scholarship with the school, but she might try for one next year,” he explained, and I smiled. So, I would be able to help her then, after all. Between my family’s investments, academics were something my parents really loved and had multiple grants and scholarship foundations set up to help kids like Katie.
“If she needs any advice or help, send her my way!” Mona took his hand and made him agree with a nod before she would let go.
“I’ll send you some links while we eat, Bill, pass them on to Katie with our love, okay?” He smiled and nodded my way.
“Two of the usual and hmm...” he looked Mona over critically before adding, “and a chocolate milkshake, large, no cherry with extra whip for the sad young lady.”
“How does he do that?” she whispered as Bill returned to his work.
“He’s been doing it since before we were a twinkle in our fathers’ eyes?” I raised an eyebrow. “He’s literally been telling us that for years.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved it away as she moved into the interior of the dining area. It reminded me of something out of a sixty’s diner movie with all the reds and whites. Very retro, but all the bells and whistles of the modern age were well in place. Televisions played in each of the booths with the news, late night TV, or some kind of heinous new movie playing. Give me the classics, thanks.
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