Beastborne
Page 104
It seemed the human and fairy hybrid had a name. He didn’t expect that.
Kemora – Fae-touched (Human/Fairy)
VIT: 3 | AGI: 6
END: 3 | TMP: 8
STR: 4 | DEX: 5
INT: 8 | FTH: 3
Curse: Fractured Sight
Boon: Peer into other realities and gain valuable insight into hidden paths.
Bane: Potential realities have a habit of bleeding into one another, letting in unspeakable horrors.
Accept?
Y/N.
Jacob tapped his finger against the mirror, confirming his selection. The other three mirrors vanished and were replaced with rows of mannequins wearing various types of armor and wielding weapons in their wooden hands.
He felt the change settle on his skin like static in his blood. He flashed a slightly feral grin at his reflection and turned to examine the equipment choices.
All that was left to do was pick his starting gear.
Pyresouls Chapter 04
There were 10 starting load-outs. Calling them classes would be a stretch since Pyresouls didn’t actually have any classes. Nevertheless, they were often referred to as classes. Probably for the sake of people coming into the game without any frame of reference.
Warrior, Knight, Rogue, Barbarian, Cleric, Hunter, Bandit, Noble, Sorcerer, and finally Savage. None of them changed your stats or gave you abilities like in most MMOs. It was down primarily to the gear you were given at the start. Gear that had remarkably low Guilt for the parameters they provided.
All of them except the Savage.
It seemed like a joke, armed with nothing but a loincloth – like he was currently wearing – and a crude club, they were sent out into the world utterly defenseless.
He saw a few of them running around at the Crossings. It was funny at first.
They were generally faster than any other player since they didn’t have to worry much about Guilt. But the deeper he pressed into the game the more their name made sense.
They were the most erratic players, as likely to attack you as to help you out, most people avoided them like the Red Plague.
It boiled down to the three armor types: Light, Medium, and Heavy. Like most other games each had its pros and cons. Magical damage was resisted most by Light and least by Heavy while physical damage was the inverse.
There were a few exceptions, and far too many seemed to forget that you could use a shield to bolster your defense to a specific type of damage.
The problem was, you couldn’t simply look at the armors given because each load-out came with a weapon as well. The magical types; Cleric, Noble, and Sorcerer all came with a Spell Gem that allowed you to use a single spell.
However, none of them came with a spell for said gem.
Warriors and Knights both came with straight swords and a shield. Rogues used daggers, Barbarians large two-handed axes, while Clerics used a mace and shoddy plank shield.
Hunters used a longbow, Bandits had a crossbow, Nobles used a rapier, and Sorcerers used a focus. A tiny crystalline idol that increased the efficacy of their spells when held.
For most people picking a Knight was a trap. They had the heaviest armor but also the highest stat requirements and Guilt. The result was most players were sluggish and awkward when they first came into the game, leading most people to believe that Knight was one of the worst picks.
But that was only if they lacked the TMP to withstand the Guilt. With 8 TMP, Jacob would be penalized for using the armor but not too severely. If he upped his TMP to 10 quickly, he could easily withstand the heavy 4 Guilt the entire Knight set – shield and longsword included – would incur.
He nearly touched the mannequin full of half-rusted, weathered plate mail before Alec’s voice came back to him. “You need a mace. It’s a ridiculously underappreciated weapon and you don’t get access to another strong blunt-type weapon until far too late in the game. Getting a sword and replacing that pile of planks they give a Cleric is easy. With a mace and a sword, you’ll have access to all three physical damage types. Trust me, you’ll need them.”
“Fair enough,” Jacob muttered, standing in front of the frail-looking parchment-colored robes of the Cleric. “I hope you’re right about this.” He reached forward and claimed the Cleric as his own.
You have chosen Cleric as your starting Class, please confirm your selection.
Cleric Equipment
Anointed Robe [Chest]
Physical Protection: 50
Blunt: 30
Slashing: 10
Piercing: 10
Magical Protection: 75
Arcane: 20
Fire: 10
Water: 20
Earth: 15
Harmony: 5
Chaos: 5
Resistances
Bleed: 12
Poison: 10
Curse: 0
Stability: 0
Durability: 300/300
Guilt: 0
Anointed Gloves [Gauntlets]
Physical Protection: 10
Blunt: 4
Slashing: 3
Piercing: 3
Magical Protection: 30
Arcane: 20
Fire: 10
Water: 0
Earth: 0
Harmony: 0
Chaos: 0
Resistances
Bleed: 5
Poison: 2
Curse: 0
Stability: 0
Durability: 300/300
Guilt: 0
Anointed Trousers [Leggings]
Physical Protection: 30
Blunt: 15
Slashing: 7
Piercing: 8
Magical Protection: 50
Arcane: 15
Fire: 10
Water: 10
Earth: 15
Harmony: 0
Chaos: 0
Resistances
Bleed: 20
Poison: 16
Curse: 0
Stability: 0
Durability: 300/300
Guilt: 0
Mace [Weapon]
Physical Damage: 100
Type: Blunt
Scaling: STR [B]
Magical Damage: 0
Arcane: 0
Fire: 0
Water: 0
Earth: 0
Harmony: 0
Chaos: 0
Status Infliction
Bleed: 10
Poison: 0
Curse: 0
Stagger: 50
Break: 30
Durability: 400/400
Guilt: 1
Plank Shield [Shield]
Physical Damage: 50
Type: Blunt
Balance: 50
Physical Reduction: 75
Arcane Reduction: 30
Fire Reduction: 10
Water Reduction: 30
Earth Reduction: 40
Harmony Reduction: 0
Chaos Reduction: 0
Durability: 300/300
Guilt: 0
Spell Gem: No Spell Inscribed
The Spell Gem was incredibly useful. He knew of the location of one early on and Alec gave him the location of another somewhere in the Defiled Cistern. He wasn’t sure he would have the time - or the desire - to get them, but knowing the location of two Spell Gems was incredibly valuable.
All he had to do was find some spells. Fairy Lights was the only spell he ever managed to find, and as the name suggests it wasn’t meant for damage.
Without any other spells at his disposal, he figured magical lights were better than nothing considering how soul-crushingly dark Pyresouls was.
Jacob groaned at the defense on the robes. On the upside, the only Guilt the entire set had was on the mace. With 8 TMP he wasn’t going to have any penalty to Speed or Stamina.
Both of which he’d have to use to their fullest because any of the early enemies would likely kill him in 2 to 3 hits with the Cleric’s armor.
There was nothing for it. Accordin
g to Alec, the mace was incredibly useful. Jacob’s memories backed up his claims of its rarity because he couldn’t recall anybody ever using a mace.
And with the mace’s relatively high ability to stagger and break bones, he could imagine a few enemies it would be particularly potent against.
Those Stone Gargoyles aren’t going to know what hit them.
With fifteen minutes left on the timer, Jacob confirmed his selection. The robes vanished from the mannequin and appeared on his body. They were warm and surprisingly comforting to have on.
A brief tutorial popped up explaining how he could summon and dismiss weapons or gear at will but he already understood how it all worked.
When the game started he would receive his “first” [Boundless Box], it would store anything he didn’t put on his equipment panel.
Anything in the [Boundless Box], which was essentially his inventory, weighed nothing. Only the equipment that was currently on him counted toward his total Guilt. There were only four slots for armor: helm, chest, gauntlets, and leggings.
He would have to find a helm soon, hits to the head were particularly vicious. It was worth the reduced visibility to prevent getting easily stunned.
With nothing else to do, Jacob tested out summoning and dismissing his mace. Just like Post-Collapse Earth, the weapon disappeared into a swirl of ash and returned to his grip the same way.
He performed a few test swings, checking the balance of the steel mace and the wooden shield strapped to his left arm. He learned all he needed to know in those swings.
Jacob was awkward and unbalanced with the weapon. He had difficulty controlling it the way his mind knew he could. As a new player, all of his skills would be at 0. And as Alice said, he wouldn’t get the benefit of his years of training.
Though he remembered how to use many weapons, his body had no muscle memory and it lacked the strength and speed he was used to. This is going to take me a while to get acclimatized.
While practicing wouldn’t increase his skills before the game started, it would help him to realign his expectations to what his younger body was capable of. Overextending himself would only leave him wide open to a fatal counterattack.
Before he knew it, the darkness began to break and fade away. The countdown clock hit zero and its gong shivered reality like a pebble tossed into a still pond.
The Pyresouls Online Competition Will Now Commence.
Good Luck.
If you liked what you just read and are interested in continuing the story, head on over HERE to pick up the book.
I originally wrote Pyresouls alongside Beastborne and I intend to continue that trend, releasing both books as they are completed instead of pausing one to work on the other.