"Who's Robert, the Great?" I asked.
"He is a mildly powerful mage and spearman. I don't recommend direct confrontation with him."
"Where does this map lead to?"
"You don't need to know that yet."
If I was going to do it, it was better not to lose any time arguing with Manhart. "Huh. Alright, can you locate Bear and Daggers for me? I've no idea where they are and I'll need them." If my guess was correct, David wouldn't allow Ted to play Valia anymore. Which would last only until she managed to turn him around; Ted was a devious girl.
"I already contacted them. They should arrive in one hour at most, considering they left not too long before you came."
"Okay, then. See ya."
"You won't wait here?"
"Nope. I have to talk to one last asshole before I sail my ship to Margs Market, and I prefer to do it away from you." No point in lying to a truthseer.
"Ship?"
"Aye aye, sir!" I saluted him and left the room.
Now, that was random. Was I that happy about seeing my old companions again?
Weird.
I left the small cave by going through the illusion of a solid cave wall. Which made me remember the illusion ring that made me look like a vampire. I put it on, then contacted someone I hadn't seen since I first joined the game.
The outside of the small cave was a ridiculously large cave chamber, so big I couldn't see the other side. Far to my left was the divide between this cave and Serharn, the drow country. Far to the right was the corridor that led to Crystalia, the place where Marbareus, the vampire, had died.
For now, I had no business in any of those places. Instead, I spoke to nothingness:
"Zenhit, you asshole Destiny Spirit, your time has come. Appear."
4. Sneak Attack
Obviously, the Spirit wouldn't make my life easy by doing something as convenient as appearing in front of me. I had to turn around to see it.
Zenhit reminded me of the wisps of other games: a focal point of light the size of my fist which released a kind of aura of pulsating light around it, which was a perfect circle as large as me. Only, Zenhit's light was black.
It laughed and pulsated strongly.
It pulsated weakly.
Just as I was about to say the last few words, I stopped; there were very few things I cared about, and slavery was one of them.
Nothing could justify taking the freedom away from another sentient being, and AIs were the closest that humanity had come to finding or creating sentient beings. The ritual words that players spoke to Destiny Spirits in the beginning of the game made the spirits slaves in all but name.
They were supposed to want it, but Zenhit was clearly different.
Heh. Call me assassin, but not slaver. In the end, I'm a hypocrite, just like every human.
The Spirit hit the invisible wall a few more times before realizing I had stopped, and calming down. Then, it just hovered without moving.
It stood silent for a long time. I kept looking around the enormous cave I was at, seeing players coming and going everywhere. I half hoped one of them would attack me; I wanted to know how strong I had become after the eight levels I had won by completing the Challenge.
I looked back at it.
Was the little shit trying to cheat me? My hatred for slavery was almost gone in an instant. Luckily for him, I remembered a very specific message I had received when levelling an attribute:
'It's a shame the max attribute points you can receive for fighting is two. Really.'
Did I hear a gulp?
I stared at the Spirit for a time and sighed.
Its light trembled.
I could see the wisdom in that. Especially since the Guardian would be listening to my words, and he was the one responsible for tagging people as cheaters. Having people listening to what was inside my head again, even if it was only game-related thoughts, wasn't something I wanted.
Strength increased to 31 (+2)
Agility increased to 29 (+2)
Dexterity increased to 31 (+2)
Constitution increased to 27 (+2)
» HP: 1985 (+265)
» Stamina: 495 (+20)
Intelligence increased to 32 (+2)
» MP: 2735 (+315)
(Items disregarded)
Perception increased to 28 (+2)
Willpower increased to 30 (+2)
» Stamina: 505 (+10)
Charisma increased to 20 (+2)
Level up!
Current level: 32
HP, MP and stamina restored
It was the first time I got attribute points without descriptions. It felt weird.
I closed my eyes.
Opening my eyes, I stared hard at Zenhit. I couldn't see any reaction coming
from the ball of light at all, unlike what happened when I talked to Manhart.
The big issue is that I had no way to find out if he was lying. I had looked for it before but there was no information about Destiny Spirit's limitations when rewarding players on the Internet. I would have to ask Bear to check with his own Spirit.
It pulsated brightly.
I'd gotten less than expected from that deal, but sulking wouldn't get me anywhere; time was ticking.
The next order of business was choosing a new core trait. Traits selected as core would get one level for every seven days — consecutive or not — that I logged in Valia. I merely had to make sure I stayed online for at least ten minutes each day. Since I would do almost nothing but play, it meant one trait level per week.
At level twenty-five, I currently had three core slots, two of which were already being used. All players started with a core slot and it had been recently announced that more were unlocked at levels: ten, twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, ninety, and one hundred. These were the same milestones for getting traits to new stages: Adept, Skilled, Expert, Master, and Grandmaster.
I had thought about my next choice in my offline days. There were a few traits that would give me excellent benefits after gaining the ten levels when making it one of my core abilities. However, I would obviously try to go around the game's restrictions and make the most out of it.
I currently had the Controller trait set as my core, and it had leveled up ten times when I put it on an unused core slot. So, I placed the Mage trait in the core slot currently occupied by the Controller trait, then set the Controller trait in the unused new slot, hoping that it'd level up ten times again.
You have selected a new core trait:
» Adept Controller
No bonus applied!
This trait has already received the bonus for being the first in a core slot.
Well, I had to try. Failing that, I put Controller back to its core slot and went for the second-best choice.
You have selected a new core trait:
» Adept Strategist
Bonus received!
You used a core slot for the first time and received +10 levels on the chosen trait!
Adept Strategist increased to 31 (+10)
All members of a party you are the leader of, except you, receive:
» +26% increase to 2 attributes of choice
Trait has evolved into Skilled Strategist:
» Number of attributes affected: 3
All members of a party you are the leader of, except you, receive:
» +26% increase to 3 attributes of choice
Level up!
Current level: 33
HP, MP and stamina restored
Being able to change my spells' direction after I had sent them flying was the best thing the traits gave me battle-wise, and it was the Controller trait that was responsible for it. The party's attributes bonus was the next best thing. As Strategist got better I could potentially give tens of attribute points to people in my party and make them considerably stronger.
But it was highly annoying that I was becoming a support character. I mean, I wanted to be the one killing people, not the one helping other people do it.
And only half an hour ago I was thinking about how I didn't need to personally bathe in the blood of my enemies.
Ignoring my mind's offhand remark, I closed the window and waited for my companions. I took the chance to check my character stats.
Jack Thorn
Unbound Deathlord
Resistance's General
Legendary Spotter, Hedge Wizard, Pioneer, Warlord, Dark Archmage
Level 33
Hit Points: 1985 / 1985
Mana Points: 3070 / 3070
Stamina: 505 / 505
Attributes:
Strength: 31
Agility: 29
Dexterity: 31
Constitution: 27
Intelligence: 32 + 2 [Items]
Perception: 28 + 10 [Items]
Willpower: 30
Charisma: 20
Traits:
© Skilled Strategist: 31
© Adept Controller: 22
© Adept Energizer: 14
Adept Mage: 12 + 10 [Items]
Scout: 3
Athlete: 2
Diviner: 2
Gold Digger: 2
Meditator: 2
Scavenger: 2
Shadow: 2
Antimage: 1
Crafter: 1
Healer: 1
Herbalist: 1
Mind Seer: 1
Negotiator: 1
Nitpicker: 1
Ranger: 1
Tactician: 1
Warrior: 1
Not bad. Not bad at all.
My Legendary Circlet of Enlightenment gave me a bonus of ten points both to the perception attribute and the Adept Mage trait.
My Belt of Intelligence also gave me two points to intelligence. A small but welcomed bonus.
Just to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything, I also checked my skill list. There was a lot of math displayed on each skill, but I made a mental list with the useful information I had about them.
First I checked my attack spells.
Spell name (level) — MP cost — Amassing time — Damage dealt — Effectiveness
Deathball (level 2) — 30 MP — 3 seconds — 126 damage — 1.4
Darkball (level 2) — 20 MP — 0.5 second — 70 damage — 3.5
Fireball (level 4) — 40 MP — 1 second — 125 direct damage + 31 burn damage — 3.9
Effectiveness — which was calculated by me — told me me how effectively a spell used each mana point it consumed, considering the damage it dealt per second. Fireball was clearly the best spell I had for attacking.
Besides the recently-learned Cosmo Connection, I had three non-offensive skills, two of which were passive, meaning they had special conditions to activate and did so automatically. Coincidently, they also cost no mana to activate.
The first was the Darkvision skill. Currently at level three, it allowed me to see in darkness as if it was mid dawn. It was activated every time I was in a dark place, which was all the time in the Underworld.
The other was the Kill to Survive skill. When I killed someone or something, the skill healed me for 3.2% of the damage I dealt to the creature, for a minimum of 3 HP to a maximum of 13.2% of my max health. Unfortunately, it only worked when I dealt 45% or more damage to the target's health.
Finally, my last spell was Fire of Revelation, which had been maxed out on level five. It instantaneously created a floating flame that I could control at will in a three-meter radius around me, for thirty minutes.
As an Adept Mage, the effectiveness of all my spells was increased by twenty-two percent — one percent per point in the trait. Or at least it was supposed to. For some reason it worked for everything except the Cosmo Connection skill, which I was pretty sure was an oversight from the developers.
A nice touch to the game though, was how my intelligence attribute value was directly added to the damage of most spells. Intelligence was the most important attribute for mages as it not only made attacking spells more powerful, it also increased the character's mana pool.
Looking at my fire spells, I couldn't help but remember that the Legendary Ring of Fire I was wearing had the effect of increasing all my fire spells by two levels. Together with my Legendary Circlet o
f Enlightenment, they were the best items I had, and both had been looted from the very scary chick known as High Lady Renno.
Speaking of which, my Dark Archmage title, which had permanently increased my Adept Mage trait by ten, had also been received thanks to how I dealt with High Lady Renno. That meant that killing her was primarily responsible for my rather impressive magical power.
For quite a while, I kept checking my character sheets, and remembering a few things. Like the immunity to the Darkness element and the fifty percent resistance to the Light element, both because of the Dark Archmage title as well.
Finally, about half an hour later, Bear appeared on the horizon.
* * *
He was wearing Shai's awesome black armor though I had no idea how he could wear it without an Encumbered status. Shai's equally-awesome darksteel greatsword was on his back.
He was carrying a backpack in one of his hands, while his other hand held a severed black arm. The visor of his helmet was open and his skinless zombie face was visible inside it.
I watched as he put the limb's finger in his mouth and chewed it off.
Now, that is a man who knows how to be creepy.
Then, he used the chewed-up arm with a missing finger to wave to me.
That was a weird sight worth saving for eternity. I took a picture using the built-in function on the VirBridge.
Suddenly, a shadow came from behind him, jumped on his back, and used shining blades to strike his face multiple times.
Bear screamed, let the limb go, and instead of trying to take the greatsword, he did something surprisingly smart considering the surprise of the moment and the panic a normal person would be feeling: he closed his helmet visor.
The shadow found itself without an easy target; the visor had only very small slits and after an update to the game systems, it couldn't be opened by anyone other than its wearer. So, the attacker proceeded to thrust the blades in other possible openings in the armor, like the armpits, but I would bet that Deathlord Shai's former armor didn't have any obvious weakness like these. Meanwhile, Bear held the shadow's legs and fell on his back.
Unbound Deathlord: Obliteration (The Unbound Deathlord Series Book 2) Page 4