by Jez Cajiao
The waves quickly came together, forming lines that first grew into a small box that related to this control room, complete with a miniature table and chair. Then it rippled out, the room shrinking as other rooms grew, a top down map building up. I could see collapsed sections of the corridors and rooms that lay beyond them.
The rooms we’d explored already showed a corresponding outline of equipment and debris, while the remaining rooms, the unexplored ones, showed a wireframe diagram instead.
It took less than a minute to build that floor out, but the next higher floor, including the stairway to reach it, was filled with rubble almost entirely. There was also a lower floor that shifted and shook strangely until Oracle made the connection.
“It’s full of water!” She exclaimed, and those that could see the map murmured as it became obvious to us all.
At the edges of the map, I found five damaged pillars. Three were shattered beyond all use, pulsing and then melting away when I looked at them, but the remaining two shook and started to move when I concentrated on activating the mana collectors. One of the two shuddered after a few seconds and vanished from the map, showing as debris suddenly, but the final collector continued to grow.
A full five minutes passed as the collector slowly shifted into position, and ominous creaks echoed around the underground structure, but eventually, the lights in the room gave a sudden pulse before strengthening to full daylight.
As we looked around, the walls began to shudder faintly, dust, dirt, and debris cascading from them as the structure began to repair itself. In the distance, I heard a crash as falling stone announced that not all the repairs would be smooth, but after a short wait, nothing else seemed to happen.
I concentrated again, and a new screen appeared before me.
Greetings, Lord of Dravith and Master of the Great Tower.
This interface is limited by damage and capacity. Please select from the following options:
System Repair:
Current condition: 27%
0-100% of Mana allocated
Structural Integrity:
Current condition: 42%
0-100% of Mana allocated
Golem recharging and Maintenance:
Current charge: 0.01%
0-100% of Mana allocated
I read over the options and allocated ten percent to system repair, twenty percent to Structural Integrity and seventy percent to charging the Golems, receiving a final popup. I could see there were more notifications waiting and I resolved myself to working through them as quickly as possible.
Allocation of mana resources confirmed.
Estimated time to completion:
System Repair: 142.6 days
Structural Integrity: 383.7 days
Golem Recharging and Maintenance: 1.25 days
I blinked at the timescales and resolved that I would get the Golems up and running, then redirect the mana to repair the mana collectors. Once they were fixed, it shouldn’t take long to fix the rest…I hoped. To be fair, I was only really interested in the Golems at the moment. The bonuses for claiming this structure and the surrounding land were just an added extra. I focused in and managed to redirect the charge going to the Golems to prioritize the Servitor, getting a notification that it would take six hours for that one alone. I figured it’d be the most useful to us in the short term.
“Oracle, can I use the mana collectors here to refill my own mana? Or use it to heal everyone directly?” I asked suddenly, a thought coming to mind, but Oracle was shaking her head before I’d finished speaking it aloud.
“No, Jax, not without a resident wisp to direct the other end. Even if I were to bind to here, you’d still need someone on your end to stop you from drawing too much. I’m sorry.”
“Ah, well, worth a try,” I sighed. I slowly stood up, my back cracking as I realized I’d been seated in an uncomfortable chair for hours without moving. As the blood rushed back into areas starved of it, I bit my cheek to keep from groaning, and concentrated on staying upright until the feeling passed.
While I fought through the pins and needles, I brought up the notifications, reading through them and dismissing them as quickly as I read what they contained.
As I’d managed to condense the fight notifications into a single easily absorbed list before, Oracle adjusted them for me now.
Congratulations! You have killed the following:
267x Basic Goblins of various levels for a total of 4,320xp
13x Goblin Fighters of various levels for a total of 390xp
7x Evolved Goblins of various levels for a total of 250xp
4x Spiders of various levels for a total of 60xp
A party under your command killed the following:
611x Basic Goblin of various levels for a total of 36,750xp
27x Goblin Fighters of various levels for a total of 3,100xp
1x Goblin Matriarch for a total of 1,500xp
13x Evolved Goblins of various levels for a total of 5,150xp
6x Spiders of various levels for 1100xp
Total Party xp earned: 37,500xp
As party leader, you gain 10% of all experience earned.
Progress to level 14 stands at 116,530/120,000
That goddamn experience drain! Jenae had warned me about it, saying it was partially because I’d broken myself by using too many Spellbooks at once, and partially because of who and what I was. I needed a goddamn healer! A real one!
It looked like I was getting literally ten percent of the experience that I would be otherwise, for my part in that fight, I’d have earned… I stopped myself before I could work it out. I settled on the fact I’d earned far less than I should have, as I could feel my anger and frustration begging to boil over again.
I dismissed it and went onto the next notification in the backlog.
Congratulations! You have raised your spell ‘Weak Lightning Bolt’ to its first evolution. You must now pick a path to follow. Will you choose the path of the STORM, or concentrate on the INDIVIDUAL? Choose carefully, as this choice cannot be undone.
STORM:
The storm does not discriminate, but you can. Following this path will fundamentally change your Lightning Bolt spell into an AOE or Area Of Effect spell, rather than a single target. You must now designate an area to create fear of your attention. As you grow more experienced with the spell, you will learn to make changes, increasing or decreasing the area covered and the duration. Beware distractions, as the Storm will only spare those you force it to, and will kill any it can.
INDIVIDUAL:
Individuality is what separates all things from one another. You know this, and you can choose to follow this path, adding secondary effects to your Lightning Bolt spell at the cost of removing its ability to spread.
Choose one of the following three options:
Cleansing Light: Clears away status effects on the target. While this can be used on friend or foe alike, don’t expect to keep any friends you target with a spell this painful.
Stun: Grants a 10% chance to stun the target for between 3-10 seconds, depending on resistances and abilities.
Spreading Wildfire: Adds a 10% chance that this spell will cause combustible materials to ignite, creating secondary and tertiary damage.
I read the options over for a few seconds, then frowned, I didn’t really use this spell that much, but to Oracle, it was a favorite…
“What do you think?” I asked Oracle, and she frowned prettily, reading over the options as I went on. “It’s basically your go-to spell, so you choose,” I said, and she twisted to look at me, a brilliant smile on her face.
“Are you sure, Jax? I mean, this is…” she started, and I cut her off.
“I’m sure, Oracle. I use Lightning Bolt occasionally, but you love it. You can pick; I trust you.” Oracle gave me another brilliant smile, going silent for a few seconds in thought. Eventually, she reached out and touched the box where it floated in my vision.
She somehow made it
shimmer, the option she’d chosen pulsing brightly for a second before fading back to normal.
“I choose ‘Stun’ then. I like the others, especially the ‘Storm’ option, but being able to add a stunning effect to our normal Lightning Bolt would be hugely helpful. To get that otherwise, we need to add water to it, and the chance of it activating ‘stun’ is still low, even then.”
“I’ll be honest, the fact it doesn’t spread concerns me a bit. I like using it with the water…” I said quietly, and she smiled, patting the top of my head reassuringly.
“Don’t be silly! This is an evolution of a spell; it’s not changing physics! If we use water, it will still spread. It just won’t do it on its own anymore! The original spell had a five percent chance to spread, and now it won’t; that’s all it means! Besides, if you really want a Lightning Storm spell, we can make one. It’ll be really heavy on the mana and have a weak effect for a while, but we know enough to make a rough one, and it would get evolutions at level ten as well.” I blinked as I processed that. It was pretty obvious; after all, I’d made enough changes to spells already. I still had the knowledge in my mind, it was just that the ‘Weak Lightning Bolt’ I’d been using for ages had become familiar enough to me that I could choose an evolution of it. I could literally cobble together another one and start using that instead if I wanted, getting that to its evolution at ten and choosing a different option then.
“Good point!” I said, selecting the ‘Stun’ option.
You have chosen ‘Stun’ for your first evolution of this spell. Your ‘Weak Lightning Bolt’ has evolved to ‘Stunning Lightning Bolt’, and now has an additional 10% chance to stun your target for 3-10 seconds, depending on mana channeled and your target’s resistance to Air magic.
I smiled at Oracle’s obvious pleasure at choosing, and dismissed the last few notifications, finding that they were welcome increases.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Agility by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Constitution by two points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Dexterity by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Endurance by two points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Strength by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Wisdom by two points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.
I grinned to myself as I read the changes I’d achieved, feeling them consciously for the first time, and I couldn’t help but pull up my stat sheet to compare see how I looked overall.
Name Jax
Titles: Strategos: 5% boost to damage resistance. Fortifier: 5% boost to defensive structure integrity, Chosen of Jenae
Class: Spellsword > Justicar
Renown: Unknown
Level: 13
Progress: 116,530/120,000
Patron: Jenae, Goddess of Fire and Exploration
Points to Distribute: 0
Meridian Points to Invest: 0
Stat
Current points
Description
Effect
Progress to next level
Agility
39
Governs dodge and movement.
Average speed + 290% (+10% increase in darkness, -20% in daylight)
7/100
Charisma
11
Governs likely success to charm, seduce, or threaten
Success chance +10%
89/100
Constitution
30
Governs health and health regeneration
HP+380, regen 23pts per 600s (+10% regen due to soul bond, -20hp, each point invested now worth 20hp)
3/100
Dexterity
19
Governs ability with weapons and crafting success
+ 9% chance to wield weapon successfully, + 8% chance of crafting success
33/100
Endurance
22
Governs stamina and stamina regeneration
STM +120, regen 12pts per 30s
66/100
Intelligence
26
Governs base mana and number of spells able to be learned
+140 mana, spell capacity: 13 spells (-20mp due to soul bond)
43/100
Luck
17
Governs overall chance of bonuses
+7% chance of success in areas luck affects
96/100
Perception
24
Governs ranged damage and chance to spot traps/hidden items
+140% ranged damage, +24% chance to spot traps/hidden items
72/100
Strength
21
Governs damage with melee weapons and carrying capacity
+11 damage with melee weapons, +110% carrying capacity
87/100
Wisdom
28 (23)
Governs mana regeneration and memory
+180% mana recovery, 2.8ppm, 180% more likely to remember things
81/100
Yeah, I’d take that, finding I was only a few levels away from gaining an evolution for Firebolt as well. I guessed that was because, even though it was my ‘go to’ spell, like lightning was for Oracle, I kept altering it so much, I’d delayed the evolution. I shrugged, looking around at everyone.
The rest of my party had basically spread out and gotten as comfortable as they could, and while I was busy with the notifications, someone had even arranged for the corpses to be removed. I grinned and had a little internal bet with myself over whether it was Decin and Hanau, or Flux that had done it.
“Okay,” I said, clapping my hands together, “leadership group, I need a word…that’s you, Flux, Decin, and Lydia, in case you didn’t know.” Each of the three got up and hurried over to me, and I led them out into the corridor, passing Arrin, who was sitting on watch at the entrance to the room, and I spotted Jian stationed at the far end of the corridor, watching down the next hall.
“I can move, Jax, if you want privacy…” Arrin quickly offered, starting to get up, and I waved him down.
“No, its fine. Nothing secret, just a chat here,” I said, and my little group, accompanied by Oracle and Bob, moved down to the middle of the corridor, where I sat and motioned for the others to do the same.
“We need to wait a dozen or so more hours here; basically, the first Golem will be up to charge then, and we need it and the others back at the Tower."
"They will activate over the next day or so, and once they’re all awake, we can order them to head to the Tower by foot if necessary and take up position. Until there are a few awake, though, I don’t want to leave the area. I plan to use my mana as much as possible, as soon as it regenerates, anyway, and I’ll be healing everyone up in that time. I’m not sure what use we will have for this location, but we do need to clear the bodies out regardless. The goblins can burn, as far as I care, but the crew and your own dead, Flux, we will need to remove and care for. I don’t know your customs, so what do you want to do with them?” I asked, looking from Decin to Flux and back.
“We have returned Gaul to our home already. He will be buried with honor there, with his family,” Flux said firmly, and Decin nodded, speaking up.
“I appreciate the thought, Lord…we lost dozens o’ th’ the bastards. Best iff’n we take all that ain’t goblin an’ make a pyre. I know we’re burnin’ ’em, same as the goblins, but the lads will feel th’ difference. Th’ goblins be scum, but we don’t need their diseases neither
.”
“Okay, then, that’s simple enough,” I agreed. “As soon as the Golems awaken, I’ll set them to work removing the bodies. We will have to clear a way to the surface that the Golems can use. The entrance the goblins were using won’t do; it’s too narrow, so if we need to dig anyway, they might as well start clearing the passageways and shoring up the walls as they go. That will open up buried sections of the building to us, so we may yet find something worth looting. We also need to loot the goblins."
"I’ll be very clear on this, Decin, and I’m sorry if this upsets you and your people, but whatever is found belongs to my squad and Flux’s group. It will be shared equally, although I reserve the right to claim anything I feel is needed. Coin will be shared out equally between all combatants, and if anyone can use the weapons or armor they find, they can claim them. Everything else goes back to the Tower and goes into stores. We need everything, unfortunately.”