The Land: Swarm: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 5)

by Aleron Kong

  Richter stared back, feeling that he was being tested in some way. The strong visage of the man he was looking at conveyed a no-nonsense gravity. Richter had a feeling that asking pointless questions wouldn’t be well received. So he studied the figure, learning what he could before speaking. When he did, it was to make a statement rather than beg for answers, “Those eight lights represent the Basic Elements. Unless I miss my guess, that deep red light represents Blood Magic and the incandescent one next to it looks like Spirit Magic.” The man continued to stare back. His chin lifted slightly to indicate Richter was on the right track. He stayed quiet for another few seconds. Richter realized where he had seen glowing lights like this before, in the heart of the elementum anvils. The green glass distorted the view of the lights slightly, but now that it had occurred to him, the answer was obvious. With a touch of awe, he said, “These lights represent the types of magics you can enchant with… but there are so many.”

  The man finally spoke, with neither congratulations nor condemnation in his voice, “My Specialty is Essence. Only the Master of a Place of Power who is also an Enchanter can follow my path. My power is to enchant my very soul. Put simply, any spell that an Essence Enchanter knows can be converted into an enchantment.”

  Richter’s eyes bulged. This was the most powerful by far! Maybe he wouldn’t get the bonuses of specializing in a certain type of enchantment, but he could make an enchantment for any situation!

  The man saw the excitement on his face and held up a hand to forestall him, “As with any path to power, there is a cost. Each lower-level spell you convert will cost you Talent Points. Higher-level spells may require an even steeper price. There are faster and more direct routes to power, but if you have the patience and aptitude, the path of Essence could serve you well. The options are almost… limitless.” There was a loud rumble of thunder in the distance. The Specialist showed emotion for the first time. It passed too quickly to be sure, but Richter thought he saw a look of fear flash across the man’s face as he looked fearfully over his shoulder, as if concerned that he had pressed his luck. When nothing else happened, the man looked at Richter again for a moment, before squaring his shoulders and, like all of the other avatars, once more gazed over Richter’s shoulder into eternity.

  Do you wish to choose the Specialization, Essence? Yes or No?

  He looked at the prompt. Every other avatar had basically led him here and he couldn’t deny that this power suited his Ability perfectly. Richter was acutely aware that he could only make this choice once, however, and he would have to live with it for all the years of his possibly endless life. In spite of his doubts, indecision was not his nature. He selected ‘Yes’.

  All of the figures vanished except for the Essence Specialist. The man focused on Richter again and beckoned with one hand. Richter stepped forward and the avatar placed one hand on his head and the other on his chest. “For you who has chosen me to be you, a gift.” Unseen energy shot down both of the man’s hands and, suddenly, Richter knew. Then the two merged into one and Richter knew nothing more.

  CHAPTER 5 -- Day 111 -- Kuborn 1, 15368 EBG

  Richter blinked. He was back in the Forge with notifications filling his vision. He minimized them for a second and looked around. From the amount of light outside the Forge, it didn’t look like much time had passed. He checked his internal clock and saw that it had been more than an hour, though. This more than explained the dry taste in his mouth.

  He reached into his bag for a water skin. After taking a drink, he stood and twisted. His back popped with an impressive and satisfying series of cracks. He looked over towards the central anvil and saw Krom hard at work. The dwarf looked up and said, “Did ye like yer little nap, yer lordship?”

  Richter rolled his eyes and said, “I was pondering the hidden mysteries of magic. You wouldn’t understand, seeing as how it has little to do with banging metal or a woman’s bottom.”

  “Play to yer strengths, ay always say,” Krom said with a grin. “Both of those things require a similar skill set. Enough chit chat, though! Are ye ready to try some enchanting?”

  “Just one sec,” Richter said, wanting to clear away his remaining prompts. Krom affixed him with a doubting gaze. “Really, this time!” The dwarf huffed and started pounding on the anvil again while Richter read through the notifications covering his view.

  Know This! An unquantifiable entity has gifted you with arcane knowledge.

  Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Create Soul Stone (Common). Turn minerals into soul stones of various levels. Can create soul stones up to Common level. This is a spell of Light, level 5. Cost: 25 mana. Duration: Instant. Range: 1 foot. Cast Time: 1 second. Cooldown: N/A.

  Congratulations! You have learned the spell: Create Soul Stone (Luminous). Turn minerals into soul stones of various levels. Can create soul stones up to Luminous level. This is a spell of Light, level 15. Cost: 50 mana. Duration: Instant. Range: 1 foot. Cast Time: 3 seconds. Cooldown: N/A. Requires: Light Magic Level 15.

  Richter grinned. The spells must have been the gift that the Essence Specialist had talked about. He was more than grateful! Relying on Gloran to make the stones wasn’t something he wanted to keep doing. Heaven forbid something happened to the elf or even that he just decided to move away. It would effectively halt the creation of enchanted weapons in the Mist Village. The second spell was still beyond him, but that just meant he needed to grind his Light magic. Besides, thankfully, there weren’t too many higher level enemies out in the mist around the village yet.

  Baaa-baba-baba-ba-baaaah!

  Congratulations! You have chosen the Specialization: Essence. No enchantment is beyond your reach as long as you can learn the spell. Your enchantments are an extension of yourself. Grow your power to grow your Specialty.

  You have unlocked the Quest: The Essence of Knowledge I. Do not let your limitless potential go to waste. You are charged with learning 5 new enchantments. Reward: 5 Talent Points. Yes or No?

  You have earned new Talent Points! By becoming a Specialist, you will now earn additional Talent Points. At 100% affinity, you will now receive an additional 10 Talent Points per level. Revere your craft, grow your power, LIVE!

  You have: 215 Talent Points. Do you wish to expend them?

  Hell yeah I do, Richter thought with a smile. He even had more talent points to use than he thought he was going to and the new quest offered a chance to earn even more. He accepted it without hesitation as he brought his Profession window up again. It was time to buy some shit.

  The starscape appeared showing the blue spheres. Most of the map was obscured by a thick, grey fog and only an area in the center revealed anything. It showed a large central sphere that said ‘Enchanter’ on it. Six filaments extended out from this globe and each attached to another sphere. All six balls represented a Talent that could be purchased. He had already bought one, Increase Enchantment Strength I, which increased the potency of any enchantment he created by 5%. It had also revealed more of the nebula. When he had purchased his first talent, that sphere had started to glow and the fog around it had disappeared, revealing three other spheres. Everything looked the same as the last time he had examined it, but now another portion of the map was revealed.

  Far to the right, there was another break in the fog. It contained a red sphere. Across its surface he could read “Essence.” Unlike the massive network of blue spheres, the central red globe only had four spheres coming off of it. No further filaments extended out into the fog past this first ring of spheres. As he read the description of each Specialist talent, he saw that all four red spheres required a much higher talent point price than any of the blue talents Richter had seen so far. The price was so high, in fact, that he immediately quailed and began worrying that he had made the wrong choice. That only lasted until he read the last sphere, then his smile was ear-to-ear.

  Purchase Spell Enchantment I: Currently, each Basic Element spell costs 1 Talent Point per spell level. Each Deep
Magic spell costs 10 Talent Points per spell level. Increase this Talent to reduce this cost. Cost to Upgrade: 40 Talent Points.

  Reduce Mana Cost I: To translate a spell into an enchantment, a mana cost must be paid. Current conversion cost is 100x spell mana cost. Increase this Talent to reduce this cost by 20x. Minimum cost, 20x spell mana cost. Cost to Upgrade: 30 Talent Points.

  Unlock Spell School: To convert a spell, you must first unlock that spell type. Current Base Cost based on known spells: 10 Talent Points per Basic Element. 100 Talent Points per Deep Magic. This one-time cost cannot be reduced. Further costs may be required to unlock certain spells.

  Talent Point Conversion I: Few Talents for any Profession or Specialty are as expensive as Essence Talents. Binding your Specialty to your soul. however, offers a unique opportunity. Essence Enchanters may sacrifice XP to buy Talent Points. Any reduction in XP will not affect personal level, though the threshold for leveling remains the same. This Talent is not to be used carelessly. Overzealous Essence Enchanters have found their personal level frozen as they feed their Profession and Specialty. Any experience lost will be 250% harder to earn again. Furthermore, once used, this Talent cannot be used again until all expended experience points are gained back. Conversion rate: 10,000 XP per 1 Talent Point. Upgrading this Talent will decrease the penalty to recovering XP to 200%. It will also improve the Conversion rate to 9,000 XP to 1 Talent Point. Cost to Upgrade: 25 Talent Points.

  It was now abundantly clear why his alter egos had pointed him in this direction! The ten thousand to one conversion was a bit of a heavy hit and he could see it adding up quickly, but it still meant he had a theoretically limitless supply of talent points. Seeing as how he was basically immortal, he could always slay and capture more monsters, or have Alma drain more high-level beasties to make up for it. At the current moment, increasing his personal level was much less important than increasing his skills and Profession. The only thing that gave him pause were the qualifiers on earning his XP back. It basically meant that he would have to earn three times as much experience to earn his XP back, but Alma’s Brain Drain ability should help with that. It was clear that he would need to upgrade Talent Point Conversion, but still, it was a game changer!

  Richter checked his status page to see exactly how much experience he had managed to accumulate. He whistled appreciatively. He had eight hundred ninety-one thousand seven hundred and fourteen experience points! With that much he could-

  Richter was interrupted by a Krom loudly clearing his throat. He looked over at the dwarf who widened both eyes and nodded his head quickly as if to say ‘Are you coming or what?’

  “In a second,” Richter said with a bit of irritation. Krom ‘harumphed’ and went back to work. Richter glared at him. Who was the lord here, anyway? He decided to let it go though, and get back to his starscape.

  He had two hundred and fifteen talent points to play with. Before anything else, he purchased the upgrade for Talent Point Conversion I. The Roman numeral on the sphere changed to “II” and the description altered as well. The next level cost fifty talent points. It reduced the earned XP penalty to 150% and also further decreased the conversion to eight thousand experience for each talent point. Hoping he wasn’t making a mistake, he bought the next upgrade and his pool of available TPs dropped to one hundred and forty.

  The third upgrade cost one hundred points. A very steep cost, but it decreased the penalty to 100% and the conversion to seven thousand to one. He was tempted to leave it be, but as his grandpappy used to say, ‘Don’t rob Peter, to pay Paul.’ He bought it. That meant Richter only had forty talent points left, but he told himself that it didn’t matter. Now he had a virtually unlimited supply of talent points, expensive or not. He decided to uncover more of the hidden map that dealt with the blue spheres.

  Each of the talents extending from the central “Enchanter” sphere cost five points. He focused on the first Talent he would buy.

  Macroenchantment: Increase this Talent to have your enchantment affect larger items. This is extremely helpful for creating enchanted buildings, ships, engines of war, and other large projects. Cost: 5 Talent Points.

  The fog peeled back revealing more of the starscape. Four filaments extended out from Macroenchantment I, and each led to another sphere.

  Siege Enchantments: Gain the ability to enchant siege weapons. You can now create mangonels that fire balls of necrotic energy or scorpions to fire bolts through city walls. Increase this Talent to improve effectiveness of these enchantments. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Golem Enchantment: Gain the ability to enchant raw materials for the purpose of making crude golems. These will never equal the power of a Mechanic-created golem, but also take a fraction of the time to create. Increase this Talent to improve the level of your golem as well as other traits. This Talent also allows you to enchant already-constructed Golems. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Building Enchantment: Gain the ability to enchant buildings. Create impregnable fortresses or desert homes that generate water. This Talent allows you to make the desolate bountiful and the impossible commonplace. Increase this Talent to build grander projects with stronger effects. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Ship Enchantment: Gain the ability to enchant ships. Create vessels that can be sharks of the water… or even of the air. This Talent allows you to add magic to vessels of all types. Increase this Talent to produce stronger effects. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  No other filaments extended out from these, showing it was the end of that particular branch of the tree. Richter purchased the next enchantment from the inner blue ring.

  Increase Number of Charges: Increase the number of charges on items with finite uses. Will increase number of charges by +10 or by 10%, whichever gives greater yield. Cost: 5 Talent Points.

  You have unlocked the talent: Increase Number of Charges I.

  You have: 30 Talent Points remaining.

  The fog dissipated again. The portion of the star map revealed showed five more spheres. None of them had more filaments leading off from them.

  Decrease Required Enchantment Slots: Each enchantment takes up a specific amount of enchantment slots. Purchasing this Talent will decrease the amount of space each enchantment takes up by 20%. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Increase Maximum Number of Soul Stones: Each enchanter can only use a certain number of soul stones per enchantment, based upon their skill level. Increase this Talent to add another soul stone to that number. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Increase Soul Stone Yield: Increase this Talent to increase the yield of enchantment power from each soul stone. Bringing this Talent to level II will increase the yield of soul stones by 25%. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Decrease Charge Cost: Increase this Talent to decrease the charges expended when an active enchantment is discharged by 20%. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  Increase Natural Recharge: Increase this Talent to double the speed of an enchantment’s natural recharge. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  All five of those talents sounded like they could come in handy! Richter was tempted to purchase each immediately, but decided to just keep unlocking more of his Profession’s Talent map. The next he chose was Deconstruct Items.

  Deconstruct Items: Gain the ability to deconstruct an enchanted item. Increase this Talent to improve chance for successful deconstruction and to increase chance of obtaining better items after item is destroyed. Cost: 10 Talent Points.

  You have unlocked the talent: Deconstruct Items I.

  You have: 20 Talent Points remaining.

  It revealed only one more sphere.

  Resize Items: This Talent allows you to resize already enchanted items to fit creatures either smaller or larger than the item was originally intended. Resizing carries the risk of a decrease in power of enchantment, durability of enchanted item and/or complete destruction of enchanted object. Increase this Talent to allow for resizing to a greater extent and to decrease risk. This Talent is fueled by soul stones. Cost: 10 T
alent Points.

  This sphere had two other filaments extending out from it. Though he was loath to waste ten points on a Talent of limited utility, he wanted to know what else was hidden. It also meant that he might be able to resize the collar of submission. Richter paid the ten points and looked at the two new spheres revealed.

  You have unlocked the talent: Resize Items I.

  You have: 10 Talent Points remaining.

  Spatial Folding: Can create enchantments that fold space. At the lowest level, you can create Bags of Holding and Expansive Quivers. At higher levels, this Talent can fold space in larger objects and in smaller objects to a greater degree. Cost: 30 Talent Points.

  Learn Enchantments: This Talent provides a small chance of learning enchantments from enchanted items when they are deconstructed. This is by no means a sure thing, but increasing this Talent increases the chances of deciphering the arcane combination of Powers that comprise an enchantment. Cost: 100 Talent Points.

  Richter smiled. He finally knew how to make Bags of Holding. He assumed the Expansive Quivers did the same thing, but for arrows. The Learn Enchantments Talent showed that there were other options than a Magic Forge to gain enchantments, but it said it was a very small chance. Also, just to learn the first rank of that Talent cost one hundred points! It further underlined the importance of his Core buildings. Richter could see more filaments coming off of Spatial Folding. Looking at the progression of the other talents he had unlocked, he was fairly certain that those filaments might give more options dealing with making a Bag of Holding. His own bag decreased the weight of what he put in it by 90% after all. That was an amazing attribute and it wasn’t explained by the description in Spatial Folding. He wasn’t willing to spend the points to access either Talent right now, but at least he now knew he had the options.

  Going back to the first six spheres that came off of the central “Enchanter” sphere, he purchased another Talent from the inner ring.