by Aleron Kong
In the case of the mauler, she had just told it to let the others take Richter to be healed. After a few minutes, it had walked away and they had been able to gather his comatose body. She’d then cast Dungeon Transport, getting the entire group to the entrance. After that, he’d been taken to his chamber and placed in a magical sleep by the Hearth Mother until the effects of the Blood magic had worn off. Hisako had stayed by his side until he’d started speaking normally again.
“Hmmm,” Richter responded with a nod. “Anything else?”
“Lady Hisako requested to speak with you when you woke. By your leave?”
Richter nodded and the chamberlain sent a guard to tell the Life Master he was awake. Randy handed his lord a small pouch that clinked and then excused himself saying he had to grab something from his office. The chaos seed was happy to let him do his thing. His body was still sore from the battle so he just wanted to relax and deal with his waiting prompts. He needed some water first though. He thought about getting up to get a glass, but then a wonderful, life-changing thought occurred to him. Still laying down, he cast Summon Mist Worker. The mists coalesced into the faceless form. With a self-satisfied smile, he ordered it to bring him a glass of water from the other side of the room.
*How lazy can you be?* Alma thought to him with exasperation.
Richter just sniffed at her lack of imagination. The worker handed over the glass, but then it was his turn to be exasperated when Alma ordered the creature to start scratching the scales along her neck ridge. She decided to completely ignore his glare. Putting his hypocritical familiar out of his mind, he examined the brown pouch Randolphus had handed him. He didn’t do more than loosen the strings before he immediately cinched them shut again.
His heart was beating in anticipation of another battle, but thankfully, Alma hadn’t seen. The dragonling’s eyes were closed and she was crooning from the mist worker’s scratching. He breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing he needed in his condition was his familiar mauling him. Turning his body slightly, he opened the pouch again where she couldn’t see. Faint blue-white light shone through the small hole he’d created.
You have found:
Psi Crystal
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Scarce
Level: 43
Weight: 0.9 kg.
Traits: This crystal is the captured psychic energy of a level 43 Chupacabra. This energy can be utilized by Mental creatures to boost their growth and stats. The energy may also be used by anyone with access to Mental magic to greatly augment their spells. It can also be used by Mental creatures to augment their capabilities for a short time. Any usage will consume the energy all at once. Further uses of this energy may be possible and will have to be discovered.
You have found:
Psi Crystal
Durability: 10/10
Item Class: Scarce
Level: 41
Weight: 0.9 kg.
Traits: This crystal is the captured psychic energy of a level 41 Chupacabra…
Eighty-four potential Psi Points! He was tempted to spend them on more enhancements, but then he thought about how powerful Alma had been after consuming that energy during the fight with Nien. Richter cinched the bag closed again. He’d decide what to do with the crystals later. For now, he turned his attention to his prompts. The first one showed the experience Alma’s Brain Drain had earned against the chupacabra. It was swiftly followed by the sweetest sound that could be heard in any world.
You have been awarded 228,515 experience (base 2,611,605 x 0.07 x 1.25) from Brain Drain against Level 44 Chupacabra.
TRING!
You have reached level 39! Through hard work you have moved forward along your path. You are awarded the following points to distribute:
Per Level
Total
Stat Points
As a Chaos Seed, you gain 6 Stat Points to distribute to characteristics instead of the usual 4
18
Talent Points
As a Chaos Seed, you receive 15 Talent Points instead of the usual 10.
You receive an additional 15 Talent Points from your Profession and Specialty for having a 100% affinity in Enchanting
120
Chaos Points
You receive 8 Chaos Points due to your Blessing by the Lords of Chaos
84
Skill % Points
+25% to the skill of your choice
+25%
Crush your enemies, honor your allies, LIVE!
Now that you have progressed more than one level, you must allocate your Stat and Skill Percentage Points within the next week or they will randomly be assigned for you.
Alma had gained a level as well.
Congratulations! Your familiar has reached level 43!
With her celestial bonus, she now had 5.10 Ability Points to invest. Not only that, but the new level had increased all of her attributes making her that much stronger and deadlier. He took a quick look at her status page to see if he wanted to invest her new APs.
Name: Alma
Level: 43, 4%
Race: Psi Dragonling
STATS
Health: 147
Mana: 1029
Regen/min: 58.65
Stamina: 200
Regen/min: 11.4
ATTRIBUTES*
*+5% Celestial Spark
Strength: 5
Agility: 39
Dexterity: 40
Constitution: 15
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 103
Wisdom: 103
Charisma: 20
Luck: 20
SPELL POWER BONUSES
Air 50%
Life 50%
RESISTANCES
Air 50%
Mental 100%
Life 50%
ABILITIES
(Unused Points: 5.10)
Psi Bond – Lvl 7, points to next level: 6
Psi Blast – Lvl 3, points to next level: 3
Brain Drain – Lvl 7, points to next level: 7
Psi Channeling – Lvl 2, points to next level: 2
Her stats and attributes were massive! She had over one thousand points of mana now, and thanks to her insanely high Intelligence score, every spell she cast would be 51.5% stronger. Likewise, her one hundred and three points of Wisdom had increased her base spell resistance by 51.5% as well. That meant, coupled with her previous resistances, she had over a 100% resistance in Air and Life magic. Any attack spells of those Powers not only should have no effect, they might actually make her stronger!
Richter took a second to just marvel at his amazing soul familiar. The only area she was lacking in was her Strength and health. Even at level forty-three, she was still a small creature and suffered under a negative modifier for Str. Her small body also only contained so much health. Despite all that, Alma was not a creature to be trifled with. To further that idea along, he decided to boost her primary attack.
You have chosen to increase your familiar’s ability Psi Blast to Level 4
Effect
Level 3
Level 4
Stun
8-10 seconds
10-15 seconds
Health Damage
10-20
20-30
Disorientation
5 minutes
-10% Agi and Dex
10 minutes
-20% Agi and Dex
AoE*
*tightening or widening the beam increases or decreases the effects
Max Width: 20 feet
Min Width: 3 feet
Range: 20 feet
Max Width: 30 feet
Min Width: 2 feet
Range: 25 feet
Cooldown
3.5 minutes
3 minutes
Confuse
2 minutes
His girl had just gotten a major upgrade! The health damage still wasn’t a game changer, but the true value of Alma’s primary attack were the debuffs it caused. Not only wo
uld Stun and Disorient last longer now, but her Psi Blast had also gained a new capability. Any creatures caught in the AoE of her spell might be Confused. Anyone with that debuff might attack their friends, walk off a cliff... hell, they might even heal their enemies! He could just see her swooping low and unseen over an enemy warband. The effect only lasted two minutes, but with her huge AoE, an entire hostile force might wipe themselves out in that time. Alma smiled her draconian smile at him, then settled back down in sleep.
With her taken care of, Richter now had the awesome responsibility of investing his own points. First, he pulled up his status page.
Name: Richter
Age: 24
Level: 39, 11%
Race: Chaos Seed
Profession: Enchanter
Languages: Sapient Mortals
Reputation: Lvl 5 “You are a man worth following.”
Specialty: Essence
Alignment: Chaotic (2) Neutral
STATS
Health: 812
Mana: 774
Regen/min: 32.4
Stamina: 410
Regen/min: 33.6
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 32
(base: 30 w. Dragonkin + Goblinhold: 2)
Agility: 32
Dexterity: 38
(base: 23 + items: 15)
Constitution: 62
(base: 61 + mark: 1%)
Endurance: 41
Intelligence: 73
(base: 66 + Quickening: 10%)
Wisdom: 45
Charisma: 36
(base: 30 + Honorable: 4 + Impassioned: 5%)
Luck: 49
(base: 29 + Vassal: 20)
SPELL POWER BONUSES
Air 50%
Light 5%
Fire 20%
Life 50%
Blood 5%
Earth 10%
RESISTANCES
(Types of Magic)
Air 50%
Earth 25%
Fire 20%
Life 50%
Mental 65%
Spiritual 5%
Light 5%
Blood 10%
RESISTANCES
(Schools of Magic)
Enchantment 32%
ABILITIES
Limitless: 100% affinity in any and every skill
Gift of Tongues: Ability to comprehend almost any sapient language
Fast Learner: +30% to speed of skill advancement
Bounty of Life: +30% growth for the physical manifestation of your Place of Power
Psi Bond, Level 7:
+60% Mental Resistance
Maximum Communication Distance 1750 yards
Eye contact offers the chance to connect with other creatures in a limited way
Psi Blast, Level 3*: Can fire a beam of concentrated psychic energy causing health damage, Stun and Disorientation. Can fire 3 beams every 5 minutes.
Brain Drain, Level 7*: Can absorb the mental energy of a creature, draining them of health, mana and stamina. Can Stun creatures up to level 31. At death will absorb 7% of the creature’s total experience. Chance to absorb a poignant memory from the creature upon death.
Glass Flame*: Can breathe colorless fire over anything within twenty yards. 50-100 Damage over 7 seconds.
x5 Damage to durability of items.
Feel of Chaos: Detect sources of Chaos within 200 yards
* while in Messeji form
The destruction of his chestplate meant he had lost eight Strength points. He hoped that Krom or Hisako could repair it, but it wouldn’t be done before the battle. Either way, Krom had promised to have his new armor prepared so he’d have to do without that enchantment anyway. Richter was tempted to put points into Strength to make up for the loss. Hitting things really hard was always a useful trait, after all.
The truth was, he just didn’t have a Strength build though. While he wasn’t afraid of a stand-up fight, he was seeing more and more that he was just outclassed in terms of melee. Even if he’d invested every Attribute Point and every skill percentage into melee combat, the ghast would still have barely noticed before he had cut Richter in half. He might invest more points there in the future, but with a battle looming in the next few hours, he needed to put points in something that would immediately increase his chances of survival and success.
More health was always good, but he’d just found a ring that increased his health by +82. Of course, there were other perks to Constitution, just as there were multiple perks to every Attribute. Now that he knew there were secondary Attributes just waiting to be discovered, his allocation of Attribute Points was more important than ever. Unfortunately, he had no idea which of his primary stats affected the secondary ones, so for now it was a crap shoot in that regard.
His Charisma was probably to thank for his allies the wood sprites and his new vassal kindir, but with thirty-six points, he was already doing fine in that department. Agility and Dexterity were clutch, but just didn’t feel like the right investment at this moment. He had already invested six points into Endurance just the other day as well. That left Wisdom, Intelligence, and, of course, Luck.
Taking a deep breath, he put six of his precious points into Luck and twelve more into Wisdom. The Luck should help him with his options when delving into the Sea of Chaos and the Wisdom wouldn’t just increase his mana regen, it would increase his overall magical resistance. He never felt any different when he increased these two attributes, so he hoped he’d made the right choice. Different or not, his magic replenishment improved from 32.4 to 41 MP/min.
His twenty-five skill percentage points went into Enchanting like they always did. He decided to keep his Chaos Points in reserve; it was too expensive just to dive into the Sea of Chaos unless he planned to make a purchase. He also knew almost nothing about them, so he was loathe to spend the points until he had a concrete reason. His Talent Points though… it was time to fully map his Profession.
When he had first explored his Talent tree, there had been a few that he hadn’t been able to afford. That meant, on the starry sky of his Profession page, there were some spheres beyond those that remained completely hidden. With a faint smile, he decided he was tired of that. He might not have enough TPs to fully uncover his Profession, but he decided to give it the ol’ college try.
He had come to think of his Profession much as he had the village research, in terms of tiers. In the center of both his Profession and Specialty Talent trees was a large central sphere, the blue reading Enchanter and the red reading Essence, respectively. More spheres radiated out from both centers, more globes radiated out from those and so on. He thought of the orbs closest to the center spheres as “tier-one.” Those branching off of each tier-one ball were tier-two, etc.
There were six tier-one Talents, making roughly six sections of his Talent tree. He had already fully explored one of the sections, but Talents remained hidden on the other five. Because of his new macroenchantments, he was extremely curious about enspelling larger objects.
The first purchase was obvious, and stemmed off of the tier-one Talent, Macroenchantments.
You have purchased the Talent: Building Enchantment I for 10 Talent Points. You can now enchant buildings. You can 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.
You have: 110 Talent Points remaining.
The fog on his Profession page pulled away a bit and revealed two new Talent spheres.
Functional Enchantment Size: Creating a Macroenchantment requires massive investitures of soul stuff. Even then, most Macroenchantments must be enchanted in several stages. The base functional unit for enchanting walls, for instance, is 25 square feet. This can be applied to a 10x5x2 section of wall, or combination of height, width and length totaling 100 cubic feet. Purchasing this Talent increases the functional unit a single enchantment can be applied to 50%. Increase this Talent to
boost this bonus. Cost: 25 Talent Points.
Macroenchantment Modifier: Creating a Macroenchantment requires massive investitures of soul stuff. Each Macroenchantment has a base requirement of 10 times as many soul points as a normal enchantment. A Macroenchantment with the base cost of “3*” for instance will cost 30 Enchantment Points per functional unit. Purchasing this Talent decreases the modifier to 9. Increase this Talent to further reduce this cost. Cost: 25 Talent Points.
Both Talents were geared towards making the cost of macroenchantments more manageable. The first would let him enchant larger functional units, like longer sections of the village walls, at one time. If he was reading it right, the second would decrease the insane amount of soul gems needed to enchant each functional unit. Right now, for instance, his Briar enchantment would currently make a 5x5 section of the village wall grow magical thorns, but it cost 4*, the “*” meaning it cost forty Enchantment Points at baseline. Macroenchantment Modifier should decrease that cost to thirty-six per section.
To Richter’s surprise and delight, all four of the tier-two Talents leading off of the tier-one Talent, Macroenchantments, led to these two spheres. By purchasing just one tier-two Talent, he had revealed this entire section of his Profession page. There were only four tier-one Talents sections left to explore.
This type of discovery was insanely expensive, but the chaos seed just couldn’t allow for the possibility that there was an amazing Talent hidden just out of view. He wasn’t ready to invest in either of the tier-three Talents he had just revealed in the Macroenchantment section so he chose a Talent in Increase Enchantment Strength section that would reveal more of the tree.