Val crashed into the moment once more, the tight, hot cauldron of magic potency he sought desperately to compel slipping free at last of his lips in that endless second as a single word. "Break!"
Congratulations! You have successfully altered Dwarven Catalyzation. Automative Folly learned! Why worry about finesse when you can use brute force? In the most artful of ways! When you really want to damage unique and priceless artifacts, this level 20 spell is for you. No matter how fearsome or impressive or perfectly made an automaton is, cogs will grind and crystalline matrices will shatter in no time! Anything that can go wrong will, and if a machine already has crossed wires, its destruction is almost a sure thing. Cost at your level of skill: 20 mana.
Manipulation Level 2 Achieved!
Destruction Level 1 Achieved!
Dwarven Catalyzation successfully boosted! 60 mana spent! Critical save made, boosting an altered spell! (Dodging sure destruction is something of a hobby for you, isn't it, Val? Good luck with what comes next...)
And even as Val was sent crashing to the ground, gasping and wheezing, certain his ribcage had been cracked, the massive golem turning to pound him to pulp grew ever more frenzied, red eyes overflowing with brilliant malice until they erupted, Val crying out with pain as the surge of energy scalded his skin, armored hand just raised in time to protect his sight as the stench of burnt wiring and black acrid smoke suddenly filled the air. And still the automaton squealed horribly, reeling, lashing out with his massive hammer pounding down upon pavement feet away, the awful sound of grinding gears suddenly filling the air as the golem tried to right itself before its chest abruptly exploded open, Val crying out as shrapnel tore into his arm even as his eyes stung with awful smoke, and the automaton was at last deathly still, slowly toppling over, right where Arilius lay.
"No!" Val screamed.
And for all that he still felt disoriented, his cracked rib slowed him down not at all as he made a mad dive, desperate to save his companion, even as the automaton crashed on top of them both.
His heightened reflexes saved Arilius's life, but were not enough to save himself from harm.
Arilius's still dazed countenance snapped into focus, even as his brilliant beard was flecked with blood. "Damned fool, boy! What will my Ava say if she looks into my eyes and sees that you are dead?"
Val grimaced and sobbed, unable to make any witty reply for all that he felt the dwarf's gruff, heartfelt concern. It was all he could do not to scream as Arilius began to pull Val's shattered legs free of the crushing weight pinning them, pitilessly haranguing Val to do his part to extricate himself, no matter how great his agony. "Faster, boy! If there are other mad automatons, we are both dead, and we need you alive, or this is all for naught!"
Sobbing with pain, stripped of arms and armor, Val nonetheless instructed Arilius to lift his broken body up, carrying him past the massive golem corpse and to the heart of their city, the matrix itself. "Are you sure you can do this, boy?"
"There is no choice!" Val sobbed, closing his eyes and desperately focusing on the dimensional rift that served as such a useful storage vehicle, having to spend long minutes acclimatizing to the pain roaring through him like a violent bloody sea. Pain without end. No mercy in sight. All that was left was bitter endurance, like stones washed forever by the tide, till they were ground away to melted echoes of the mighty granite faces they once had worn, their stoic endurance stronger than time itself, and Val would not lose his focus as he withdrew precious, priceless, life giving Silbion into the crystal tube that Arilius's desperate coaxing had brought to the surface, Val's shaky finger dripping blood as he jammed it into the tube, desperate to waste not a drop of precious liquid flowing down into the crystalline matrix that powered the massive structure. Arilius gave a satisfied grunt, quickly spinning several dials in positions that caused a dim ringing clamor to permeate the building.
Lights started flickering with increased rapidity, sonorous gongs started reverberating throughout the massive chamber, and the massive alloy doors the automaton had been pounding so furiously at last opened of their own accord.
Quickly Arilius scooted them inside, relieved to see no other mechanized servants in sight before gently settling Val down, who couldn't help screaming with pain as his shattered legs were unavoidably jostled.
"Val? If you have the strength for it, lad, pull free the armaments you have stored. The city, our people, will soon start to emerge. We need to make sure they are ready for whatever trouble might still come our way."
Sobbing with effort, Val did just that, now utterly spent.
In what seemed an eyeblink of jarring agony for Val, a score of powerfully built grey skinned men had already emerged, broad and stocky as any Olympic weightlifter, for all that they were naked and hollow-cheeked, trembling still with the aftereffects of having been frozen for a thousand years.
Yet they were lively enough for murder to flash in more than one dwarf's eyes as they stared at a broken Val, legs twisted and crumpled as he lay slumped and gasping.
He was helpless before them. Too spent even to whisper protest as they roared their displeasure, swearing their undying hatred of the humans that had near butchered them all.
"You will cease your bitter vitriol now!" Roared Arilius, an iron to his voice that Val had never heard before.
As one, all twenty dwarves blinked, turning to the glaring dwarf spitting gobs of blood even now. All of them dropped to one knee, bowing low.
"This boy has no allegiance to the vile Highlords who betrayed us and butchered our clans! The broken human you see before you is only so because he saved my life!" The older dwarf pinned them all with his furious glare. "Right before saving your own."
Utter silence, twenty confused gazes looking on.
"You have all been asleep for a thousand years. One thousand rotations around our glorious sun, and we forgotten entire by the world above. Just as they forgot about us. As we had hoped they would." He gave a bitter shake of his head. "But our glorious city was untested. Unproven. All its wonders aside, the tiny disharmonies ever grew in oscillation until our arboriums had shut down, our Silbion dried up, our automatons gone mad!"
His gaze was heartfelt. He looked close to tears. "My brothers and sisters. You had only months left to live. Had Valor Hunter not come to our aid, my granddaughter would have perished, the arboriums would be forever abandoned, and all our people would have died in the suspension chambers you only now awaken from."
Two score identical ice blue eyes widened at these words, even as a second group of twenty dwarves entered the large chamber before the entrance from the same door the first twenty had emerged from, all of those present now gazing at Val with odd mixtures of awe, disbelief, and wonder, even as Val cried out and writhed with pain.
Arilius grimaced. "We need to get you stabilized, lad."
Val angrily shook his head, gazing at the still assembling dwarves, a steady stream of fresh faces gazing at Val in alarm and hatred before whispered words turned looks to disbelief and, in some cases, wonder. "No! You need to get your people armed and armored as fast as you can, so we can trek back to the topmost quarter! How many lives will be imperiled if you don't do this right? I'm only one man, Grandfather."
"How dare he speak that way!" Snapped one dwarf hotly. "Does he not know whom he addresses?"
"And he dared to call Battleborn grandfather? Who is he, really?"
Arilius, however, was already taking action, the twenty most fit and alert dwarves donning lorica segmentata and poleaxes, Arilius whispering words to another elder dwarf who bowed low, fist to heart, before leading ten now fully armed and armored dwarves back to the armory, their mission to bring back a steady supply of weaponry even as the other ten guarded the facility and the thousands of vulnerable dwarves only now beginning to emerge.
It was an endless operation, and Val felt a curious exultation at seeing the faces of so many dazed and wondering souls. Powerfully built men, beautiful stout women, and more th
an a few children crying and clinging to their mothers Val witnessed coming to life once more. An entire race of people, all their hopes and dreams and the possibility of all they could achieve and become brought back from the brink of death.
Many stared at Val with fear or apprehension. Yet as Arilius continued to fill in the ever-growing band of dwarves with the details of their adventure, more than a few were gazing at Val with undisguised gratitude as well.
Val managed a pain-filled smile even as several newly awakened healers immediately came to his aid, straightening and binding tight his shattered legs, tisking sadly about his chances of making a full recovery, but determined to do what they could.
Val was grateful for their care even as he screamed in agony with their every touch, overwhelmed by the beautiful awe of a race reborn, and the hideous agony of a body shattered. The feelings became surreal, and when some five hundred dwarves had emerged, a full two hundred now kitted for battle, Arilius thought it time to bring the first batch back to the uppermost quarter of the city, insisting on leading the way after suffering the ministrations of yet more awakened healers, all of them determined to assure that Arilius would cause himself no further harm.
Time passed by in a fugue of wonder and agony for Val as ever more of the city seemed to light itself up, and though he heard the grinding shrieks of several other mad automatons, scores of fully armed and armored dwarfs made short work of them as they made their way back to the first of the arboriums Val had restored, Ava giving a heartfelt cry as she saw scores of her people marching purposely forward.
"You did it, Grandfather! Val! Ancestor's Mercy, I had prayed you would make it safely back!"
Several dwarves smiled fondly back at her. "That they did, Princess Ava. Brought us back from endless sleep. If your grandfather's right, we were a heartbeat away from the end. Our race saved by a human, of all things."
Ava's beautiful eyes beamed at Val before filling with sudden worry. "Grandfather, what happened to him?"
Arilius bowed his head. "He took grave injury, saving me from sure death."
Ava shared heartfelt handclasps with several elders she seemed to recognize. "He fought bravely and well," assured one healer, gazing solemnly into Ava's eyes. "Not all of us were... unaware, toward the end." The elder dwarf sighed, shuddering as if in horrible memory. "A few of us could taste the end, minds half awakening as the Silbion ran out and vital essences required for our survival began to fall to a trickle. But we were powerless to emerge fully, doomed to die in frozen awareness."
Ava cried out, holding the elder close. "Reynar, that is horrid to hear! You were locked inside a nightmare."
The older dwarf flashed a tired smile. "I was able to sense the crystalline madness of the automaton seeking to break into the matrix and end all our lives as brutally as it could." Ava paled at that. "Yet I had the blessing of being able to sense our valiant heroes staving off darkest fate. I tasted the soul of our city's oldest champion... and our newest as well."
He bowed his head to a grimacing Val, writhing in pain as bad as any he had felt on Earth as two dwarves gently carried him upon a stretcher, bringing him before Ava. "Where should we place him, my lady?"
Ava led them back to her quarters, and the last thing Val remembered before succumbing to exhausted agony was her gentle eyes gazing so tenderly into his own. Thank you, Val, with all my heart, for saving my people.
Val cried out as he found himself plunging into inky dark seas of the soul, racing past countless spirits gazing hungrily at the brilliant comet blazing by, eager to make his light their own.
Congratulations! Quest: Will You Save My People? III Completed! The lost colony of dwarves you found were just months away from final extinction. After saving a dwarven princess from certain death before seducing her soon after, you accompanied her grandfather in restoring the arboriums and facing down mad automatons before bringing armory and matrix both back to life! The last city of the dwarves has been saved. 90% of those trapped in the matrix have been successfully revived! You have grabbed tight the reins of fate and destiny, shaping it to your will. As a result of your massive achievement, affecting the fate of not just a single individual but the final remnants of an ancient and powerful race, your soul is now overflowing with Endless potential!
+ 2 charisma. Your personal magnetism is growing. Taking such a pivotal role in the story of the dwarves' rebirth means that others will want to be a part of your story as well.
Congratulations! You have reached level 7!
Val felt himself sinking ever deeper into the whirlpools of blackness that could spell his end, part of him wanting just to close his nonexistent eyes and slumber forever, free of the pain ripping through him even now. But if he let his soul be so easily claimed, he would never know Ava again, never be able to savor a sunrise or the sweet feeling of holding his beloved in his arms. He would be gone forever, replaced by some spirit not his own, should he surrender now.
Grimly he fought against the choking black current, even as it fought to drown him.
Congratulations! You have reached level 8!
A part of him whimpered as the currents grew ever more treacherous, struggling just to survive from one moment to the next. Constantly fighting to remember who and what he was, lest he forget forever.
Just as he felt himself losing desperate grip on his own sense of being, a gentle voice threw him a life raft.
"Val? Val. Lift your head from the table and answer the question."
Val blinked, rubbing his head, gazing at Elise as she stood before the chalkboard, his professor smiling at him warmly, despite the injuries she still bore. A young Sten smirked, Gregor yawning and throwing paper airplanes in the old-fashioned classroom, Halvar nodding at Val.
"What question, professor?"
Elise rolled her eyes. "The one in your PRM book?"
Val grimaced, realizing he had forgotten again. "I had a really good excuse," he said. "I had to save this lost city of dwarves..." Gregor laughed, scratching his mad thatch of curls. "You're lost in your comic books, Val. This is the real world, remember?"
Val blinked, frowning. He knew dwarves were something out of faerie tales, but somehow he was certain that it had really happened.
Elise tapped her feet. "Enough daydreaming, Val. Focus on the board. See the patterns. Feel the flow of magic working around you, through you."
Val took a deep breath, shuddering, feeling the essence of the diagram Elise had drawn on the chalkboard seem to take up the entirety of his vision, and for one brief moment, every detail spoke to him, and he understood the whole.
Personal Resonance Mastery Rank 5 Achieved! (5 of 7 points spent)
Mana Pool increased 10%! Psion Pool increased 10%! (7 of 7 points spent)
Val rubbed his forehead, feeling the knowledge percolate inside him. Then he trembled as dozens of howling angry voices pounded on the classroom door.
"You always try to leave early," Sten said, "when you have so much still to learn."
Gregor shook his shaggy mane. "And he's such a terrible student."
Elise's chalk tapped the board. "Concentrate, Val. You are not ready to leave. Not by a long shot."
Doing his best to ignore the increasingly frantic pounding, Val focused on the new diagram she had drawn in a blink, shivering as strange new understandings came over him. But there was such complexity to this higher order PRM, such nuance, that he knew he couldn't learn it all in one go.
The banging on the door increased in intensity. Val was certain he had heard the door frame crack, clenching his eyes reflexively, opening them to find himself in an ancient monastery, staring down at a small pebble.
He looked up. The elder master was nowhere to be found. But that was alright. He already knew what to do. Taking a deep breath, he slowly raised the stone with his mind, doing his best not to allow even an echo of his mana to radiate beyond his body, his mind drifting to the quiet lessons of the masters in the chambers beyond, speaking in a long lost la
nguage he could almost understand.
5 Points placed in Personal Resonance Mastery. 1 Point away from rank 6! (5 of 7 points spent)
Mana Pool increased by 10% Psion pool increased by 10% (7 of 7 points spent)
______________________________________________________________________________________
Valor Hunter - Level 8
Primary Attributes
Strength 12
Vitality 13
Finesse 13
Quickness 17
Perception 18
Scholarship 13
Willpower 17
Charisma 13
Luck ?? +2
Health 10xVit+Str= 142
Survival (Health+(10xLevel)+Luck) = 222+?
Stamina 10xVit+Str= 142
Mana 194 (192 Accessible: 5.25 kg + 250.573 kg Elementium Stored)
Psion 194 (191 Accessible: 0.9 L Silbion Stored)
Insight 17
Base Appearance 10. +1 (13 charisma) +1 (athletic) = +2 (+3 when you let your potency show.)
Dark Points 1 (+1 to reaction rolls and influence when you let your intensity shine. -1 if you try to hide the darkness in your soul. +10% potency increase when you embrace your wrath!)
Skills of Significance
Shadowmind Rank 5 (Adept) / Psi-Sense (Shadowmind Dependent) Rank 2 / Psionic Perception Rank 2 / Arcane Perception Rank 3 / Arcane Artificer Rank 1 / Psion Artificer Rank 1 / Cypher Rank 2 / Meditation Rank 3 / Rift Mastery Rank 2 / Psionic Oathbinding Rank 1 / Stealth Rank 3 / Sword and Shield Rank 3 / Magesight Rank 1 / Mageward Rank 1 / Demolitions Rank 2 / Basic Literacy Achieved! (Limited to texts of Arcane or Psionic nature)
Greater Skills Learned
Greater Alchemy Rank 3 (Specialization: Elemental Infusions)
Endless Online: Oblivion's Promise Page 11