Chapter 64
Saturday, April 27th, 2047 – 12:05 a.m.
“Lyr, you’re back,” Freya’s tired voice greeted me as I stepped into our room, causing me to glance up and see the woman lying on the bed through the faint light of the lamp beside her. “How did everything end up going?”
“Pretty well,” I replied as I turned and closed the door behind me. “The meeting with the guild leaders was pretty straightforward, and they’re all taking steps to be ready if Zhul decides to attack tomorrow. Then past that, I managed to finish off everything that was waiting for me with Léandre, plus swap a bunch of spells with Janus and the other spellswords that are here now. We now have another dozen or so sets of level thirty armor and weapons to go around for those that need it, and I have five brand new spells that I can’t wait to put to use.”
“That’s perfect,” the woman replied sleepily. “I’m sure they’ll make a huge difference.”
“I’m sure!” I said, still so excited from all the spells that I’d managed to get that I couldn’t help but want to check over them once again, glancing at my spellbook which I had left open in the corner of my vision.
Concussive Blast
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: Instant
Range: 20 feet
Arcane Tree: Evocation
Spell Mastery: Evocation - Level 20
Mana Cost: 160
Description: You unleash a targeted burst of magic at a nearby target, causing a wave of magical force to flare into existence.
Effect: When cast, this spell inflicts 30-60 points of Arcane Damage to your target and temporarily staggers them, possibly knocking them off their feet.
Frigid Grasp
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: Instant
Arcane Tree: Evocation
Spell Mastery: Evocation - Level 20
Mana Cost: 170
Description: Summoning an intense magical frost in your hand, you send a freezing burst of cold through the first thing you touch.
Effect: You freeze the next thing you touch for 45-80 points of Cold Damage. Should this spell be used on a living creature, it will also temporarily slow its attack rate and movements for 5 seconds. This spell can also be used to freeze objects and liquids for a short period of time.
Shocking Touch III
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: Instant
Arcane Tree: Evocation
Spell Mastery: Evocation - Level 25
Mana Cost: 250
Description: You charge your hand with a potent charge of electricity, discharging it through the first thing you touch.
Effect: Your shock the next thing you touch for 120-150 points of Electricity Damage. This attack can be conducted through metallic weapons, items, and water.
Cone of Cold III
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: Instant
Arcane Tree: Evocation
Spell Mastery: Evocation - Level 25
Mana Cost: 320
Description: You unleash a blast of arctic wind before you, freezing and slowing any who are caught in its blast.
Effect: You instantly cast a wave of freezing energy centering from either your hand or mouth, dealing 230-300 cold damage to everything in front of you.
Protective Shielding
Type: Spell, Class Skill
Duration: 1 hour
Arcane Tree: Conjuration
Spell Mastery: Conjuration - Level 25
Mana Cost: 500
Description: You conjure a subtle shield of magic around your body, granting you an additional layer of defense against physically attacks and spells.
Effect: While this spell is active, you gain +150 armor and +12% spell resistance.
Already knowing what they all contained, it only took me a pair of seconds to skim over the array of spells, the delay allowing my mind to quickly catch up to itself, and somewhat belatedly flag the exhaustion that I hadn’t immediately noticed in Freya’s voice. “Hang on a second, did I wake you coming in?”
“Hm? Oh, no, not at all,” she answered with a shake of her head, her eyes looking a little glassed over despite her words. “I just fell in here barely ten minutes ago and have been trying to wind down by reading over my paths and figuring out which one is best to take.”
“Ah, I know that struggle,” I said with relief as I moved to join the woman, stripping out of my armor and sending it vanishing away into my inventory. “Any standout choices so far? And what about an advanced class? Have you made a choice on that one already?”
“I think I have,” Freya replied with a nod, sliding closer towards me as I crawled into bed. “And that one is the ‘valkyrie’ class, which beyond fitting my name perfectly is pretty much everything I was looking for. I’ll get some limited spellcasting ability to start, which is a healing spell and two different types of protective shields—one for myself and one I can cast on others—as well as a class specialization for polearm fighting.”
“That sounds pretty useful,” I said, listening closely to her overview. “You really can’t go wrong with healing, especially not with the way our luck tends to run. What were the other class options?”
“My thoughts exactly,” she said before going on to answer my question. “My other options were between the ‘myrmidon’ class, which is basically a heavy-plated damage dealer which focuses on the high-strength, high-damage mentality. Kinda fun at first glance, but a little bland for my tastes.
“As for the other one, I got the ‘sentinel’—it is a tanking class that focuses a mix on being tough as sin as well as quick-footed and smart to survive or avoid getting hit. Lots of parry and dodge abilities as well as a few weapon-based ones. You know, bleed attacks, precision blows, the usual.
“It’s really not a bad class all things considered,” the woman stated, pausing for a second to take a breath, “but it’s not something I’m really interested in. Between Drace, Abaddon, Mithaniel, and a handful of others, we have a ton of frontline tanks, and the class just doesn’t speak to me the same way the valkyrie one does. I really like having the extra flexibility the spellcasting brings, even if it doesn’t make me as great a tank or damage dealer. Does that make any sense?”
“It does to me,” I replied, full well understanding where Freya was coming from since I largely shared the same mindset. “So then what are your path options?”
“Well, they’re all pretty much in the same vein as their ‘ideal’ classes, but there are two that are tripping me up,” she said, her eyes losing focus as she consulted something floating in her vision. “The first is a trait that I guess would be paired with the sentinel class, called ‘Indomitable’, which changes the hit point scaling of what the Constitution attribute normally offers. Instead of scaling at eleven hit points per point, the trait bumps it up to sixteen, which I don’t have to tell you is a huge boost.”
“Shit, no kidding!” I replied, feeling my eyes widen as I did the mental calculation compared against my own stats. “That would net me…geez, almost five hundred hit points. At least, I think so. It’s too late to do math. But it would only continue to scale from there.”
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Freya said. “Plus, taking that path would still give me a good cross-section of combat and survival abilities as I leveled, not to mention a good attribute progression. There’s not really a downside that I can see.”
“I can’t recall having a larger pool of hit points ever being one,” I agreed. “What’s the other competing choice?”
“One called ‘Battle Seer’,” Freya answered, her eyes focused back on me as she spoke. “It’s the obvious pair for the valkyrie class, and based on its description, it would occasionally grant me a sort of prophetic insight to how a pivotable moment in a battle or duel could go, in addition to a flat boost to dodge and parry. From what I understand of the core ability, I’d be able to see a critical hit, death blow, or anything really that would change
the flow of battle a few seconds before it happened, giving me a chance to change or avoid it.”
“Whoa, now that could be handy,” I said, instantly seeing the value in the trait. “You’d be able to react and counter before people even know what they’re going to do.”
“Exactly,” Freya stated with a nod. “And that could be more valuable on a group level than what a bucket of extra hit points can provide me personally. Especially with the healing and shields that I’m getting as part of the class itself. The only downside, if there really is one, is that the attribute progression splits to include intelligence and willpower, which I guess I’ll need if I can cast spells, but it would be at the cost of having the physical ones grow naturally.”
“Unfortunately, that’s the tradeoff for being able to fight and cast,” I said, knowing full well the difficulties of needing to maintain multiple attributes to stay effective. “But we do have a bit more flexibility now in armor crafting, so we can help bridge any attribute gap on that end of things.”
“That’s true,” Freya replied in an intrigued tone before going on to shake her head. “It’s been such a long day, I didn’t even think about that.”
“Which goes to show just how long a day it’s really been,” I said, pausing for a second to check the time. “Or was, rather. It looks like it’s just after midnight now.”
“Huh, looks like it is,” the woman said, her expression changing as she suddenly sat up and turned even further towards me. “Wait, that means it’s finally the twenty-seventh! Today’s the big day when we finally get to see what that crystal of yours finally does!”
“Ha, yeah, it’s about time isn’t it?” I replied, the approaching countdown for the skill crystal that I’d found after repairing the ley line having been at the back of mind for the last few days. “It’s hard to believe that it’s already been four weeks since all that happened.”
“It’s also hard to believe that it’s only been four weeks since all that happened,” Freya stated before going to motion eagerly towards me. “How long do you have left before it finishes doing…whatever it is that it’s doing?”
“Just under fifteen minutes by my last count,” I replied as I called the crystal out of my inventory and into my hand, its now brightly glowing emerald light casting a handful of shadows across the room. Holding it tightly, I called up its description once again, checking it over to see just how much time was left.
Legacy of the Nafarr
Item Class: Magical
Weight: 0.1 kg
Lore: Shimmering with a strange emerald glow from within, this crystal contains the fragmented memories of the Nafarr that once lived in this region from eons past.
Special: Skill Crystal – By activating this crystal and keeping it in close proximity for four consecutive weeks, you will gradually absorb the knowledge stored within. Upon completion of the process, you will be granted full understanding of the Nafarrian language as well as a wide cross-section of knowledge regarding their culture. Should the crystal leave your possession before the process is complete, you will have to begin the process anew. Upon successful absorption of the knowledge, this crystal will dissolve.
Time Remaining Until Activation: 12 minutes, 34 seconds.
“Ah, that’s not long at all, then. We can easily wait it out,” Freya commented, her eyes going down to the crystal as she spoke. “What do you think will happen when it’s done?”
“I’m honestly not sure,” I said with a shrug. “From its description, it says that I should be absorbing the knowledge in the crystal, but I certainly haven’t felt any different or know anything that I didn’t beforehand. I’m thinking that I’ll probably get a bunch of notifications as soon as it finishes…or maybe a vision or something, since these are supposed to be memories I’m absorbing.”
“Hm, maybe,” she agreed. “Hopefully, whatever happens still gives you a chance to rest tonight. I know we technically have the night off from watching the walls, but that doesn’t mean much if we don’t sleep.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said while silently hoping that I was right. “And hey, maybe there’ll be something in this crystal that’ll give us some insight into what Carver said before about the Nafarr and this ‘Unshackled Horde’ that Zhul mentioned. It seems like they both know a hell of a lot more than we do about something regarding their joint history. Something that maybe doesn’t line up with what we think we know.”
“Yeah, I caught a sense of that too,” Freya said. “Though what, I have no idea. Maybe it has something to do why they seem like they’re in a rush to attack us? I mean, if I were in their shoes, there is just no way I’d be pressing an attack right now. Not unless there’s something we’re really missing, or if we’ve grossly underestimated them.”
“I wish I could say either way, but like I’ve said before, nothing stood out to us during our raid, nor do Garr, Arcturus, or any of the other gronn know anything either,” I replied with another shrug. “If they really are in a rush for something, we either caused it due to our raid, or they really hid it well from everyone beforehand.”
“Hrm,” the woman grunted before going on to shake her head and pull herself even closer towards me. “It’s a mystery, then. Hopefully, one that won’t end up biting us.”
“Hopefully,” I agreed as I shifted to accommodate her movements, while also being extra careful not to break my grip on the skill crystal. With me finally being this close to it activating, the last thing I wanted to do was to be forced to start over and wait another four weeks.
“Anyway,” Freya went on to say as she snuggled close to me, “we still have a bit of time with us, and I don’t think you’ve had a chance to spill yet about your paths and advanced classes. Did you get anything good?”
“Ah, I guess I haven’t,” I said, once again realizing just how out of control our day had become after Zhul had dropped all of his shadows on us. So to remedy that, I spent the next few minutes catching Freya up on my choices and what I thought about them after having a bit more time to think about it. “…the choice for me right now is between the kensai and the spellstriker classes and their matching paths. I really like both, but I’m not sure yet on which way I’ll go. I’m kinda leaning towards the second one a little bit more since it has the promise of versatility and to always be useful.”
“And magic too,” Freya pointed out. “Sometimes I wonder if you wouldn’t have been better off being a pure mage.”
“Ha, yeah, if I could go back knowing what I know now, I might very well have gone that way,” I said, the thought having crossed my mind more than once in the past. “But the continued magic progression is something that I really do like about the spellstriker.”
“Then you might have your answer there,” she suggested. “Especially with that balanced path you told me about.”
“Maybe. I think I just need to sleep on it a bit too and see if I end up changing my mind,” I said, my focus shifting towards the crystal as I spoke, which had steadily continued to grow brighter and brighter as the minutes wore on. “Speaking of which, it won’t be much longer until this thing finally pops. Then we can get on with our night.”
“Oh, and I can’t wait for that,” Freya replied, the tone in her voice clearly suggesting what she had in mind to wind the night down with.
“Mmm, me either,” I said as I leaned over to kiss her, the remaining couple minutes left on the crystal’s countdown passing far too quickly for either of our liking. By the time that it did, though, the light coming from the crystal had grown to the point where it was impossible to ignore, bathing the room completely in a brilliant emerald hue.
“Damn, that’s getting really bright!” Freya said with a wince, partially using a pillow to shade herself from its intensity. “I don’t suppose you can turn it down?”
“If only,” I replied while squinting at the shard in my hand, just barely being able to see its outline through the light. “But there’s only a few more seconds lef—”
I never had a chance to finish my sentence before the crystal abruptly went dark as if it had been purposefully switched off just as Freya had requested. But no sooner did it do so, did I feel it come apart in my hand, turning into a pale green mist that seeped between my fingers. Staring at it in wonder for a second, I had just enough time to see the crystal’s remains do a single circuit around my now-closed fist.
Followed by it flying straight at my face.
Chapter 65
“Whoa!” I shouted in surprise while trying to flinch away from the mist as best I could from my reclined position in the bed, but I quickly found that I had nowhere to go, my head hitting the headboard behind me with a loud thump. It was just a second later that the crystal’s remains slammed into me with an almost physical force, sending my head bouncing hard for a second time.
The only difference with this bump, however, was that everything turned completely black afterward.
Ow! Where did everything go? I exclaimed at first with what I thought was my voice, but I quickly realized had been with my mind instead. Confused by what was happening, I tried to reach out towards where I’d last felt Freya, only to find out that I couldn’t, my body not responding to any of my movements. Hold on a second, what’s going—
It was then, at that moment, that I abruptly started to fall, my thoughts cutting themselves short as I desperately tried to windmill arms that I didn’t have in an attempt to catch myself on something, anything to stop my plummet. Despite my best efforts, however, nothing I did worked, resulting in a terrifying falling sensation gripping my stomach as I spun what felt like head over heels through a night of infinite darkness. Fortunately, though, the plunge proved to be short-lived as my feet abruptly slammed into solid ground and began to run, the void around me peeling itself back with an eruption of color and noise. Mentally wincing at the sudden barrage on my senses, I felt something hit me hard enough to take me off of my feet, causing me to fly through the air before landing in a heap.
Ugh, w-what the hell is going on? I thought through a burst of pain as I desperately tried to catch up with the rapid sequence of events since the crystal had activated, my body twisting as I rolled onto my back. Am I…am I…dreaming? Where am—Oh. Oh, wow.
Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4) Page 83