Siegebreaker:By: GlyffPart 1: Spellblade
The card floated in front of Arden’s face, slowly rotating. Through the partially translucent card he could see the campfire his group had set up in the forest on the edge of Corevris’ eastern plain. They were not far from home, only needing to rest the night before continuing, one night separated him from having to reveal his shame.
“It’s not that bad, Arden” Mina said, scowling at him. She sat there polishing a bit of grime off her staff.
“So said the caster” He scoffed, not looking at her. He just glared at the Card.
Intelligence
Attribute
Rank 1
Experience: 0 of 1000
This card increases the user’s intellect by 10%, and Mana Regeneration by 10%. Additionally the user is gifted with a near eidetic memory and near perfect recall.
It was not what he wanted. He held up his left hand and made a plucking gesture at his left wrist, flicking something at the glowing card. Two more appeared in his vision.
Strength
Attribute
Rank 2
Experience: 540 of 1500
This card increases the user’s Strength by 10%, and Melee Damage by 10%. Additionally the user doubles their carrying capacity.
Stamina
Attribute
Rank 2
Experience: 782 of 1500
This card increases the user’s Stamina by 15%, and reduces all damage taken by 4%. Additionally the user is never fatigued by carrying weight so long as total weight carried remains below 75% of the user’s maximum.
“So you didn’t get dexterity like you wanted, it will be fine. I told you that you wouldn’t get it, the reward looks at the person, and you’re smarter than you are nimble” She said, not looking up from her work.
“If I had all three physical cards I could join the guard companies, you know that. Now I won’t be able to, my family was depending on my pay in the guard to help them. Now I can’t do that, I failed” He told her, scowling. He repeated the gesture at his right arm and flicked three more cards out into his view.
Provoking Slash
Skill
Rank 5
Experience: 2503 of 3000
Activation restriction: Bladed weapons
Activation Cost: 5 SP
Reactivation Timer: 10 Seconds
Activating this skill increases the damage of your next attack with a bladed weapon by 10%. This skill generates a large amount of aggro.
Shield Block
Skill
Rank 4
Experience: 2019 of 2500
Activation Restriction: Bucklers, Light or Heavy Shields
Activation Cost: 5 SP
Reaction Timer: 5 Seconds
Activating this skill increases the damage negation of your next shield block by 10% and prevents damage to the shield itself.
Those two were perfect for what he was planning. He wanted to join one of the several guard companies that operated in the region. Guards would protect towns from monster spawns and keep crime to a minimum. The two cards he had were perfect for that but the next one made his stomach sour.
Lightning Arc
Spell
Rank 1
Experience: 0 of 100
Activation Restriction: Staves, rods, wands
Activation Cost: 1 MP
Reactivation Timer: 10 Seconds
Casting this spell generates a charge in target enemy. The charge will build rapidly and seek out other enemies to discharge through, dealing light damage to all targets struck. This damage cannot be blocked or negated by shields or weapon block skills.
When the dungeon reward had popped up in his vision he had spent the next ten minutes cursing. All his life’s work up to this point, from the time he was a child, had been wasted. Almost two decades of training. Gone.
He flicked the cards up and in his field of vision a representation of himself appeared. There were ten card slots. Ten, that’s all someone got. Six attribute slots, three skill/ability slots, and a class slot.
Most adults only had their attribute cards and several skill or ability card slots to fit things they would use in their career. But the first three were the most important, as they could be gained by performing specific tasks in a specific order, guaranteeing that each teenager had a bare minimum of stamina, and two additional attribute cards when they reached adulthood, as well as at least three ability, skill, or spell cards.
When a child was young they would open their first chest, receive a second attribute card and two skill cards. If these cards were profession based, the child would be placed in training for the profession the system had given them cards for. If the cards were combat based, the children would be grouped in teams and trained to fight. The system somehow knew who was going to have the mental fortitude for combat. Arden and his team had all received combat cards and thus been trained to defend the village.
Very few in the rural areas ever even saw a class card, much less gained one. Only the nobles were allowed to have them, it was how they maintained power. Less than a year after Arden was born a shift in power happened in Corevris’ royal family. Destron Margo, the new king, forbade common folk from possessing class cards. They said they were protecting people by keeping everyone at the same level of strength and ability, making things ‘equal’. Just not for them. His father had resisted this change, as had his mother. His father was branded with an arcane tattoo on his arm. This tattoo locked him out of his cards, prevented him from adding, removing, using, or even looking at them. They never found out what happened to his mother. His father holds out hope that she is alive, but with each year that possibility shrinks. His father was forced to work a farm out here in the kingdom’s outskirts.
That dexterity card had been Arden’s chance to join a company, to become a town guard or a traveling warden. It was the only way he could make enough money to improve the lives of his brother and sisters. If he worked hard he could gain an officer’s rank, and possibly, some day, gain a class himself. At that point there was a small chance that he would be able to secure a pardon for his father and find out what happened to his mother.. The company would feed, clothe and house him, so he wouldn’t need the pay that he gained as a guardsman. He could send it home, to help his father. But not now. The reward chest at the end of that dungeon had given him two things. Intelligence, and lightning arc. And now he won't be able to open another one for nearly a year. By then he would likely be unable to enlist, and that’s assuming the next attribute card the system gave him was dexterity.
He had been given his first card at birth, as the nation generally gave all infants a stamina card as their naming day gift from the king. For that gift they were expected to repay him with the first stamina card they received when they got old enough to earn reward chests from the system.
When he was five he opened his first chest, as did all of the children in his village at that age. The chest gave him his strength card, and his father told him he had a chance to be a guard, and that it would allow him to make all of their lives better, if only the system had agreed.
No one knows just what the system is, or how it came to be, we only know that humans didn’t originally come from this world. Only that we fled here to escape the destruction of our home. The System was put in place by the first humans to come here to ensure we were safe, and give us the power to survive.
“So it didn’t go to plan, move on Arden, it’s not going to change if you stare at it all night. Time to change plans” Cole, their leader said. Arden had been functioning as the group’s ‘tank’. The hard to hurt, hard to kill frontliner that took the brunt of the punishment monsters would dish out. And he was good at that. Slash and Shield Bash allowed him to control things, and absorb blows that would severely injure the others. Cole, was an archer, he sat in the back directing their group of four using his bow and skills to take down dangerous monsters first, so that Arden and Fredric could clean up. Mina was the caster, able to both heal and cast offensive magic, and Fredric was a stealthy scout.
“We need to get up early tomorrow” Fredric said, stirring the pot that held their dinner.
“I want to tell the mayor about what we saw in the dungeon” He said, looking concerned.
“You mean that wall? The one with the hole in it we couldn’t enter?” Cole said, shrugging.
“I doubt it’s anything, dungeons are weird places. Two weeks ago that cave didn’t exist, and it just popped out overnight. The system makes them, we know that, maybe it didn’t do the job right this time”
“Have you ever heard of the system doing something ‘wrong’. Or even ‘improperly’?” Fredric shot back.
“Something’s wrong” He said, filling bowls with a thick stew for each of us.
“Then we tell the mayor, after that it’s not our problem” Cole said, sounding confident as usual. Cole’s card from the reward chest had been charisma, not expected but he wasn’t complaining. Mina had been awarded with a wisdom card, and a warding spell. Fredric had been given intelligence as well, and a poison spell. Only Arden was unsatisfied with the rewards.
Arden thought of the various talent points and augments he had been hoarding for years for this moment, how they could have been used to catapult him into a position where he would be a prime candidate for the guard companies, but the thought of abandoning the path he had been working so hard on for so long made him sick to his stomach. He turned, looked at the food and then got up to go to bed, not wanting to eat.
“Oh no you don’t” Mina said, grabbing him and shoving a bowl of soup with two pieces of bread floating in it into his hand.
“We have a lot of walking to do tomorrow, and you’re eating, that’s all there is to it” She said, sitting him down. Arden could be grumpy, but he was going to eat regardless and that was all there is to it.
Arden ate, because he knew that Mina wouldn’t let him sleep if he didn’t, then he went to sleep by the fire, back turned to the others, pulling up his status.
Arden Uther Argurson
Character Level: 7
Experience: 3245 of 4000
Attributes
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 10
Stamina: 19
Intellect: 16
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 11
Health Points: 27
Stamina Points: 46
Mana Points: 16
Cards:
Strength: Rank 1
Stamina: Rank 2
Intelligence: Rank 1
Skills:
Slash: Rank 4
Shield Block: Rank 4
Spells:
Lightning Arc: Rank 1
Class: Unsocketed
Talent Points: 3 of 7
Talents:
Melee Combat: Rank 3(2 Augments available)
Farming: Rank 4(0 Augments available)
Armor Proficiency: Rank 3(1 Augments available)
Bladed Weapon Proficiency: Rank 3(2 Augments Available)
There were so many options wasted now that he would have to give up either his sword or shield to free a hand for his magic. The thought made him sick to his stomach. He laid there for nearly half an hour before sleep took him. And that sleep was uneasy, whispers assaulted his dreams until he woke up with a start. Looking around, Arden found the others stirring and the sun on the rise. He could swear he heard someone say his name, a woman’s voice, but not Aramina. He shook his head and decided not to think on it, he had enough uncertainty in his life right now.
“We need to eat quick and get moving, we’ll be needed for stuff this afternoon” Cole called and Arden begrudgingly set about packing up. Frederick warmed the soup and they all had some before putting out the fire and moving into the forest.
Arden moved ahead of Cole and Mina as normal with Frederick scouting ahead. It was unusual for monsters to spawn outside the dungeons, but not so uncommon that they did not take precautions. Arden was being a bit louder than normal, but at this point he did not care, if anything unnatural dared cross their path he might just pound it into meat out of sheer frustration.
The trees were thick in this section of the wood, and they were forced to pick through the undergrowth carefully even if the dense section separating them from the village was little more than a five minute hike.
“Apart from that Dex card, we did good. The Mayor will be pleased and we’ll likely be sent back out to close the second dungeon that opened on the riverbank soon” Cole said casually as they walked. Arden glowered at the forest as they walked and did his best to ignore their chatter. He dreaded what was coming next. They crossed a brook and the village of Daoran came into view shortly after.
“MINA!” A woman’s voice called and Arden turned to see Mina’s mother, Avana run up to her daughter. The two shared an embrace and smiled.
“Well, what is it?” She asked and Mina flicked a card from her wrist.
“Wisdom, perfect, well done. And the skill?” She asked, looking at the card as Mina flicked another from her other wrist.
“A ward? Aramina… that’s… more than we expected, much more” She said, pulling her in for another hug.
“Thank you mother” She said and the two walked into the village center. Arden followed behind and sulked into the square last. The other three had been greeted by parents and for a moment Arden thought he would get to put off his shame until it was out of the public eye.
Then a huge hand slapped down on his shoulder and his father walked up next to him.
“How did it go boy?” His father, Ebrin asked.
“Not well” Arden said, dropping his gaze to the ground.
“How so, you’re all here, in one piece, let’s see it boy” His father said and Arden gritted his teeth as he flicked an image of the Intelligence card into the air.
“So not Dexterity” His father said, his voice unchanging.
“I’m sorry father I know you nee…” He said and his father’s hand squeezed.
“Sorry for what? You got what the system thought you should have. You’ll get another chance at joining a guard company soon enough. If that’s what you still want to do. I never once told you that I wanted you to boy. Only that you got to make your own choices. I assume the skill card was a spell?” He said and Arden just looked at him, dumbfounded.
“But father, the farm, you need me to start making…”
“You honestly think you won’t be earning your keep either way? You have three cards boy, you’re an adult. We’re going to focus on harvest, and wait for your next chance at that Dex card. Besides, this way you get more time to grow before heading off to the capitol” He said, slapping him on the back.
“I prepare for all outcomes boy, that’s my job as your father, we’ll make things work” He said, and Arden let himself relax. His father was good to them, it’s just sad he had the mark or they would probably be in a much better situation.
There was a hoot and Mina ran up and did a curtsey in front of Arden’s dad.
“It’s time Mr. Argurson” She beamed at him.
“Need to borrow Arden” She added, grabbing Arden’s arm and dragging him to join the others. The Mayor had arrived and all four of them presented their third attribute cards to him. He looked and noted each, reaching Arden last.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Not Dexterity, looks like you’ll be us a bit longer then Argurson” He said in a haughty tone of voice, causing Arden to drop his eyes to the ground again.
“I suppose we’ll be sure your father finishes the harvest on time one more year” He said, dismissing them.
“I will send you your next task within the next few days” He said, turning to leave.
“Sir” Cole said, and the Mayor stopped, turning as if he had been insulted by one of them merely asking to speak to him.
“Yes, Cole” He said with gratuitous scorn.
“Sir, there was something wrong with the Dungeon” He said, looking to Frederick, who grimaced and then spoke.
“The walls sir, they were not normal, seemed to move and were covered in strange lines. One door opened to a pitch black… nothingness. We have never seen anything like it” He said. The Mayor rolled his eyes and flicked a hand at them.
“That’s because you’ve seen nothing… boy” He said, and this time the word was an insult.
“You have barely enough experience to survive the simplest of dungeons, do you think the sheriff has not checked the dungeon to make sure you children could survive it? Careful with your words boy, or I’ll take it as an insult” He said, looking at them, then at their parents, his eyes falling last on Arden’s father.
“You will avert your eyes when you look at me Ebrin Argurson” He snapped, and his father looked away, but only slightly.
The Mayor harrumphed and swept out of the square, back towards his mansion. The others looked at Cole who just shrugged.
“We told him, our part is done” He said, standing with a turn to walk towards his parents. The message was easy enough to get and the others did the same. Arden looked around and only saw his father, not his brother or sisters.
“Where are the others?” He asked as he reached his sire.
“At home, making food, I managed to rustle up a deer” He said with a smirk, which made Arden gasp.
“Father… the mark” He said, looking at his father’s right arm, at the triangular mark on his arm, one that labeled him a criminal being punished for his crimes.
“What the Mayor doesn’t care to see the king can’t know” Ebrin said.
“Besides, you’re becoming an adult. That’s worth another year” He grinned. Arden was still angry. Multiple times his father had violated the limits of his sentence when he felt it was just and had time added to his sentence for it. He was a rebel, one who had been captured and sentenced by the king himself. That mark kept him from buying land, owning a business, or doing anything other than his sentence. It locked his cards, and prevented him from getting more. His father was a smith, and he was being forced to grow crops for the local mayor without so much as even being able to earn talents to assist in the task. Every time he broke the rules, one of which was a prohibition on hunting in the ‘king’s forest’, he risked the sentence being extended, or worse.
“Stop worrying, you’re an adult now. Things get easier from here regardless” He said, pushing Arden out in front of him.
“We’ll come back to town in a couple of days and see if we can’t trade to get you some stuff to help you learn to use magic” He said, putting his hands in his pockets, his indomitable optimism showing no signs of being cracked by Arden’s failure.
“It still would have been better if I had gotten Dexterity. I might even eventually get your brand removed” He said, and his father laughed.
“Fat chance of that boy. The king marked me not because of what I did, but because of what I am” He said, repeating the same answer he always got when his children talked about his mark.
“What does that mean!” Arden said, exasperated. To date he had never gotten a straight answer. His father skipped a step forward and draped an arm around him. By this point they had walked a few minutes away from the village so they were alone on the solitary path out to the farm his father was forced to work.
“I suppose it is time, with you being an adult and all” He said and Arden stopped, Ebrin having to drag him forward to avoid both of them falling.
“What, you’re an adult, I suppose I can give you a straight answer” He said, growing quiet. They were far enough away from the village that Arden knew no one would hear them.
“The king didn’t mark me because of what I did. He marked me because I’m the one thing he can’t tolerate, but at the same time can’t simply kill. It’s complicated, but suffice to say he can’t control me, and he would never choose to kill me, so he branded me and shipped me off to keep me out of his hair and took your mother from me.”
“What? Why can’t he kill you?” I asked, knowing the part about mother. He was old enough to remember the day the king’s men came and took his mother, even if the others did not. He assumed that his mother was dead and had come to terms with it in his early teens.
“Well he can, but it’s complicated, perhaps when you get that dexterity card I’ll spill some more of the beans” He grinned and it irritated Arden.
“I hate secrets” Arden gritted between his teeth.
“Yea, but I’m keeping them for a reason, and I’m still your father, so I get to keep secrets, now, go, you get to walk in first” He said, shoving Arden infront of him again. They were approaching the farm and already Arden could smell food. He scowled at his father who shrugged. Arden walks up the path to the house and the door opens for him, his little sister Trin collided with his legs a split second after the door opened, the joys of being young. Trinity was a newborn when the king’s men came for their parents. Arden had held her all night until the guards came in and told them to pack their things. They thought their parents were dead, and they were being shipped off to an orphanage. Their father didn’t reunite with them until they were in the village, their mother never did. That was three years ago.
“Buver, did you gedit?” She asked, her words still slurred with childish youth.
“No, sorry Trin” He said and she frowned, looking past him to her father.
“Daddy, isit otay? Can we eat?” She asked him and he smiled. Trin let out a squeal.
“Of course” He said, kneeling down to pick her up as he shoved Arden into the house with his other hand. Arden pushed through the door and was greeted by his younger sister Talia and his younger brother Hallidan.
“Did you get it?” Talia asked, and he shook his head.
“Oh well, next time” She said, moving on as if something hadn’t gone horribly wrong.
“Why is no one else upset about this!” Arden said, exasperated.
“Because unlike you we’ve been preparing for if you didn’t get the dexterity card, you’re the only one here that thinks you hit a dead end” His brother said. Hallidan was intelligent, more so than Arden and both of them knew it.
“See, you’re the only one panicking boy” Ebrin said, sitting Trinny at the table. Arden slumped down and looked at his father.
“I just… I had worked so hard” He said, not being able to finish the thought the way he wanted.
“And you’ll keep working hard” Ebrin told him with confidence, getting food from several dishes and preparing it for Trinny.
“But we need the money now, and what about getting rid of your mark father” He said and his father didn’t even look at him.
“Nothing, and I mean nothing, will clear this mark boy. No amount of the king’s favor will change this mark Arden”
“BUT!” He shot back exasperated.
“No boy. Enough” He said, locking eyes on Arden for the first time.
“Enough is enough. You didn’t get what you wanted, but you have more chances. Now you will focus on making use of what the system gave you, understand me?” He said, looking stern for the first time. Arden shrank back, having only seen his father like this a few times when he really broke the rules in the past.
“I don’t know what to do, I’m not a caster” Arden said, pulling out and looking at his lightning arc card.
“Well then use of that horde of talents you got to start developing that path. The system wanted you to have air magic, and you should trust that it did so for a reason” He said, settling down to feed Trinny, but not before putting a plate of food in front of Arden.
“First, eat” He said, pulling a few things onto a plate for himself but largely leaving the food for his children. Arden starts to eat and soon the whole family is at the table, eating venison and vegetables, with fresh bread and apple juice.
“You need to get access to the magical talents” Ebrin said suddenly, still smiling at Trinny.
“What do you mean?” Arden asked, confused. His sister and brother watched, but Trinny was focused utterly on her food.
“Getting that air magic card should allow you to get your first magic talent. In this case one relating to air or lightning magic. The stronger the talent, the more flexible the cards that relate to it will be” Ebrin explained, never stopping to look at Arden as he was focused on making sure Trinny didn’t make any more mess than was needed.
“What does that mean? Doesn’t the spell do the same thing every time I use it?” Arden asked.
“Yes, and no. The card, in this case lightning arc, will always do the same thing on the onset. The spell creates a charge in the target, causing that charge to reach out and search for other targets to discharge through, harming both the target you mark with the spell and the target it arcs to. What the talent will do is twofold” He said, leaning forward to pick up two unused wooden cups, placing them on the table.
“First, socketing the spell will allow you to take the Basic Air Magic talent. Spells are useful in a fight, and outside it, but the spell cards only do the one thing. Having one, however, gives access to that magic affinity’s basic talent. In this case Basic Air Magic. Learn that, and you will be able to slowly start using magic without a card. Now this magic will never be as powerful as your carded spell, and you will probably never be able to use it as quickly. Most carded spells take less than a second to summon up and hurl, whereas a manually cast spell might take five or ten seconds after months of practice. But you will never get to the point where your rough magic is as potent or as fast as the spell on that card, because the card can be augmented just like your provoke and shield block cards can, it will grow more and more powerful the more you use it” He explains as he moves one cup while turning Trinny’s plate so she can get at another section of peas. The little girl frowns but he gives her a look and she starts eating them as he turns back to the other cup.
“The second talent you will be able to buy is basic mana manipulation. Now this one is where things get interesting. As the name implies, it allows you to manipulate the magic in the world around you. That includes the magic made by that card. You could take your lightning arc, and make it last longer, you could make it reach further, or make it more damaging. Best part is that there is only the one manipulation talent. In the future if you get other types of magic, this talent will work equally well on all of them” He said, stacking the cups.
“Where it gets really potent is in blending the two, you can draw in power from the world around you. If you are near a source of air magic, you can use both talents to pull it into yourself, restoring your mana. This will allow you to have much greater staying power as a caster. You can use the two to tear at air magic used by monsters, causing it to fall apart harmlessly, some are so skilled in manipulation that they can rend magic as it’s being cast, causing it to explode in the caster’s face or tear it down to its basic elements and draw them in, absorbing it” He explains. It was a lot to take in. Arden had two questions though.
“Aren’t you a smith? How do you know this?” He asked flatly.
“I wasn’t ‘just’ a smith boy. I was an enchanter” His father said with a smirk. Arden had suspected this for a while, but never known. That was part of why the king would not choose to kill him. He might need him one day. That skill set was very rare.
“So you could make items, then make them magical?” Arden asked, that being the other question he had now that he had confirmed the first.
“Yes, before this” He said, showing his arm. “I was an up and coming member of the enchanter’s guild” He said and Arden noticed that his siblings were paying close attention. Father didn’t talk about his past, and any time they were able to get information out of him the others paid close attention.
“So I need to buy two talents, how do I level them?” He asked, moving on.
“Using your magic. I’d start by using the knowledge the talent gives you to learn how to make wind. Then use that wind to move something around. Like pushing a small stone across your desk back and forth until you run out of mana. Once you do, you can either wait for it to come back on its own, or you can try to use mana manipulation to try and draw mana out of the breeze from your window. Be careful though. Regaining mana will sap your body’s energy and at first you will get tired easily. I suggest practicing each night before you go to sleep”
Arden started mulling over the last two days as his father turned to the other two and talked to them about their day. The conversation began to fade into the background as he started to absorb everything that had happened. His father noticed and let him sit there and think, only moving to talk to him when his plate and mug were empty.
“Boy, go to bed, you earned it” He said, picking up the plate and breaking Arden from his Reverie.
“I… I need to spend talent points in the system too” Arden said, looking down to see his plate empty. He checks his mug and that too is empty as his father slips into the seat directly across from him again.
“A lot to take in isn’t it?” He said, and Arden notices that the others have all gone to bed. He takes a deep breath and seems to relax.
“There’s my boy” Ebrin said, looking at him. Arden locked eyes with him and his father smiled.
“Finally getting over it eh?” He asked, pushing a cup towards him, it wasn’t cider but Arden didn’t know what it was.
“It’s just… I want to help you, to help the family” He said, taking the cup.
“Then help the family. No one ever said you had to do it that way, that was your goal. One I think you were a bit too hellbent on. You wanted a single solution to all of our problems. It didn’t end out that way. I commend you for wanting to have everything tied up in one bag, but the world doesn’t work that way, if it did we’d still be in the capitol” Ebrin said, gesturing for Arden to drink. He did and was coughing moments later, his father laughing.
“What the hell is that?” Arden said, his lips and tongue tingling.
“Brandy, I make it from the apples” His father grinned, taking a drink. Arden grimaced at it, but took another smaller sip.
“That’s right, it’s potent. Don’t get too used to the taste of alcohol. It doesn’t lead to good places, but it has its uses. One of them is celebration” He said, clinking his mug against Arden’s. Arden noticed that they were the clay mugs, not the wooden ones. Father didn’t often use the clay mugs because they were fragile, and in a household with two younger children it was better to just use the wooden cups. He finished the drink and his father seemed to relax.
“You’re an adult now, boy” Ebrin said, looking at his son.
“The Harvest” Arden said and his father shrugs.
“The Harvest. The wheat is almost ready, tomorrow we will start preparing. With any luck by this time next year you’ll be able to use that air magic to cut the grain for us” He smirks.
“I can do that?” Arden said, astounded.
“It will take a lot of work, but yes”
“Then I suppose I’ll need to go get started” With that Arden rose, putting his mug in the sink and pouring some water from a pitcher into it before nodding to his father and heading up the narrow staircase heading to the smaller second floor of the cabin. The home was a hodgepodge of upgrades and addons. It had started as a single room, where the table his father was still sitting at was. In the three years since they had come here, his father had built bedrooms, a kitchen, a small room for animals in the winter, and a washroom. Arden went up the stairs to the three bedrooms, of which one was his alone.
Slipping into his room he closed the door. The room was still tiny, and Arden had all but outgrown it in his last growth spurt. He turned a rickety chair from an equally rickety desk and sat on it, preparing to call up the system.
Calling up the system was not something people did lightly. Looking at cards and one’s status was easy, but making changes required focus and time.
Arden took a deep breath and focused inward, his status popping up. He focused on the talents section and it leapt from his chest, hovering in the air in front of him. He used his hand to select the three unused talent points he had.
When he did a list formed next to his talent readout and he began reading. It only took him a few moments to find the first of the talents he needed.
Basic Air Magic
Tier 1 Magical Talent
This talent contains the knowledge needed to control basic air magic.
Arden reached up and tapped a small box that would set the talent to be bought and he was brought back to the list where he found the second talent.
Basic Mana Manipulation
Tier 1 Magical Talent
This talent contains the knowledge needed to exert basic control over mana.
Again he tapped the box and the list was brought back up. He looked over it pensively and something caught his eye. He had one talent point left, so he read the talent. It seemed to have been unlocked by having both combat skills, and a spell, as he had not seen this talent in his list before.
Shielded Caster
Tier 1 hybrid combat/magic talent
This talent removes the restriction on wielding a shield while using spells. The caster may consider a shield to be a casting implement. As this talent levels, the shield will provide a greater bonus to casting speed.
Now that made Arden sit up straight. His biggest fear was that he would have to change everything about how he fought to use his magic. He had never seen a caster use anything other than a rod a stave or a wand and Arden expected to be tied down the same way. But with this he would be able to use his spell while still having access to his melee combat abilities. He had managed to not complain about how his entire build up to this point was mundane melee combat and yet everyone had expected him to switch over to spellcasting just like that. Part of his anxiety had been related to the expectation that he would just discard everything up to this point to shift gears. Now he didn’t have to. Aramina had said it wasn’t as bad as he thought it was. Maybe this is what she meant.
With the last talent selected he was taken back to his main status. He selected the talents section again and began looking at his current talents. Several of them had unchosen augments and he selected his melee combat talent.
Augments were how talents were as powerful as skills. Every time you did something that was related to one of your selected talents, you would gain experience for that talent. Every level of experience gives you an ‘augment’. Talents could be augmented in a mind melting number of ways. As the augment list spooled out in front of him he was once again assaulted by the weight of just how many ways he could change his combat.
Reaching out with his hand he began to scroll through the immense list. Dozens of combat styles, techniques, maneuvers, battle trances, and a myriad of other augments scrolled by as he looked for something that would also help him blend his magic and combat abilities. He had looked at this list for hours on end the last few years. And it didn’t take him long to find something that had not been there before.
Arcane Stance
Augment
Tier 1 Combat Stance
Cost: 2 Mana Invested
This augment provides knowledge and understanding of how mana can be used to augment melee combat. Assuming this stance increases the potency of your defenses, at the cost of reducing your maximum mana available. This mana is returned when the stance is lifted. While in this stance the damage you take is reduced by 2.
This stance can be augmented further, increasing its potency and improving the benefits of the stance.
He tapped the box for the augment and dropped back out, moving down to his armor proficiency talent. He left one of his augments open for his melee combat, not knowing what would become available after he had a little time training in the use of his magic. The armor techniques followed along the same lines as the melee techniques, save that the armor techniques were markedly more defensively slanted. He scrolled the list for several minutes before an augment struck him.
Arcane Armor
Augment
Cost: 3 Mana invested
This augment allows the user to invest mana into armor, reducing its weight and making it more suitable for use by a spellcaster. Further improvement of this augment reduces the mana investment cost and increases the benefits provided.
That too he tapped. He looked at the other augments available to him and something in the pit of his stomach told him to wait. His father needed him to delve into this new path, and he would need talent augments and talent points to succeed.
Looking back over his status and taking a deep breath, he accepted the changes he had made. The system blinked and the edge of the window flashed green, marking that the changes had taken root. His eyes went wide and the room began to spin. Knowledge, simple knowledge, flooded into his mind. He became aware of the magic around him, of the breeze, of the movement of every wisp of air. His mind drowned in arcane symbols, runes, glyphs, and sigils. He suddenly knew the difference between the three and their purpose. Alongside it he became aware of how the mana in his body flowed, and how he could hold his limbs in a fight to cause it to pool in his arms and around his organs, making him harder to hurt. He became aware of how to… secrete… mana straight into his armor, making it lighter, and less restrictive.
He opened his eyes and looked around, looking at his hands and his arms as he stumbled to his bed. He collapsed into it and was asleep moments later, the weight of the day just too much for him to take on top of all of the knowledge that had been forced on him. He didn’t even manage to mute his status, and it projected from his chest into his blanket as he laid there, face down, passed out from exhaustion.
Arden Uther Argurson
Character Level: 7
Experience: 3687 of 4000
Attributes
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 10
Stamina: 19
Intellect: 16
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 11
Health Points: 27
Stamina Points: 46
Mana Points: 16
Cards:
Strength: Rank 1
Stamina: Rank 2
Intelligence: Rank 1
Skills:
Provoking Slash: Rank 5
Shield Block: Rank 4
Spells:
Lightning Arc: Rank 1
Class: Unsocketed
Talent Points: 0 of 7
Talents:
Melee Combat: Rank 3(1 Augments available)
Melee Combat Specialization
Improved Aggro Generation
Farming: Rank 4(0 Augments available)
Soil Management
Planting
Tending
Harvesting
Armor Proficiency: Rank 4(0 Augments available)
Medium Armor Specialization
Arcane Stance
Arcane Armor
Bladed Weapon Proficiency: Rank 3(0 Augments Available)
Longsword Specialization
Improved Parry
Basic Air Magic: Rank 1
Basic Mana Manipulation: Rank 1
Shielded Caster: Rank 1
