Fred and Arden lay in a sprawl, panting heavily.
“Still mad you got that Intelligence card buddy?” Fred chuffed between ragged breaths.
“It has its uses” Arden said with a smirk.
“Bull, we saw what you were doing with your mana, whatever that was it let you shrug off shots from that boss”
“Shrug off? Not nearly” Arden said, looking at his stats. He was down to just under ten hit points.
“Well we did it” Fred said as Mina ran up to them, getting to work on both. Turns out Fred too was heavily wounded. That one attack he took from the boss had nearly killed him. Cole ran up and started helping Arden out of his armor to aid Mina in her healing. Over the next ten minutes the four of them managed to patch up the party.
“That was far more difficult than it should have been” Cole said and Arden gave him a glare.
“Yea, I know Arden, you took the worst of it. But damn that thing you did with your mana was potent” He said and Arden shrugged, looking at his system notifications.
He had gained a character level, his shielded caster talent had reached level 4, and melee combat, Bladed Weapon Proficiency, and armor proficiency had each reached level 5. He was astounded at the rate his shielded caster had advanced but knew that it would slow significantly now that it had reached level 4. HIs shield block and lightning arc had also reached level five, and shield block was nearly level six. To his surprise his stamina and strength had both leveled as well.
Cole broke him out of his shock as he shook his shoulder, pointing at a glowing wooden chest that sat next to the door the boss had emerged from.
“You took the beating, you get to open the chest” He said with a smile.
“You do realize that the mayor gets just about anything that might be in there right?” Arden said, sounding annoyed.
“We didn’t get any loot from the skeletons so he’s going to say we owe it all to him” He added, walking to the chest. He kicked it and it popped open. There was a screeching sound and nothing popped out of the chest.
“Oh, great, now he’ll accuse us of theft” Arden said, rolling his eyes. The others came over and looked into the chest.
“See, this is an issue, and you’re right, he’ll probably accuse us of theft” Cole said, sounding annoyed.
Arden shook his head and turned.
“All that for nothing” He said walking back towards the entrance to the courtyard. As he did the door began to shimmer. He walked right up to it, then to the right and slumped against the wall, waiting for the others to finish looking. His gear was in his inventory at the moment so he only needed to step out to return to the real world.
It didn’t take long for the others to come to the same conclusion and they all reluctantly stepped through the portal. They didn’t stumble or slip as they walked out into the forest again, and as expected the Mayor was waiting for them.
“I see you did your job, let’s get this done” He said, holding out his hand. Arden was about to tell him off but Cole put a hand out.
“Sir, there was no loot, something’s wrong with the…” He said, looking around, something had caught his attention. Everyone followed his gaze and saw it, looking at the ground around the portal.
Black tendrils snaked their way through the mud and grass, turning everything pitch black. The tendrils radiated from the portal in all directions, vanishing into the undergrowth.
“Of course there was loot you imbecile” The mayor said, not even paying attention to what they were looking at.
“Sir, the dungeon is wrong. The skeletons were much stronger than…” He said but the mayor cut him off.
“DO NOT MISCONSTRUE YOUR WEAKNESS FOR THEIR STRENGTH BOY” He said, growing irritated.
“There was loot, give it to me now. I will not ask again”
“There was nothing sir, the chest was empty” He said and the mayor locked eyes with him.
“Liar, the product of the dungeon belongs to the king. Empty your inventories. NOW” He roared. Everyone started emptying their inventories, and Mina had to pinch Arden to get him to empty his. As he did the mayor berated them.
“Are you so inept that you cannot even properly collect loot?” He said and Arden pulled the bag of vertebra from his inventory.
“This is all we got” He said, tossing it to the mayor, who greedily emptied the bag into his hand before letting out a startled noise at the touch of the bones on his hand.
“If I find you are lying, there will be a lot of problems children” He said, glaring at them before stomping off towards the village.
“That was annoying” Arden said, picking up his gear and putting it back in his inventory. The others let out similar sounds of annoyance before they walked back to the village. Mina touched Arden’s arm and nodded before going to her home.
“Tomorrow, don’t forget, we’re still training” She said and he nodded.
Once Mina was out of sight Fred started limping too. And Cole silently turned and walked to his parents home. Fred patted Arden on the shoulder and gave him a nod before heading to his home as well, leaving Arden to think and limp his way home.
As he walked he pulled up his system menus again, looking at the rest of his talents and skills. Slash was nearly level seven, and Air magic had reached an astounding level 3 just from side XP gained from him using lightning arc.
As he limped up to the door his sister saw him and screamed, running over. Arden had not realized it but he was covered in blood from the many wounds Mina had healed and she began checking him over.
“I’m fine, Mina healed me”
“It was just supposed to be a skeleton dungeon!” She said and he nodded.
“How is dad?” Arden asked and his father poked his head around the corner before struggling to his feet.
“What the hell?” He said, and Arden noticed that he had a brace on his leg made of wood and cloth strips and he had a crutch to walk on. He hobbled over to Arden just as his sister gets him into one of the chairs outside on the porch.
“I’ll get some water” She says, moving past their father as he gets himself to one of the other chairs.
“What happened?” He asks, and Arden begins relaying the events of the dungeon as his sister helps him clean the blood off his arms, legs, and face.
“And the mayor didn’t have you beaten? Surprising” His father says finally, leaning back in his own chair.
“He’s going to send the sheriff out here to punish you because I couldn’t hand over anything. I wanted to beat him to a pulp right there but Cole stopped me” Arden said, furious at how they had been treated.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to Phillip” He said, using the sheriff’s real name. The two sat discussing things for several more minutes before Arden was sent in to take a bath and get clean. He stumbled into his bedroom an hour later and crawled into his bed, pulling up the system menu.
First he pulled up his skills and spells. Looking at shield block first. As he opened the upgrade menu something he had never seen before happened.
Prerequisites acquired. Specialized options available.
The words flashed before his eyes and he read them several times before reaching up to dismiss the notification. The list of upgrades scrolled out with dozens of options each blinking in black and white. Save for three options that were colored purple.
He scrolled to the bottom of the list and selected the first purple option.
Mana Drain Block
Rarity: Uncommon
Skill
Rank 5
Experience: 3450/3500
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. Additionally any skills or spells blocked by this skill restores one MP for every 5 MP or SP spent in activating the Skill or Spell.
Arden’s eyes widened as he looked it over, lifting his eyebrows in surprise. This skill had a rarity, meaning it wasn’t common like all of his other skills. What’s more it would allow him to recuperate mana in battle. The next one was even more surprising.
Mana Shield Block
Rarity: Uncommon
Skill
Rank 5
Experience: 3450/3500
Activation Restriction: Bucklers, Light or Heavy Shields, Tower Shields
Activation Cost: 5 SP, 2 MP
Reaction Timer: 5 Seconds
Activating this skill consumes mana to improve the defensive power of your shield. The consumed mana forms a simple barrier on the surface of the shield that absorbs the first 10 points of damage dealt. Any damage absorption left over remains to be consumed by non skill blocks made with the shield. Further augments may increase the mana cost of this skill to provide a more powerful barrier or additional effects.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Now that was incredible. Not only did this skill allow him to shrug off considerable damage, but he could save it and just use his normal shield block until a heavy hit was coming. He could select any version of his skill chosen when he activated, that he knew from his provoking slash skill. This let him preserve his mana to use defensively. He thought it would be hard for the next one to best this, and eagerly looked at the last option.
Reactive Shield
Rarity: Uncommon
Skill
Rank 5
Experience: 3450/3500
Activation Restriction: Bucklers, Light and Heavy Shields, Tower Shields
Activation Cost: 5 SP, 2 MP
Reaction Timer: 5 Seconds
This skill uses mana to absorb some of the damage taken by a blow and rebound it upon the attacker. The first five points of damage is reflected back on the attacker upon blocking an attack. Any reflection left over remains to be consumed by non skill blocks made with the shield. Further augments may increase the mana cost of this skill to provide a larger reflection pool or provide additional effects.
That was a letdown. He was hoping for something even better than Mana Shield Block but it seemed like that was the best option. He selected it and the knowledge of the new skill flooded into him. Moving on he looked at lightning arc. The list of prerequisites flowed into his brain and he looked them over, selecting one after much deliberation.
Lightning Bolt
Rank 5
Experience: 3020/3500
Activation Restriction: Staves, Rods, Wands, Shields
Activation Cost: 2 MP
Reaction Timer: 5 Seconds
This spell allows the caster to hurl a bolt of lightning at a single target. The bolt is moderately damaging and has a chance to inflict the paralysis ailment on the target. Some targets will be immune to this ailment.
This was like his lightning arc, but more focused and didn’t require him to link the spell to inanimate objects when fighting bosses. Additionally the paralysis ailment might be very useful in a pinch. Selecting the spell its secrets flooded his mind and he smiled, pulling up his talents.
Skipping to shielded caster he saw the same Prerequisites Acquired. Specialized Options available. Notification. But this time only a single purple option appeared in the list.
Spellshield Initiate:
Tier 2 hybrid combat/magic talent
Rarity: Rare
This talent allows the user to equip rare spellshield items. The special shields are potent tools for any hybrid combat/magic user. Further augments to this talent improve the benefits bestowed upon the caster for wielding a spellshield.
This one confused him. It was rare, which was something he had never seen before, but it didn’t seem to make sense. He mulled over getting one of the other options, especially the improved shielded caster talent which would increase the damage of his spells when cast through his shield. But this was rare, and he did not know if it would still be in the list the next time he gained an augment. So he bit the bullet and selected Spellshield Initiate. As the knowledge of the talent flowed into mind he knew instantly he had made the right choice. Spellshields were rare and potent items. Effectively it was a magical shield, enchanted to empower someone who was walking the hybrid path like he was. Even if he didn’t have one now, he would probably want one in the future if he ever had the opportunity to get one. And having the talent meant that such items would be added to loot chests in dungeons.
Next he pulled up the list for Arcane Stance and another new notification flashed before his eyes.
Compound Refinement prerequisites available, but not yet purchased. Review options for [Bladed Weapons Proficiency - Bladed Weapon Stance, Armor Proficiency - Defensive Stance] before viewing this list.
Dismissing the notification the list of options for Arcane Stance played out before him, but one of them was grayed out.
[Compound Talent: Spellblade Stances]
Opening the grayed out option did nothing but display a second Compound Refinement prerequisites available, but not yet purchased warning. So he closed the list and went back up to his Bladed Weapons Proficiency talent and again he was struck with the same warning. One of the options was purple this time.
Bladed Weapon Stance
Augment
Tier 1 Combat Stance
Cost: 2 SP Invested
This stance improves offensive capabilities at the cost of being taxing to maintain. Assuming this stance consumes two SP. Performing a combat skill while in this stance costs an additional SP over the normal cost of the skill used. While in this stance all damage dealt with skills is increased by 15%. Further augmentation of this stance can improve its benefits.
Looking the skill over he shrugged. The other augment for arcane stance wanted him to have this stance and another stance from his Armor Proficiency Talent Augments. So he selected the option and felt the knowledge flow into him. This would be useful on its own too, he thought.
Moving over to Armor Proficiency he found the stance he was looking for.
Defensive Stance
Augment
Tier 1 Combat Stance
Cost: 2 SP Invested
This stance improves defensive capabilities at the cost of being taxing to maintain. Assuming this stance costs two SP. Using a defensive skill while in this stance costs an additional SP over the normal cost of the skill used. While in this stance all damage prevented, delayed, or absorbed by a defensive skill is increased by 50%. Further augmentation of this stance can improve its benefits.
He had looked at this one before, but at the time he thought the cost was too high for what it did. Now, with his skills and talents growing so quickly he didn’t think twice, and the knowledge of the stance flowed into him.
“Now for the good stuff” He said to himself, returning to melee combat.
Spellblade Stances
Augment
Tier 2 Stance Set
Rarity: Epic(Class Prerequisite)
Cost: 1 SP / 1 MP
This stance combines the effects of [Bladed Weapon Proficiency - Offensive Stance], [Armor Proficiency - Defensive Stance], and [Melee Combat - Arcane Stance] into a potent combat method. The initial investment allows the user to enter the Spellblade Stance. But further investment of stamina or mana allows the user to gain a variety of potent benefits that can be shifted as needed during battle. Upon initial purchase a maximum of six mana and six stamina can be invested in this stance at any one time. Further augments to Melee Combat can increase this amount and provide additional benefits.
This stance allows the user to invest stamina and mana in either offense or defense. Each investment has a different effect over the stance’s buff based on where and what is invested. Investment changes trigger an internal cooldown of ten seconds before investments can be changed again.
Offense:
Mana invested in offense increases damage output by 5% per point invested.
Stamina invested in offense reduces skill and spell cooldowns by 1 second per point invested, cooldowns cannot be reduced below 3 seconds.
Defense:
Mana invested into defense provides battle regeneration, restoring one SP and one HP a minute per mana invested.
Stamina invested in defense reduces damage taken by 1 per point invested.
Arden must have had a funny look on his face as he read this ability several times, growing more excited about it each time. First of all was that it was a stance set, not a stance. It allowed him to blend the three stances he had just learned into one combined and potent battle method. At the same time he still maintained the three stances that went into spellblade stance. So if he needed them he could use them as well.
Second was that it was an Epic rarity talent. He had never seen or even heard of this before. Somehow he had stumbled into a mostly unknown set of talents and skills. He had never expected that he would be able to integrate the spellcasting he got from the intelligence and lightning arc cards into his melee combat focused build. But here it was, the system seemed to make allowances for it and even create potent and flexible talents to support the concept of being a melee range spellcaster.
He thought the investment costs for the different benefits were high, especially considering he could only invest five MP or SP in any one thing after the overhead cost to enter it. But the benefits were incredible given he could change the investment every ten seconds, the stance’s benefits could be shifted to help him respond to changes on the battlefield. He had never seen the system label of ‘battle regeneration’ but he did know that HP, SP, and Mana did not regenerate in battle. This allowed him to slowly heal over the course of a fight. It wasn’t terribly useful at this point given that most of the battles the group got into were less than three minutes long, but if he ever got into something more protracted it could make a huge difference.
Last was that this stance was labeled a ‘stance prerequisite’. He didn’t expect to get a class, but if he ever did. He didn’t think about it anymore and tapped the talent. Knowledge flooded into his mind and he felt he had made a good choice.
Looking over his talents he still had an augment to select for both melee combat and armor proficiency, and two more augments to select for shielded caster as well as one for bladed combat. Moving back to shielded caster he looked at the remaining options and there were only common augments left, so he looked over the list to see if anything would line up with the rarer augments he had selected for other skills or talents.
First he looked at improving the benefits of shielded caster itself. The initial talent only served to remove the restrictions on his casting imposed by his shield. Normally having the shield would prevent the use of magic, as did his sword. By gaining shielded caster he simply needed to sheath or dig the tip of his sword into the ground to enable his lightning arc spell card.
Looking through the list he found one that seemed to fit what he was going for.
Empowered Shield
Augment
When a spell is cast using a shield as the casting implement, the shield retains a small measure of the mana used in casting. This mana is used to prevent damage to the shield. A shield remains empowered until struck by an attack. While empowered the shield takes 50% less damage from attacks blocked.
That would help him keep his shield in working order, as the one he had was nearly useless after the last strangely corrupted dungeon they had been in. It had holes and the inner wooden lining was cracked all over. He would need a new one before they went into another dungeon at this point.
Looking through the other options he took the obvious choice.
Improved Shielded Caster
Augment
This augment improves the casting speed bonus of shielded caster, allowing fullcast spells cast while wielding a shield to be cast 15% faster.
He was still a long way away from being able to cast spells in battle without the use of a card, but getting this early would help him when he began trying to weave regular spellcasting into his battles. The system called it fullcasting but in reality it was the act of using non-card magic. The cards, like his lightning arc card, still used the same magic but they were more rigid. The lightning arc card would only cast the one spell and any augments Arden had bought for it.
Fullcasting allowed you to generate any effect you had the magic talents for, but it took much longer. So if he started picking up talents and augments that allowed him to do it faster, eventually he would be able to throw those spells nearly as fast as his carded spells.
That left him with the remaining options for Melee Combat and Armor Proficiency.
Pulling Melee Combat back up he looked for any remaining purple options and found none. So he began going over the list methodically. There were many options available to him, most of which revolved around specializing in one weapon or another. He had already taken a generalized blade talent for this purpose so he skipped over those, instead he looked for something he had considered when he first got his strength card.
Powerful Shove
Augment
This augment improves the user’s ability to shove and push enemies and objects. Whenever attempting to push or shove an enemy or object the user moves the enemy or object 15% further.
This would allow him a bit more freedom in combat by shoving things and enemies around more effectively. He nodded and tapped it, thinking of how he had been swarmed in the last dungeon and his armor had suffered for it.
Arden took a moment to look at the shambles that his armor had become, he would need to spend some time repairing it as soon as possible. He needed to be able to do more damage so they had less time to beat him up. He pulled up his bladed weapon specialization and searched for something basic to make his sword stronger.
Improved Bladed Weapon Damage
Augment
This augment increases damage dealt with a bladed weapon by 15%, further augmentation can increase this improvement.
Turning back to his last selections he had only one thing left to do. Select the new talent he had available from his character level increase.
Looking at the list he noticed something purple and his heart jumped.
Hybrid Combat Specialization
Tier 1 Hybrid melee/magic talent
Rarity: Rare
This talent focuses the user on the blending of melee and magical combat. This talent increases all damage dealt by melee weapons and spells by 15% and reduces the damage penalty imposed on spells for wearing armor. Augments to this talent further improve the user’s ability to blend melee combat and magic.
That was a no brainer. And Arden tapped the talent and felt knowledge flood into him. He had been doing many things wrong, but more than expected right. He would be much stronger for having this talent going forward. With all of his selections made, Arden sat back and looked at his character and his improved stats.
Arden Uther Argurson
Character Level: 8
Experience: 20 of 4000
Attributes
Strength: 19
Dexterity: 10
Stamina: 22
Intellect: 18
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 11
Health Points: 34
Stamina Points: 55
Mana Points: 20
Cards:
Strength: Rank 2
Stamina: Rank 3
Intelligence: Rank 2
Skills:
Provoking Slash: Rank 5
Slash
Mana Shield Block: Rank 5
Shield Block
Spells:
Lightning Bolt: Rank 5
Lightning Arc
Class: Unsocketed
Talent Points: 0 of 8
Talents:
Melee Combat: Rank 5(0 Augments Available)
Melee Weapon Focus
Improved Aggro Generation
Spellblade Stance
Powerful Shove
Farming: Rank 4(0 Augments Available)
Soil Management
Planting
Tending
Harvesting
Armor Proficiency: Rank 5(0 Augments Available)
Arcane Armor
Medium Armor Specialization
Arcane Stance
Defensive Stance
Bladed Weapon Proficiency: Rank 5(0 Augments Available)
Longsword Proficiency
Improved Parry
Improved Bladed Weapon Damage
Offensive Stance
Basic Air Magic: Rank 3(1 Augments Available)
Electrical Subdivision
Basic Mana Manipulation: Rank 2(0 Augments Available)
Improved Mana Regeneration
Shielded Caster: Rank 4(0 Augments Available)
Spellshield Initiate
Empowered Shield
Improved Shielded Caster
Hybrid Combat Specialization: Rank 1(0 Augments Available)
