《Asunder Online [DROPPED]》 Chapter 000 (Proofread) Chapter 000 (Proofread) --------------- A/N: This chapter is mainly background of the MC and an infodump about the game mechanics. The VRMMORPG part starts next chapter. Constructive Criticism is always welcome! R&R please. Also what do you penguins feel about the length? Currently it takes me 3-4 days to write a chapter of this length and do a preliminary review. '' '' for thoughts " " for speech Full credits to Kuroyuki for proofreading (also a lot of editing!) this chapter! Please give him positive ratings for his hard work. --------------- --Approximately 8 years ago-- A chubby boy was sitting cross-legged on a sofa watching TV, aimlessly channel surfing. A homely middle aged woman brought a plate piled with cottage cheese sandwiches. The chubby boy accepted them and vigorously started to devour them, forgetting all about the remote and the TV. The woman sat next to him and sighed. The boy paused momentarily glancing at the woman, shrugged and returned to the task of devouring his sandwiches. ¡°Son, you have your High School Graduation Ceremony tomorrow. Aren¡¯t you going to attend it?¡± ¡°No need, Mom. I already applied to be excused from attending it and will collect the certificate on Monday.¡± The chubby boy replied and returned his attention to his sandwiches, and found they were already gone. Putting the plate on a side table, he sighed inwardly and prepared himself for yet another admonishment from his mother. ¡°Jacob, kids your age are supposed to get drunk, have girlfriends and generally cause trouble!! All you do is either play those games on your computer or keep reading on your phone!! Why do you actively try to ignore and side step any form of social interaction with your peers?¡± The middle aged woman ranted and questioned her son. ¡°I just don¡¯t like them Mom! Shouldn¡¯t you be happy that I don¡¯t cause any trouble and managed a GPA of 3.5 in high school?¡± Jacob whined at his mom. ¡°At least you used to get into fights in middle school and I used(had) to meet your teachers fairly often. However since your Dad was transferred abroad, you have been quiet and withdrawn.¡± Suddenly Jacob¡¯s mom looks concerned and says ¡°Son, you know you can tell me anything right? Did you get depressed after getting rejected by a girl? Are you gay? Do you have some drug problem and are suffering from depression? You can unburden yourself anytime. Both of us love you unconditionally. You can always say if you need some professional guidance. In fact I have inquired about a very good professional councilor¡­¡± Jacob groaned inwardly at his Mom¡¯s new outburst and interrupted ¡°Jesus mom, God damn it! I only used to get into fights because I was being bullied and fought back! After getting beaten up a few times by trying to solo the bullies, I gathered up a few of the nerds and persuaded them to fight back, although it took a while. Next time the bullies tried to isolate and beat us up, we ganged up on the bullies! Those cowards got a taste of their own medicine and ran whining to the teachers. Of course, occasionally they needed a reminder throughout middle school. Also, I am not a faggot, nor do I have drug problems or depression. I just like playing my RPGs and reading my web novels. And I also had a girlfriend once, it was fun for a time but she got too clingy and bothered me all the time. I never found maintaining a relationship worth all the hassle! ARGHHHH! Can you please just let me watch TV in peace, Mom!¡± Jacob was visibly shaking from his outburst. His Mom was shocked and sat in stunned silence for a time. She then sighed and replied, ¡°Alright, Son. At least make an effort at your social obligations though, OK? Just to not stand out and attract unwanted attention, if for nothing else.¡± Jacob calmed down visibly and said sarcastically ¡°OK, Mom... I will try. Can I please watch some TV now?¡± Jacob¡¯s mom sniffed, collected his now empty plate from the side table, and left the Living. ¡®Finally! I can enjoy the quiet evening watching nothing but TV. My guild is having a raid just after dinner. Can kill the time till then¡¯ he thought. He noticed that the TV was on a news channel. The subtitles were about a successful Virtual Reality Training Initiative for NATO peacekeepers to combat global insurgency. The technology, dubbed as Future Dive (FuDi), was developed by a division of Von Danniken Industries (VDI), the global technological conglomerate, and partially funded by the EU and NATO member states. In return, they had exclusive access to this technology for a decade, including their secretive training regiment for training of their soldiers since 2 years ago. ¡®Holy Shit! This is awesome. This is almost like my dreams come true. If I am lucky in a decade or so, there will be a fully interactive MMORPG using virtual reality. It will be like Ark and Legendary Moonlight Sculptor! Well, I have a decade to get in shape and be somewhat proficient in some Martial Art¡¯ thought Jacob. He got motivated to get in shape as well as develop some social skills, and also save money. Who knows how much one of those FuDi pods will cost anyways? Definitely not chump change when it is open to the public.¡¯ -- Approximately 6 years ago-- Jacob was on a flight to Austin to attend university. He had completed his 2 year stint at a junior college with an associate degree in Aeronautical Engineering with a GPA of 3.5. He was no longer the chubby awkward kid. He was now 185cm in Height with a lean but muscular build with light brown skin. He had short military crop brown hair and brown eyes with a chiseled somewhat triangular face. Pretty average looking really Jacob thought to himself, except for the above average fitness he maintained in contrast to his fellow citizens, most of whom were fat, if not obese, junk food addicts. The reason for his above average physique without bulking up was, he had joined a local parkour club. Using the neighborhood as an obstacle course was pretty fun. He once fractured his right arm, and his parents wanted him to discontinue parkour but he was adamant. On the bright side, he had learned to write legibly with his left and it impressed the girls too! They wanted to know his flexibility and stamina personally¡­heh. He had managed to secure himself a full scholarship for Aerospace Engineering in University of Texas, Austin. He wanted to attend California Institute of Technology and was loath to leave California. But he wanted to avoid student loans at all costs, since in his opinion they were nothing but a big scam to siphon off his future earnings. He also did not want to burden his now-retired father¡¯s savings, even if his dad could afford it. After he was subjected to the now-mandatory scan of his nether regions, and the Airport security personnel were convinced he was not a terrorist or a smuggler, he collected his baggage and caught a cab to his university. After all the administrative formalities were completed, he left for his allotted on-campus housing. He was second guessing whether he should have opted for off-campus apartments, but shrugged since his scholarship sponsored the on-campus housing fully and the off campus housing allowance wasn¡¯t enough for him to afford apartments near the campus. He wouldn¡¯t need any other mode of transportation other than his collapsible bicycle. He would receive most of his other luggage via FedEx before classes started, till then he had to walk. -- Approximately 2 years ago -- Jacob was content. Four years of diligent parkour practice had kept him in shape. He had also joined a local Krav Maga club in his second year; when he got used to the pace of university life, and was confident in his proficiency of hand to hand combat. ¡®Will surely be useful whenever that VRMMORPG comes out.¡¯ thought Jacob. He had completed his Bachelor¡¯s Degree in Aerospace and minor in Virtual Reality and been selected for an engineering position with NASA¡¯s Ames research center in California right out of college at the age of 24, and had received the joining date, which was in the next quarter. He was on his way to the airport to catch a flight to his hometown Fresno, when he received a phone call from an unknown number. He answered his phone and a Dr. Brown informed him about the death of his parents. His parents were in a fatal accident and were in critical condition when they arrived at the hospital. In spite of their best efforts to save them, they had suffered from massive hemorrhaging and multiple organ failures and were dead within the hour. Jacob¡¯s world came crashing down. He was truly alone for the first time. His outward appearance was calm, but there was a great deal of turmoil in his psyche. After the mandatory anal examination at the airport, he snapped and asked the security official whether he enjoyed molesting innocent commuters. His outburst rewarded him with a grunt and even more vigorous anal probing by the security official. The burly official said to him ¡°You look like a good kid. So I will give you some advice. Control your temper. I can easily detain you for 12 hours without access to a toilet on the charge of attempt to obstruct my duties. You are lucky I am in a good mood and letting you go with just a warning.¡± ¡°Sorry Sir. I was just returning home after my university degree and I come to know that my parents are dead.¡±Jacob replied politely. The security official grunted and motioned him to move on. ¡®Of course he doesn¡¯t give a fuck about my parents¡­I am just a random rude stranger to him¡¯ thought Jacob. He caught a cab straight to the mortuary Dr. Brown had texted him the address of. He was frustrated with the bureaucratic administration, but kept his cool. He collected his parent¡¯s belongings and released the bodies for cremation as the only known next of kin. ¡®There is no one to attend the funeral anyways. My parents didn¡¯t want to talk about their family¡­and never had any friends anyways. Hmmm, come to it all the adults I ever noticed where professionals like doctors, plumbers, lawyers etc.¡¯ thought Jacob so might as well get this done without much fuss. ¡®They are gone forever anyways¡¯ Jacob also sighed internally. The next couple of months went in a haze as he dealt with the financial and legal ramifications of his parents'' death. He arranged a lease of his parent¡¯s apartments with Big Bob¡¯s real estate agency. Sure, the contract was not the most favorable he could manage. But it was a lot less hassle for them to manage it. With his parent¡¯s life savings and insurance payout he had around $800,000. After wrapping up all legal affairs and dealing with the city record, he decided to move to Mountain View City (city of his employment) one month early and finalize his purchases before starting his job. In Mountain View City, Jacob contacted a local branch of Big Bob¡¯s Real Estate agency and inked a deal where he paid a hefty deposit of $25000 and the rent from his Fresno apartment went towards the monthly payment of the rent of his new studio apartment. ¡®What a bunch of greedy assholes. My Parent¡¯s 3 bedroom apartment in Fresno somehow gives just barely enough rent for a studio apartment here? This is daylight robbery God-damn-it!¡¯ thought Jacob frustration. He also inquired about reliable used cars among the employees but was highly suspicious when almost all of them got very enthusiastic and pointed him to a particular dealer. He didn¡¯t know much about cars, but after dealing with the slimy dealer, he opted to buy a new Mercury Milan. He opted for the low end model with a manual transmission. ¡®Most of the idiot carjackers don¡¯t know how to drive without auto transmission. They will probably ignore my car in favor of a better haul. Sure it may be a relic, but this model is cheaper than the deposit I had to pay for my apartment.¡¯ Thinking along these lines, Jacob finalized his purchase. He was all set for his life here. ¡®It will be a shitty life without my parents though. They were the only family I had. I hope the asshole involved in the hit and run gets a jail term and gets ass-raped daily in prison.¡¯ thought Jacob bitterly. However, he knew better than that to have any hope of competence from law enforcement and the judiciary. Jack was a bit surprised at his own violent fantasies even if it was understandable. ¡®I think I should start Yoga. There is no harm in some meditation and stretching. Also, I might meet many hot babes there stretching in their form fitting clothes all sweaty.¡¯ Jack thought and resolved to join a Yoga class. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. --Approximately 6 months ago -- Jacob and a few of his colleagues where having lunch in the cafeteria while gossiping about their fellow employees. Jacob was checking the website of entertainment division of Von Danniken Industries. It had become a habit of his for since he started working here at AMES. Usually the website had some kind of smart TV or Gaming Laptop as the featured product. But today, it was different. There was a steady countdown from 180 days. Intrigued, he scrolled down and read the notice. His heart skipped a beat. Immediately, he pushed aside his lunch, kept the phone on the table and withdrew his credit card. A reedy guy of Hispanic origin noticed him and said, ¡°Hey Jacob, watcha buying? Anyways, did you hear about the office romance between Christina and¡­¡± ¡°Shut up with your gossiping for a minute Carlos. Just wait a few minutes. This shit is important.¡± interrupted Jacob. Three of his colleagues including Carlos where visibly shocked because Jacob seldom lost his cool while dealing with Carlos¡¯ gossip. For a few minutes there was silence on their table. Jacob made his purchase, looked up and smiled. He noticed the expression on his colleagues and then it occurred to him that he had snapped at Carlos. He shrugged and continued: ¡°Guys, this is it. VDI has announced their debut VRMMORPG. It is dubbed Asunder Online and is going to be out in 6 months. I just pre-ordered my FuDi Capsule!¡± ¡°Oh so that is why you snapped at me! I thought you started hating me or something.¡± said Carlos. ¡°No he snapped at you because you are an annoying git who gossips more than most women.¡± A fairly chubby, unshaved, redhead guy snapped at Carlos. ¡°Now now Adam. You know Carlos can¡¯t help himself. He is just butt-hurt that Christina rejected him when he asked her out a few months back.¡± snickered a tall, muscular, bald, black guy. ¡°Hey! That was a low blow Dion. I am trying to forget it and you bring it up!¡± whined Carlos. ¡°All right, if you ladies are done discussing your love life¡­ you might want to pre-order now. There are only 50,000 capsules for California in this batch. Sure they will bring another batch alter, but cost will increase from the introductory 10,000 dollars it is now.¡± Jacob said with a smug look on his face. ¡°What! 10,000 dollars!¡± all three exclaimed simultaneously. Carlos and Adam immediately started checking their credit card limits. ¡°Man, that sucks. I am over my credit limit.¡± Carlos mumbled. ¡°Same here.¡± Adam groaned. ¡°So what about you Dion? Joining me in Asunder Online?¡± Jacob asked hopefully. ¡°Not in the near future. I am actually saving up to propose to Julia.¡± Dion said sheepishly. ¡°What? But you have been only dating her for six months! I think you should wait for another year at least! By that time you will have a capsule too!¡± exclaimed Carlos. ¡°Hey! I think Julia is the one! Besides, you are not one to be giving relationship advice¡­ you are single since we joined AMES. And that was around a year ago!¡± huffed Dion. ¡°It has been 15 months since we joined. Oh and just to remind you, Carlos has been single for 20 months now.¡± Adam sniggered earning a frown from Carlos. ¡°Stop with the bitching ladies. Adam and Carlos, save up for the capsule ASAP.¡± Jacob commanded. And turning to Dion he said ¡°Dion, best of luck bro¡­ Julia probably has you by the balls then.¡± And all three started snickering at a glowering Dion. -- Present Day -- Jacob was excited. Today was the day his FuDI capsule would be delivered and the official launch of Asunder Online. He and three of his buddies from work had managed to acquire a FuDi capsule each. Well, Dion only managed to get a capsule because he caught Julia cheating on him, when he surprised her in her apartment to propose to her. ¡®Well sucks to be him. Meh, he will be joining us in Asunder Online so it is for the best he got rid of that cheating slut.¡¯ Jacob thought. ¡®Anyways all four of us decided to start at different locations to adventure individually and meet after one month RLT. We also decided to have similar body structure as in RL so that we don¡¯t have trouble controlling our avatars.¡¯ Jacob mentally reviewed while waiting for the delivery of his capsule. ¡®I also secretly got a two week vacation starting today approved so that I can play Asunder Online nonstop! The others are kind of pissed at me for that since we are in the same team and all four of us cannot take vacation simultaneously.¡¯ While thinking gleefully about his planned AO marathon, he hears the doorbell ringing. Jacob¡¯s capsule had finally arrived. After shifting his bed so that the capsule is close to a power outlet, the technicians started assembling the capsule. Jacob decided to read the manual in the meantime. Halfway reading the manual, the technicians finished the installation and diagnostics. Jacob thanked them and tipped each of them with 20$. He resumed reading the manual. He ignored most of the back story. He rationalized getting to know it in game would be more fun. He summarized the important bits of information as follows; >The FuDi capsule has the ratio of In Game Time to Real Life Time (IGT:RLT) is 4:1 > The FuDi capsule has two modes to connect to AO. o Instant mode: where you can connect in a few seconds, but you don¡¯t get the benefit of sleep. o Full Dive mode: where connecting and disconnecting takes 10-15 minutes and your brain gets the benefit of sleep in real life. o Sleeping in the game in Instant mode provides the benefit of sleep with RLT. i.e. sleeping for 8 hours ingame in instant mode provides benefit of 2 hours of sleep in real life. o Sleeping in-game in Full Dive mode however, provides no additional benefits in RL. > In game footage is constantly recorded. It has capacity to record continuously up( )to 100 hours. This can be accessed after removing the SSD (Solid State Disk) from the capsule compartment and connecting it to your computer. > There is also a feature of an in-game screenshot and an in-game notebook which can be accessed in the same way videos are. >A single phone number per player can be linked with the in-game options menu. The player can receive texts and calls to the linked phone > The minimum age limit to connect to AO is 18. > Your real life gender is the gender of your avatar. > In-game Pain is capped at 50% of real life pain. If the FuDi brain scan determines danger to the player¡¯s psyche, the player is automatically disconnected for 24 hours in RLT. > To access any in-game feature, the avatar just has to say it out loud. Examples include status, skills, options menu, inventory, log out etc. > The player cannot leave the starting town for the first four weeks of IGT. > Ingame currency is as follows: o 1 Platinum coin = 100 Gold Coins o 1 Gold Coin = 100 Silver Coins o 1 Silver Coin = 100 Copper Coins o 1 Copper Coin is the lowest denomination of currency available. > The avatar is provided with an inventory of 100 slots in-game with a weight limit depending on avatar¡¯s strength. The avatar starts with a water canteen, 10 pieces of basic food, and an old iron dagger, apart from basic clothes which are equipped by default. > In-game death disconnects the player for 24 hours in RLT. The player also loses 1 level and all accumulated experience in skills to the next level. While logging back, the avatar will spawn at the last visited safe location. > During combat situations, notifications are disabled automatically. They can be reviewed in the notification log in the options menu. If the player logs out during combat, he encounters the same penalty as death. > One person can only have one avatar at a time. > To delete an avatar, you have to pay a fee of $500 in person at the nearest VDI Entertainment office. > The in-game world is created and managed by an advanced proprietary AI. There is very little interference from Administrators or Game Masters. > Currently there are three races available for new players. Further races can be unlocked later, due to events or player actions. oHuman: No advantages, No penalties. They are the most populous race. o Elf: They are more suited towards ranged combat and magic, but suffer a penalty to their melee capability. o Dwarf: They get a bonus to crafting, but suffer a penalty to their magical capabilities. > There is an option for System Assist (SA) , which will guide the avatar in executing their intended action. This feature can be toggled in-game. > Each level gives the player 5 stat points to distribute as well as increase in health, mana and stamina. > There are Six Basic Stats in-game: o Strength: This determines melee damage capacity and maximum weight you can carry in your inventory. o Vitality: This determines your health, Physical Defense and Stamina. o Dexterity: This determines the deftness of your hands and ranged damage. o Agility: This determines your overall physical speed and Stamina. o Intelligence: This determines your Mana Points (MP) and Magical offensive potential. o Willpower: This determines your Mana Regenerative capacity and your Magical Defense. > There are many special stats which can be gained by players through performing certain actions, quest rewards, or obtaining a class. These cannot be increased by investing stat points. All players start with 10 points in the special stat Luck. > Doing certain actions may give bonuses or unlock certain stats, skills, or titles. > Classes provide bonuses to certain play(-)styles. Each avatar can only have one class. There are basic classes like Warrior, Mage, Archer as well as plenty of undiscovered classes. > The avatar starts with the Novice class. They are the weakest class. Classes can be obtained fromNPCs, items, quests, and/or fulfilling certain stat and skill requirements. > Players can upgrade their class to a related class by fulfilling certain requirements. A warrior can change to a Knight for example. After Jacob finished reading the manual, he cleared his bowels, took a refreshing bath, and had lunch consisting of leftover pot roast. After he deemed himself ready it was almost 2pm in the afternoon. With barely contained enthusiasm, Jacob stripped to his underwear, laid down in his FuDi capsule and shut the lid. He waited for the iris scan to conclude. Suddenly a dialog box appeared before his eyes.
New user detected. Do you want to connect to Asunder Online?
¡°Yes.¡±
Please state whether you want to connect with instant mode or Full dive.
¡°Instant Mode.¡± Jacob thought that it was unhealthy to disrupt his sleeping pattern. ¡®After dinner I will log in via Full Dive mode¡¯ reasoned Jacob. He saw a pinpoint of light in the distance and felt a gut wrenching sensation as if he was traveling at great speeds. His entire field of vision was engulfed by the white light.
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Chapter 001 Chapter 001 ---------------- ¡® ¡® for thoughts ¡°¡­¡± for speech Please PM me if you are interested in proofreading/editing for this FF. This chapter is a bit slow¡­ the training arc will probably be a bit slowish.Hope you enjoy the chapter and don¡¯t forget to R&R. ---------------- After logging into Asunder Online for the first time, Jacob found himself in a small white room facing a wall with a mirror. He saw himself in the mirror almost naked, with the exception of the white underwear, which was different from the underwear he was wearing in RL. A sudden disembodied deep voice of a wizened old man could be heard. ¡°Many greetings to you, traveler. I welcome you, from your world, to begin your journey in the world of Terra. You can start your journey in this journey after you create your avatar. Would you like to know the basics of this world?¡± ¡°No that will be alright. Please continue with the creation of my avatar.¡± Jacob replied. ¡®I didn¡¯t spend hours reading the manual just to hear it all over again.¡¯ Jacob thought. What race do you wish to be? Currently only Human Elves and Dwarfs are available. Please state your choice.¡± Jacob pondered a bit; he wanted to focus on a melee playstyle augmented by magic. The elves and their sub races were discarded because he didn¡¯t want a melee penalty. The dwarves sounded cool with their crafting bonus, but they had a penalty to their magic capabilities AND their maximum height was 150 cm. So he made the obvious choice. ¡°Human please.¡± ¡°Traveler, you can see your avatar with your selected race in the mirror. Would you like to make some modifications to the appearance of your avatar?¡± ¡°Can you change my hair color to black, my eye color to black, my skin color to dark beige?¡± Jacob¡¯s logic was to stand out as less as possible ingame, so he avoided flashy anime style pink spiky hair and orange eyes or whatever was the fad these days. ¡°Yes that is fine. Thank you.¡± Jacob replied satisfied. ¡°By what name do you wish to be known traveler?¡± ¡°Jack¡± replied Jacob flatly. ¡°Where would you like to begin your journey in Terra? The mirror in front of you will show in red, the available starting cities for your race.¡± Jack observed the mirror, where his almost naked reflection was previously displayed. There seemed to be one gigantic landmass, shaped somewhat like a profile view of a hunched back seahorse with its head facing the east, with the southern part (where the tail should be) was a massive peninsula. There were crisscrossing mountain ranges and many various sized bodies of water. There were many islands visible of various shapes around the main landmass. There were red blinking dots all over the place, mostly in the southern peninsula of the landmass and he noticed none were there in the islands. ¡®Mountains in general have higher level enemies, so I should start near one. And a big lake nearby will mean I can develop various skills like fishing and swimming. Hmm yeah I will ask the invisible old man to start me near those.¡¯ reasoned Jack. ¡°Can you please send me to a city with mountains nearby? Also if possible there should be a big lake nearby. Any starting city with these conditions should do.¡± Jack said. ¡°The capital of the Hinazal Kingdom, Rotang city fulfills your request, traveler. Good luck on your new Journey.¡± The mirror turned into a white wall and its brightness increased drastically. Jack became blinded for a moment. When his vision cleared, he found himself looking at a fountain with crystal clear water. He noticed three translucent bars in the top left corner of his vision. They were colored red, blue and white. He assumed that they were his Health Points (HP), Mana Points (MP) and Stamina (STA) respectively. In the top right corner of his vision he could see another two translucent bars. They were green and yellow. ¡®They must be the satiety and thirst bars.¡¯ He could see various buildings, most of which were 3-4 storied. There was a large circular ring of cobble stones about 130 meters in diameter, with the fountain as center. He saw many players who had just spawned are were looking around like him. Straight ahead of him, behind the fountain, he could see a road going extending towards a wide portcullis gate, flanked by two tall towers, and what he assumed was the city wall. He was too far to be sure, but he thought he saw guards patrolling the wall. To his left, he could see a cathedral like structure towering above most buildings. ¡®That must be the church. Guess it is for healing and stuff.¡¯ thought Jack. He turned around while slowly surveying the cityscape. He could make out the noble quarter, which full of mansions and armed guards, opposite to the city gate, and rest of the city, probably the artisan quarters. He assumed the slums were further in that direction. Jack tuned out the chatter around him and muttered ¡°Inventory.¡± He saw a translucent grid pop up. He saw 10 copper coins, a water canteen, 10 pieces of bread stacked and a rusty dagger. ¡®So the currency is in the inventory itself. That means each player has effectively 96 inventory slots out of 100, the rest being for copper, silver, gold and platinum coins.¡¯ Jack closed the inventory with a command and bought out the games option menu. The options menu had STATUS, SKILLS, QUESTS, INVENTORY, EQUIP, FRIENDS, GUILD, MISC and LOG OUT in blue ovals. Most of them were self-explanatory, so he chose the MISC. It had SYSTEM ASSIST in a green oval, CLOCK, MAP, NOTEPAD and ALBUM in blue ovals. Jack muttered ¡°System Assist Off¡±. The green oval immediately turned a dull grey. The MAP option was empty. Jack figured he either had to get some skill or acquire maps to fill it. Investigating the CLOCK option, it had an in game clock, a real life clock with time and date, and a pane titled alarms. ¡®This is nifty. Let¡¯s see, I will set an alarm for 8 pm in RLT. It is almost 2 pm now, so that gives me 24 hours in game play time.¡¯ ¡°Set alarm for 8 PM real life time today, and in game time of 4 pm, midnight, and 8 am too¡± mumbled Jack. After inspecting the alarm pane, he was satisfied and continued exploring the NOTEPAD and ALBUM. The Notepad was a nifty blue translucent book. He could dictate notes and also write/draw with his finger tips. Wiping the window with his palm erased whatever he wrote. He saw that the present page number was in the right hand top corner of the floating window with navigation buttons around it. The ALBUM seemed to be for screenshots. It was arranged like a blank photo album, but the first page had a blank field below the text ¡°Photo Trigger¡±. Jason touched the field and muttered ¡°screnie¡±. After he was done exploring the menus, he noticed that quite a few players were staring at him. Jack realized that he must have been waving his arms in the air. A few seemed to realize he was exploring the in game menu and started it themselves. He approached the nearest guard he could see to get directions. ¡°Greetings to you, good sir. Can you please point me towards the library, the training hall and some place where I can learn about magic?¡± The guard snorted and said in an irritated tone ¡°Do I look like a tour guide? You may be a traveler¡­but you are newborn. Go bother them.¡± He waved at what seemed like a stall in which an old couple was sitting. Jack was a bit shocked and wanted to abuse the arrogant guard. In MMOs, every guard had a set of directions for the city they were guarding. ¡®I have to think of this not just a game, but as a new world and treat NCPs like people and be careful of my behavior to them. I am sure they have some sort of intimacy to determine their reaction towards me depending on my capabilities.¡¯ Jack thought. ¡°Thank you. Sorry for disturbing you.¡± Jack apologized and started running towards the old couple. ¡°Good day to both of you Sir and Madam. The Guard there instructed me to come to you for directions.¡± Jack said pointing to the guard. They both chuckled and the old man said ¡°Don¡¯t mind Alfred there. He is just pissed that many newborn adventurers are asking him for directions when they can get a Map of the city here!¡± As if on cue, the old woman smiled and handed him a folded piece of paper. And she said in a raspy voice, ¡°By the order of the King, all new adventurers are to be provided this free of charge. The guilds, various shops and important landmarks are already marked on your map.¡± Jack accepted the Map with thanks and muttered ¡°Map¡±. An empty translucent pane showed up in his vision. ¡®Oh I think I have to use the map first.¡¯ Jack opened his inventory and tried to hold the map. It appeared in his hands. He unfolded it and he got a message: ¡°Do you want to use the map to add its information to your ingame Mapping feature?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Jack muttered, and the map from his hands disappeared. He then dismissed the inventory, bought out the map function and selected Rotang Inner City. The map of the city appeared in front of him. He could see a blinking red dot near the southern half of the map, which he assumed was his position. On the right, a list appeared. Scrolling the list, it seemed to be the landmarks. ¡®If this is a map of the inner city, then there should be an outer city. This probably means that I can go out and hunt some low level trash mobs even before four weeks are over.¡¯ Jack pondered. He decided to stick to his original plan to grind his physical stats in the training hall and his mental stats in the library for the first four weeks in game. Jack mentally concentrated ¡®Highlight Training Hall.¡¯ To his surprise, Training Hall was highlighted on the list along with a blinking green dot on the Map. ¡®Now that is useful! I don¡¯t have to wave my arms around like an idiot to access the system menu.¡¯ Armed with this new knowledge he memorized the route, dismissed the map and started jogging towards the training hall. After a few minutes of jogging, he reached the training hall. He felt a bit out of breath and he noticed his stamina bar was 80% full. ¡®So my real life physique doesn¡¯t affect my stats here.¡¯ Jack thought as he entered the training Hall. Inside it looked like a dojo with plenty of barrels, each containing multiple copies of a wooden weapon. In the far back, he noticed an old man dozing. The old man was in cheap dirty clothes and was completely bald without any hint of facial hair, except his silver eyebrows. He also saw a bored looking man juggling half a dozen wooden knives, near the left of the training hall. Jack approached him and waited for him to finish juggling. After the man noticed him, he scowled and continued juggling. Jack noticed that he had numerous fine scars on his face and his hands were calloused. ¡°Excuse me Sir¡­¡± Jack began. ¡°What do you want here? Don¡¯t you want to go massacre rabbits, over and over again like your fellow travelers?¡± the scarred man interrupted him. ¡°No Sir. I was wondering if I can practice on the training dummies.¡± Jack replied. ¡°Don¡¯t ¡®Sir¡¯ me. I am known as Instructor Theon. Just grab a weapon of your choice and practice with the dummies there if you have any idea to use a weapon. I doubt that though seeing as most of you travelers just blindly swing your sword.¡± Theon expertly flicked his wooden daggers into a nearby barrel and just waved his arms. ¡°Instructor Theon, is it alright if I practice unarmed on the dummies? I am Jack by the way¡± asked jack. ¡°Sure you can Jack. But I have to ask, why not pick a sword or a mace? You will be able to slaughter your rabbits far more quickly.¡± Instructor Theon asked interested. ¡°Instructor Theon, I believe that before we master other weapons, we should master the weapons we already have, our body and mind.¡± Jack replied confidently. Instructor Theon burst out in a loud guffaw and said in a friendlier tone, ¡°Good answer Jack! You can begin right away.¡± The old man at the far end of the training hall sat up alert and watched Jack with interest. Jack was a bit confused at the Instructor¡¯s sudden friendliness but walked towards a dummy. Before he began his training, he viewed his status.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy0 / 0
Title---
CONDITION
HP100/100HP/s0.1/s
MP50/50MP/s0.3/s
Stamina100/100STA/s0.8/s
Satiety / Thirst97% / 97%Weight Limit2.5/20
Active Effects---
STATS
Strength10Vitality10
Dexterity10Agility10
Intelligence10Willpower10
Luck10Free Stat Points0
SKILLS
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Jack was a pleasantly surprised. ¡®Show skill info Ambidexterity¡¯ Jack concentrated.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
AmbidexterityTrait------
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.This trait enables to use your off hand on par with your main hand. This removes damage penalty with your off-hand weapon and provides a bonus to crafting.
¡®System Help on Traits¡¯ Jack concentrated intently.
Traits are usually passive skills which do not have a level and cannot levelup. They provide bonuses or penalties. Helpful traits are very difficult to gain. Negative traits are usually the results of a powerful curse.
¡®Oh! So my ambidexterity from real life has carried over to the game? It makes sense I suppose, although I can¡¯t write as precisely as I can with my right, I guess it is enough for Asunder Online.¡¯ Jack pondered. ¡°Disable all notifications except Alarm.¡± Jack muttered, as he didn¡¯t want to be distracted by non-critical notifications while training. Jack got into a practiced breathing rhythm, and loosened his muscles by doing stretches. He clenched his fists, but kept the rest of his arms loose. Jack made a few practice swings. Satisfied he imagined the dummy as a human, visualizing its critical points. He targeted the throat and his right arm moved like a whip with his knuckles making an impact. He felt a slight jolt in his arm and continued. Jack continued alternating his target to the imagined throat, armpits, solar plexus and eyes. After a while he mixed in kicks targeting an imagined knee with his heel. He then weaved in his foot work, and started dodging imaginary incoming blows. Soon, Jack lost all sense of time and continued pounding the dummy. Weaved in with his relentless pounding were side steps, feints, lunges and a variety of evasive maneuvers. He didn¡¯t notice but Instructor Theon was kind of shocked. This traveler pounded the dummy, without any discernible forms, but no doubt, his practiced eyes deemed it effective. Jack was flowing from one attack to another using all four of his limbs. Instructor Theon glanced at the old man, and was surprised to see him observing Jack with a twinkle in his eyes. Slowly Jack felt his limbs getting heavier, and his movements getting slower, but he persevered on. After a while he could barely move his limbs, and each breath was labored. Jack noticed that his Stamina bar was almost empty. He also noticed that his hands were covered with bruises and were bleeding slightly. He deduced that beneath his equipped poor cloth boots, his feet were in a similar state. Jack carried on till he could hardly stand, and it felt as if his heart was bursting. Finally out of Stamina, Jack came to a standstill and calmed his labored breathing. Once Jack calmed his breathing, he sat down cross legged in the lotus position. He closed his eyes and started inhaling and exhaling deeply through his nostrils while clearing his thoughts. It felt natural to him after 2 years of Yoga practice. After a while he felt his heart calming. Soon he felt his previous vigor returning and felt rejuvenated. He opened his eyes and noticed that his Stamina was full. Jack got up, did a few stretches and resumed pulverizing the dummy with his limbs. Jack was in a trance and lost track of time. He repeated the cycle of pulverizing dummies and meditating to recover stamina. Each cycle he could abuse the dummy slightly longer before he needed to rest. After quite some time, Jack noticed that his stamina had recovered a lot slower suddenly. He noticed that he was feeling a bit hungry and thirsty. His satiety and thirst bar were around 2/3rd full. He deducted that penalties to his Stamina Regeneration were in effect due to his satiety and thirst. ¡®As long as I don¡¯t start losing HP, I can go on. I had lunch in real life, and have set an alarm for dinner anyway.¡¯ Jack mused and got back to bashing the innocent unfortunate dummy. Meanwhile Instructor Theon was pissed and pleased. Pissed because he had to drive away newborn travelers, who dropped in from time to time, explaining to them that there was no reward or quest for practicing here other than the improve in their skills. He also had to shoo them away as they were gawking at Jack by telling them either to hit a dummy or to get lost. Most travelers, in the short time they had arrived, only did quests with tangible rewards, then bought a weapon and started slaughtering rabbits. They weren¡¯t allowed to leave the outer city walls for a month, but the meadows between the inner city wall and the outer city wall had plenty of peaceful critters. But Jack had pleasantly surprised him with his dedication. ¡®This kid has potential.¡¯ Theon thought. Glancing at the old man in the far corner of the hall, he wondered ¡®Will he impress Janus?¡¯ Janus had, to Theon¡¯s surprise, a hint of a smile on his lips. Meanwhile Jack continued pummeling the dummies, when suddenly¡­ *Ding*
Alarm Notice: 4pm In Game Time.
Jack slowed, did a few stretches and sat down. He opened his notification log and started reading the notifications he had missed. Most of them were increases to his Strength, Agility, Vitality, Dexterity and occasionally, Willpower. He gave them just a cursory glance and moved on thinking ¡®I had 10 in all stats. I can just see the final stats at once anyways.¡¯ He saw that the penalty for Satiety and thirst below 65% was a25% penalty to HP/MP/STA regeneration each. Jack had almost 40% left on his satiety and thirst bar. He had also gained a few skills namely Unarmed Mastery and Meditation. He had also unlocked a few special stats namely Endurance, Sustenance, Balance and Flexibility ¡®Show Skill Info Unarmed Mastery and Meditation.¡¯ Jack concentrated, and he saw two popups.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Unarmed MasteryBeginner462.23%
You have learnt the Art of fighting with your bare hands and feet. Increases the damage inflicted, the speed of attacks and reduces the feedback damage. Current level effects: +18% Damage +16% Attack Speed +10 to 20 Bonus Attack Feedback Damage is 3% to 8% of damage dealt.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
MeditationBeginner293.68%
You can clear your mind to increase your natural HP/SP and STA regeneration. It can only be activated outside of combat. Current level effects: +54% to natural HP/MP and STA regeneration.
Jack dismissed the windows and called up stat info on the four special stats he unlocked.
Stat NameEnduranceStat TypeSpecial
This special stat reflects your determination to carry on, despite hardships. This stat increases your HP and Physical Defense. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
Stat NameSustenanceStat TypeSpecial
You have learnt to approach the true limits of your body and carry on with strenuous physical activity. This stat increases your Stamina and Stamina regeneration. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
Stat NameBalanceStat TypeSpecial
You are quick on your feet and able to recover your balance quickly. This stat partially negates positioning debuffs (knockback, knockdown etc) and increases movement speed in difficult terrain. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
Stat NameFlexibilityStat TypeSpecial
Your body is very supple and can twist in the nick of time, to avoid incoming blows. This stat increases your chance to dodge. In conjunction with Balance, this stat also reduces falling damage. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
Jack grinned feeling very pleased at the results. ¡®I gained two new skills and four new special stats for 8 hours of grinding! Now all that is left is to see my status, and then I can go to the library.¡¯ Jack concentrated and analyzed his Status.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy0 / 0
Title---
CONDITION
HP240/240HP/s0.12/s
MP50/50MP/s0.17/s
Stamina220/220STA/s1.18/s
Satiety / Thirst37% / 37%Weight Limit2.5/32
Active EffectsHunger Thirst
STATS
Strength16Vitality16
Dexterity16Agility16
Intelligence10Willpower12
Luck10Endurance8
Sustenance6Balance6
Flexibility8Free Stat Points0
SKILLS
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Meditation (Beginner Lv 2: 93.68%)
Unarmed Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 62.23%)
¡®Nice! I have more than double my initial HP and Stamina! And the +10 to 20 ATK boost from my unarmed mastery should be sufficient to compensate for my lack of weapons at low levels. The 3% to 8% feedback damage means I should be careful though, or I might end up killing myself. The %age damage bonus will become significant as my strength increases and I find more ways to make my unarmed strikes damaging. Also while checking my improvements, my HP and STA have regenerated.¡¯ Jack happily concluded. Jack bought out his map and memorized the position of the library. He got up and was walking towards the exit, when Instructor Theon shouted ¡°Tired already Jack? Are you going to massacre some innocent rabbits now?¡± Jack smiled and replied ¡°No Instructor Theon, I am going to the library to know more about this world.¡± Theon snorted and said ¡°Do you have a library card? Or 5 silvers? Because that is the minimum you will require to access the books in the library.¡± Hearing this Jack looked crestfallen and sighed ¡°Guess I have to butcher those innocent rabbits or do some errands around town before going to the library.¡± Theon looked amused and beckoned Jack to come closer. ¡°Come here Jack. Take this note to the Head Librarian Madam Curie, say my name and ask to help in exchange for a library card. You might as well do those errands in the library itself to gain your library card.¡± Hearing this Jack ran to instructor Theon, took the note and stored it in his inventory. ¡°Thank You Instructor Theon. I will be back for some training again!¡± Jack shouted while exiting the training center.
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Chapter 002 Chapter 002 ------------------------------------- ¡® ¡® for thoughts ¡° ¡° for speech Hope you enjoy the chapter. I had a bit of free time this weekend, so you get the chapter early! ¨Cplease point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you notice. ------------------------------------- After completing his 8 hour stint at the training hall, Jack jogged towards the library to familiarize himself with Lore. As Jack entered the library, he felt goose bumps on the back of his neck. ¡®Must be some sort of magic in effect here¡­¡¯ Jack thought while trying to make sense of the sudden goose bumps. Jack saw a visibly bored young boy, about 12 years old, sitting on the reception counter on Jacks left. The boy was playing some sort of guessing game with cards. Straight ahead of Jack was some space with a lot of shelves. There was a spiral staircase in the center, which Jack assumed went to the upper floors. Jack approached the reception, and inquired: ¡°Greeting to you. Can you please tell me where I can meet the Head Librarian Madam Curie?¡± The bored boy looked up at Jack with a quizzical gaze. ¡°You want to meet Auntie Curie? Sure I can take you there. But tell me are you one of those travelers? I haven¡¯t seen you before¡± the boy said in an irritating droning voice. Jack suppressed an urge to slap the owner of that droning voice and replied ¡°Yes I am a traveler. I am known as Jack.¡± The boy looked visibly excited and replied in his droning voice which started squeaking intermittently ¡°That is so cool! I am Dan by the way. Are you a mage? Are you looking to expand your knowledge to do cool spells? Who sent you here anyway? If you are a mage, don¡¯t tell Auntie Curie though. She doesn¡¯t seem to like them very much.¡± Jack chuckled outwardly and thought ¡®This brat¡¯s voice sure is irritating.¡¯ ¡°No I am just a novice. Can you please lead me to Madam Curie now?¡± Jack said suppressing his urge to slap Dan silly. ¡°You are just a novice? That is so lame. You can take the stairs, on the 3rd floor to your right you will find a door labeled ¡®Head Librarian¡¯. Auntie Curie should be there now.¡± Dan said dismissively in his droning voice and went back to his cards. ¡®Someone should slap some manners into this brat and shut that annoying voice of his.¡¯ Jack thought while fuming at Dan¡¯s reaction. Jack shrugged, gathered himself and went to meet the Head Librarian. He knocked loudly on the door, and heard a curt voice say ¡°Enter.¡± Jack entered and noticed a severe old lady, with a hooked nose. She had her silver-white hair in a tight bun. She looked up and set her stern gaze upon Jack. ¡°How can I help you young traveler? I hope you are not here to waste my time.¡± she inquired. ¡°Greetings Madam Curie. I was sent by instructor Theon to help you. He asked me to give you this note.¡± Jack said, while he withdrew the note from his inventory and handed it to Madam Curie. The Head Librarian read his note and looked at Theon. ¡°Hmm. This is intriguing. So you want a library card, and in return you will help me out here. Is that correct young man?¡± ¡°Yes Madam Curie. When can I start? I am Jack by the way.¡± Jack inquired hopefully. ¡°From your looks you are a newborn traveler. From the note Theon sent me, you have absolutely no skills¡­but are diligent. Here take this note to that brat who sits at reception and familiarize yourself with our filing system. You can¡¯t miss him; he has the most annoying voice I have heard. Then you can begin shelving returned books in their proper place.¡± Madam Curie said and motioned him to take a note she had just written. Jack thanked her and pocketed the note. He was almost about to leave, when he heard Madam Curie again. ¡°Oh, I almost forget! Take this provisional employee card too. This enables you to sleep at the dormitory and have meals free of charge in our cafeteria. Your dormitory will be on the 4th floor. Enter the door labeled ¡®Employees Only¡¯ and take the first door to your right. I know you travelers just disappear while leaving this world in city limits, but sleeping before you return to your own world has its advantages.¡± Madam Curie took out a brown card from her desk drawer and kept it on the desk. ¡°Thank you Madam Curie. Can you please tell me where the cafeteria is located?¡± Jack asked. He had noticed that his Stamina had stopped regenerating and his satiety and thirst bars were around 1/3rd full. ¡°The cafeteria is at the ground floor behind an ¡®Employees Only¡¯ door. Just go straight ahead and you will land there. Meal times are at 7-8am, 1-2pm and 7-8pm daily. Since you will be getting a library card, free food and lodging, you won¡¯t be paid. Although, with this provisional employee card, you can read any books you want in your free time, but aren¡¯t allowed to take books with you. There is a very powerful anti-theft magical system in here¡­so don¡¯t even try. So is that acceptable Jack?¡±
Quest Information
NameWork for KnowledgeGrade???
Description On Instructor Theon¡¯s recommendation, the head Librarian Madam Curie has offered you to help her out to classify books which are not in their respective shelves.
Duration / Time Limit4 weeks
Privileges: You get free food and lodging for the duration of this quest. You can also access the library at any hour.
Failure You abandon the quest. You damage a book irreparably.
Rewards On satisfactory completion of your responsibilities, you will get a library membership card. Depending on your dedication, you may get additional rewards.
¡°Yes, head librarian. How do I use this card anyway?¡± Jack asked and dismissed the Quest Accepted Notification. The terms of the quest seemed quite favorable. He didn¡¯t need to worry about food for four weeks in game! He can just mooch off the library. He also wondered what the benefits of sleeping in-game before logging off, and the mystery rewards were. ¡°Oh that is easy. Just prick your finger, and pour a drop of your blood on the card. Whenever you want to enter an ¡®Employees only¡¯ section, just wave the card. If you have access to it, you will be able to enter. Now get to Work. Chop Chop!¡± Madam Curie snapped at Jack. Jack took the hint and went to meet Dan. Dan seemed annoyed to be interrupted from his card game. But as soon as Jack gave him Curie¡¯s note, Dan quickly gave him a thin book from his reception and gave a brief explanation of the book classification system used and the layout of the library. Jack listened intently; it was a numerical classification system. He hoped that its intricacies were similar to the Universal Decimal Classification used in his University Library. Dan explained that each floor had many tables and chairs for reading, arranged between the shelves. After readers had finished reading, they would keep their books on the tables and leave. Also books which were returned after being lent were in the ground floor. Dan was somewhat gleeful when he explained that Jack¡¯s task for today was arranging the books in the first floor, which usually had the most number of books. Jack was also reminded to start his job after 6 pm, as non-employee members were allowed to read until then. Jack grudgingly thanked that annoying little git, and left to read the Classification Manual Dan had provided him. Dan was barely able to contain his sniggering until Jack left. ¡®It is impossible to be familiar with the library system in an hour and half till 6pm today. I wonder whether I overdid it by assigning him a week¡¯s job today? What if he mentions to Auntie Curie? Nah a Novice like him will never be able to complete it run away anyways.¡¯ Dan rationalized while sniggering all the time. Jack set an alarm for 7 pm IGT, 7am IGT and 1pm IGT. He disabled the previous alarm for 8pm IGT. He had initially planned to only spend up to 8pm (IGT) in the library, and spend rest of the time outside the outer city gates for some xp and loot. He changed his plan to spend the rest of his time in the library before he had to log out. He didn¡¯t want to miss his free meals, anyway. Jack found an empty table and quickly memorized the Library Classification and started memorizing the numerical scheme and the layout of the library. He made an abridged version of it in his NTOEPAD to help him later. It was surprisingly easy as the classification system used was fortunately; very similar to the system used by his University. After Jack finished memorizing, he noticed that his stamina was around 80% full. His satiety and thirst bars were around 1/10th full each. ¡®This must be due to another satiety related penalty which stopped my regens.¡¯ Thought Jack. Jack didn¡¯t want to use his bread and canteen to satiate himself, as he was about to get a free meal soon. Jack decided to meditate until dinner time to conserve his pieces of stale bread. Jack sat on the floor nearby in his practiced lotus position and entered into a meditative trance. He lost track of time and was soon engrossed in cycles of rhythmic breathing. Suddenly, he heard the familiar *Ding* and a notification popped up.
Alarm Notice: 7pm In Game Time.
Jack noticed that his thirst and satiety bar were still around 1/10th each and his stamina too was around 80%. The same before he went into meditation. He was also a bit surprised that the game could insert notification into his mind directly while he was meditating. But he then quickly recalled, that this whole VR world was experienced directly in his brain. After such level of detail and nuance he noticed ingame, inserting a crude popup would be no big deal. Jack quickly went to the ¡®Employees Only¡¯ Door on first floor, waved his card and quickly jogged to the cafeteria. Unsurprisingly he was the first person there. Shrugging, he piled up his plate from the buffet, and started devouring his food. The food was quite decent, even if the variety was a bit lacking. It had fresh green salad, bread, some sort of rabbit stew with vegetables mixed in, apple pie and for some strange reason rabbit meat jerky. The Jugs on the table had warm honeyed water to quench his thirst. After he had finished refilling his satiety and thirst, he noticed that many other employees had started eating. He noticed a shallow raised metallic cart in the corner. He assumed it was for dirty dishes and glasses, and was proved correct. He was about to leave, when he noticed that the buffet had rabbit meat jerky. He took this opportunity to store a few of them in his inventory. ¡®They will definitely be better than that stale bread anyways. Might as well dump my stale breads and stock up on rabbit meat jerky for the night.¡¯ Jack dumped his stale breads in the cart and took another few pieces of the jerky so that he had 10 pieces in total. After his theft of rabbit jerky, Jack decided to start his job of arranging the books properly. He went around and used his NOTEPAD as a guide. Most tables usually had up to a dozen books each, which were supposed to be stored in the first floor itself. He noticed half a dozen of side alcoves, each of which probably had around a hundred books. ¡®They are probably the returned books, Dan was talking about. I will deal with them later.¡¯ Jack thought. The library had 6 floors total in the unrestricted section. Each floor had around 20 tables for reading. Jack¡¯s task for today was clearing the first floor including the alcoves. Jack opened his inventory and according and started storing books according to its classification number. After he cleared around 5 tables and had around 60 books in his inventory, he noticed that he was moving slower. ¡®Must be the over-weight limit penalty. Oh well I still have 33 slots left. I can store books worth another 2-3 tables in my inventory.¡¯ Jack thought, and decided to fill his inventory to capacity. He then implemented only the breathing patterns from his meditation so that he could conserve stamina, and went about arranging the books in their respective shelves. He kept his notepad summoned constantly so as to avoid any mistakes. After a while he had finished dealing with all the tables on the first floor. Near the end, Jack noticed that he could walk faster with his inventory full. He went towards one of the alcoves and started glancing through their classification serials. Jack noticed that each alcove was for one of the floors. He decided to deal to clear the first floor first and then move up the floors in ascending order. He filled his inventory to the brim with books, and noticed that there were 6 books left. He took three of them in each hand and placed them in their respective shelves. Jack decided to try an experiment. He summoned his inventory and thought with concentration, ¡®Sort library books in the inventory, with NOTEPAD library notes as guide.¡¯ After a few second, to his amazement, the icons in his inventory started flying from one slot to another. ¡®Nice. I thought this task would be impossible. But looks like there is a way to complete this quest after all, I just had to be smart enough to figure out the inventory and NOTEPAD features.¡¯ Jack thought happily. After his discovery, Jack practically ran around the first floor, shelving the books properly. He continued to tackle the other floors. After he had finished with the second and third floors, he noticed that his satiety and thirst were around 60% full. ¡®Guess running around with overloaded inventory depletes them faster than just reading. Makes sense I suppose, after all I will be hungrier after running all day as compared to reading.¡¯ Jack pondered whether he should eat a jerky and drink some water, but decided against it. He would have a short break when his stamina stopped regenerating. After Jack was done with all the six floors, his satiety/thirst bars were around 30% and his stamina was still regenerating. Jack debated whether to start reading about the game world, but decided against it. He wanted to see what the special reward for exceeding expectation was. He went to the second floor, and was pleased to see that there were a lot less books on the tables there. He quickly stored them in his inventory and sued the sorting trick to deal with them. By the time Jack had dealt with the third and fourth floors he noticed that he was no longer regenerating stamina. Jack¡¯s satiety/thirst bars were around 10% full. Jack decided to take a break. Each jerky filled 15% of his satiety bar. Jack eats a couple of them. He also takes a couple of long draughts from his water canteen. After his satiety/thirst bars were 40%, he started regenerating his stamina. ¡®Hmm, strange. Judging by the amount of water I drank, the canteen should be empty. But it is still almost full. Guess the canteen is enchanted. I drank around 1 liter of water. The canteen still looks like it could provide another 20 liters of water easily. 24 liters at max, I guess.¡¯ The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Jack resumed clearing the fifth and sixth floors. Afterwards he decided to start his reading when he received another notification.
Alarm Notice: 7am In Game Time.
¡®Oh free breakfast, here I come!¡¯ Jack thought gleefully and ran towards the cafeteria in the first floor. He was again, the first one to reach and wasted no time in piling his plate with the dishes. The breakfast menu comprised of bread, scrambled eggs, Shepard¡¯s pie with rabbit meat and again, rabbit meat jerky. Jack guessed that the rabbit meat jerky was a constant item on the library¡¯s menu. It was kept for the purpose of snacking in between meals for the employees. But it mostly remained untouched as most of the library employees were absolutely sick of rabbit meat. After Jack ate his breakfast and drank his fill of honeyed water, he restocked his inventory to have 10 pieces of rabbit meat jerky. He then went to the dormitory on the fifth floor and selected a bed whose nearby locker was unlocked. There were around 3-4 library employees there, who were leaving for breakfast. They gave him a quizzed look. Jack shrugged and sat on his bed. He started reviewing his notification logs. He had noticed many gains in Strength, Agility, Vitality and Willpower. He had gained a bit of Intelligence too. He also saw stat gains in his special stats of Sustenance and Balance, along with a bit of Endurance and Flexibility. To his delight, he had unlocked another couple of special stats, namely Concentration and Wisdom. He noticed his meditation skill had gained two subskills, namely Controlled Breathing and Meditative Stasis. Furthermore, with the unlocking of Meditative Stasis, jack¡¯s Meditation Skill had moved up a tier to Intermediate! Furthermore, being the first player to raise a skill to Intermediate and to unlock a trait in game, Jack had gained +20 to his fame. Jack wondered why he didn¡¯t gain an additional 10 fame for unlocking subskill or a special stat.. He reasoned that some other player had unlocked some combat related subskill while carrying out the genocide of rabbits. But jack was still intrigued about the special stat¡­ some other player had beat him to the punch. Jack bought up the stat information for Concentration and Wisdom.
Stat NameConcentrationStat TypeSpecial
This special stat reflects your ability to ignore distractions and perform mentally taxing tasks. This stat increases your MP regeneration and reduces chance of spell failure while receiving damage. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
Stat NameWisdomStat TypeSpecial
This special stat reflects your special insight and your ability to act on it. This stat increases your Maximum MP and the potency of your magic (excluding magic granted by deities). You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
¡®Sweet! I got a couple of nifty stats to help with my spell casting! I should pick up some option to do ranged damage, magic might be good, but I am not planning to be a mage, and am not sure about how quick I can cast a spell without system assist anyways. I don¡¯t really like bows, they are difficult to conceal. Hmm I should pick up a skill for thrown weapons, next time I am in the training hall.¡¯ Jack pondered on his future course of grinding. Jack summoned the skill info of his gained subskills.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Controlled BreathingBeginner625.68%
Subskill of Meditation You have adapted your meditative breathing techniques to function out of your meditative state of mind. This subskill increases your natural HP/SP and STA regeneration, but to a lesser degree than meditation. It can be activated outside meditation only without system assist. Current level effects: +13% to natural HP/MP and STA regeneration.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Meditative StasisTrait------
Subskill of Meditation You have adapted your meditative techniques to suppress your hunger and thirst, with the help of the special stat Sustenance. When satiety and thirst are dangerously low, you can enter a meditative state to almost pause the fall of your satiety and thirst. You do not, however, generate HP, MP and STA naturally in meditative stasis.
¡®Controlled breathing looks an overall useful subskill. I thought help said traits were very difficult to gain? I guess unlocking sustenance and entering meditation at low satiety and thirst were the hidden requirements for this trait. It helped my meditation jump up from beginner to intermediate tier though. I wonder how many tiers skills have?¡¯ Jack summoned the system help on skill tiers. According to the system each skill had four tiers, and each tier had 10 levels. Tiers ranged from: Beginner > Intermediate > Advanced > Master Reaching lv10 in one tier promoted your skill to lv1 of the next tier. The exception was Master. At master lv10, the skill was at max potential. But the system help hinted at certain skills having Grandmasters, who were rumored to have transcended the limit of master tier skills. ¡®Hmm interesting bit of Info this is, but I guess it is too early for me to run around looking for hidden grandmasters now. Let me review my status. It is almost 8pm in RL. I need to do a few stretches, take a shower and have dinner¡¯ jack thought as he summoned his status screen.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
Title---
CONDITION
HP300/300HP/s0.339/s
MP90/90MP/s0.7006/s
Stamina300/300STA/s3.842/s
Satiety / Thirst97% / 97%Weight Limit2.5/40
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Beginner lv6)
STATS
Strength20Vitality20
Dexterity16Agility20
Intelligence12Willpower16
Luck10Endurance10
Sustenance10Balance10
Flexibility10Concentration6
Wisdom6Free Stat Points0
SKILLS
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 3: 03.18%)
  • Controlled Breathing (Beginner Lv 6: 25.68%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
Unarmed Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 62.23%)
Jack was happy with the results of his stint in the library. He didn¡¯t get much lore, received low bonuses to his Intelligence. On the other hand he had gained massive boost to his Meditation skill, unlocked two new subskills, two new special stats and gained decent increase in most of his physical stats. Satisfied, Jack lay on his bed and logged off. A few minutes after Jack logged off, Madam Curie was arriving towards the dorm with a very sullen looking Dan in tow. She was surprised that Jack had done a month of manual work overnight, without the aid of librarian specific magic! She had scolded Dan and had cut his allowance completely for the next month. She decided to give Jack a very special reward for his hardwork and dedication, but Jack was already asleep when she arrived. She admonished Dan a little bit and sent him off to his duty. ¡®My nephew is such a spoil brat. I have to instruct my sister to discipline him more. She spoils him too much for his own good.¡¯ Madam Curie grumbled internally. She left the library, and walked towards the city¡¯s public training hall to meet Theon. Theon was chatting with the strange old man, and as usual the training ahll was devoid of any traveler. She was very excited about Jack and told about his work in the library to Theon. She said: ¡°That novice traveler has done more overnight, than my incompetent nephew could manage in a month and that too without access to any of the researcher exclusive skills, or even the librarian spells for that matter! I think I will relieve him from his quest and give him something extra, perhaps offer him a post within the library.¡± Theon exchanged a glance with Janus, and they seemed to have a silent conversation, and said ¡°Curie, don¡¯t modify his quest yet. Give something extra at the end of four weeks if you wish, but keep him at the library as planned for four weeks. Who knows, he might surprise you once more! Also, I know that I have no right to ask you this, but please do not offer him any class. Just trust me on this.¡± Theon pleaded to Curie. ¡°OK Theon. I trust you. But for this you will owe me one! And promise me that if Jack fails whatever fool¡¯s errand you have decided to send him on, you will direct him to meet me immediately.¡± Madam Curie huffed. It was very contrasting to her usual stern demeanor. ¡°You got it Curie! Thanks a lot for this. I will make it up to you, I swear!¡± Theon exclaimed looking visibly pleased. Madam Curie was a bit displeased to leave a traveler with such potential to Theon, but he was the one who actually scouted him anyway. Oh well, now Theon owed her one, and that was bound to be useful later. Jacob exited from his FuDi capsule and checked the time. He washed a cup of rice, and set it to boil. He also set a couple of eggs to boil. Meanwhile he washed and chopped some broccoli along with some beans and set it to steam. While his simple meal was cooking Jacob started some stretches. To his surprise he wasn¡¯t sore at all. ¡®Hmm it was developed for the military after all. They wouldn¡¯t want their soldier¡¯s muscle to atrophy during simulations. I wonder what sort of technology they used for it.¡¯ Jacob wondered while doing his stretches. After 15 minutes he checked the state of his food. The rice, vegetables and eggs were done. He turned off his cooking range, did his ablutions, and took a shower. After his shower, he had his dinner and noticed that it was around 8:30pm. He was about to strip to his undies and connect to Asunder Online via FuDi, when his cellphone buzzed, indicating he had received a text. He sighed and started reading it. It was form Carlos. "bro ao is da best imma elf mage bombing foxes n wild dogs with magic n lv6 nw n i sent da text frm in da game!" Jacob chuckled at Carlos¡¯s enthusiasm. He was glad his friend was having a blast with AO. He was hoping, that when his office gossip would be replaced by discussions about AO. Jacob was also intrigued that Carlos could text from within AO. The phone linking feature was nifty. Jacob entered his FuDi capsule, closed the lids and opted to connect to AO through Full Dive mode. He started hearing relaxing music and he was looking at hypnotic patterns. Soon he fell asleep and he woke up in a bed at the library dorm..
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Chapter 003 Chapter 003 ------------------------------------- ¡® ¡® for thoughts ¡° ¡° for speech Hope you enjoy the chapter! ¨Cplease point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you notice and feel free to post any comments you might have. Tables took a lot of time to make. And the next chapter will be a bit slower as I have RL stuff do in the weekdays. ------------------------------------- After logging in AO suing FuDi mode, Jack woke up and checked IGT, which was 11:00am and RLT was 8:45pm. His satiety and thirst were almost full, so Jack decided to cancel IGT alarms for 1pm and 4pm. He also added an alarm for 6am RLT. ¡®I must not skip my daily exercise and rhythm. Sure I will get a few hours of extra time, but I will lose my fitness in RL.¡¯ Jack resolved. Jack concentrated a bit, and breathed in rhythmic pattern so as to activate Controlled Breathing. He glanced around and noticed that the locker near hid bead was closed. He recalled that it was open, when he had logged off. Jack opened the locker and saw a single note there. He read the note, which instructed him to meet Madam Curie, as soon as he returned. Jack jogged downstairs towards the Head librarian¡¯s office and knocked. After hearing a curt ¡°come in¡± Jack entered. Madam Curie glanced in his direction and wrinkled her nose. ¡°Next time you come in my office, I want you to take a bath.¡± The head librarian instructed Jack. ¡°Umm, ma¡¯am where do I take a bath?¡± Jack inquired. ¡°Ah I forget that you travelers can be a bit odd. Right across your dorm room, there is a common bath for male employees. I will also have a set of uniforms sent to your locker, so that you can change into something better than your current set of rags.¡± ¡°Thank you Ma¡¯am. Can you please tell me why you had that note near my bed?¡± Jack inquired. ¡°Oh right. You will go to train under Theon now yes?¡± The head librarian inquired. Jack nodded an affirmative and Madam Curie continued, ¡°I thought you would be useless here and quit at the first sign of hard work, since it doesn¡¯t involve beating dummies violently. But you do show some potential. Return here after you had a bath, and after your dinner time. I will give you a self-study assignment. Now get your stinky self, outside my office.¡± Madam Curie shooed him away. Jack thanked her thinking ¡®Looks like I managed to exceed her expectations somewhat. I will discover what exactly this special reward is.¡¯ Jack exited the library and jogged towards the training hall. He entered the training hall, greeted Instrutor Theon. Theon grunted and acknowledgement, and just motioned Jack to begin. Jack noticed that the old man from last time appeared to be dozing in the far corner. ¡®He is dressed like a beggar. Probably Theon lets him sleep inside. But for some strange reason, I get odd vibes when I look at him.¡¯ Jack shrugged and focused at the task at hand. He wanted to train in some sort of throwing weapons. Jack inquired about this possibility to Instructor Theon. Instructor Theon pondered a bit and motioned him to follow him and went behind the door. Jack followed up the flight of stairs and in the second floor there was something akin to an Archery range with static targets at various positions. Instructor Theon came to a stop and pointed at a couple of barrels. ¡°This here is a modified archery range. Most people prefer bows as a backup to their weapon, but throwing weapons are an option too. You should start with darts with the closest target. When you can consistently hit that, move to targets farther away. Your missile weapons should be thrown from behind the yellow line. Once your projectile hits the target or the walls, it will automatically return to their respective barrels.¡± Instructor Theon explained and left Jack. Jack dumped as many darts as he could in his inventory. He could carry around 370 of them without reaching his weight limit. Unfortunately he could stack only 10 darts in each slot. Jack reasoned that throwing with some weight penalty in effect would cause him to gain throwing mastery faster. But if he was too overloaded, he couldn¡¯t make a successful throw. Jack stored around 500 darts in his inventory. The barrel seemed to have unending amounts of throwing darts. The throwing range had 7 bullseyes. Each of them was approximately 3 m farther than the previous one. The first bullseye was around 3 m away from the yellow line. The yellow line divided the room into half approximately. Jack inspected the other barrels and found a variety of throwing weapons including throwing knives, javelins, throwing axes, types of boomerangs, and chakrams of a variety of sizes. Jack set an alarm at 7pm IGT, for his appointment with Madam Curie. ¡®I will have enough time to take a bath, eat and meet Madam Curie before 8:30 pm IGT¡¯ Jack thought. Jack grabbed a stack of 10 darts from his inventory with his left hand and started throwing them at the closest target with his right hand. He missed quite often at first, but that was to be expected. For the next stack of darts, Jack swapped hands and so on. After a while he could hit the closest target consistently and he moved on the next. Whenever Jack ran out of stamina, he meditated for a bit, although with controlled breathing active at all times, that happened less often. When he could consistently hit the third target, Jack was out of darts. Jack switched to throwing knives and repeated the same pattern, but started from the second target. Jack could consistently hit the fourth target when he ran out of daggers. Jack was about to select some boomerangs, when he received a notification. *Ding*
Alarm Notice: 7pm In Game Time
Jack ran to the library. He decided he could review his status while taking the bath. After he entered the library, he entered the door opposite to his dorm-room and saw a public bath. I wasn¡¯t anything grand, but it was empty. He stripped naked, and soaked himself in the bath, washing himself with some kind of crude soap. He reviewed his notifications. Most of it was stat gains in dexterity. He also gained some points in strength, agility, vitality and willpower. He didn¡¯t unlock any special stats this time, but he noticed occasional gains in Endurance, Sustenance, Flexibility and Balance. Jack had gained a skill Thrown Weapon Mastery. He had also gained two subskills to his Thrown Weapon mastery, namely Dart Throwing and Knife Throwing. ¡®hmm, so different thrown weapons have different subskills governing them? Guess I should pick up all the available ones at the training hall then¡¯ Jack thought. He reviewed the skills he had gained.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Thrown Weapon MasteryBeginner285.38%
You have learnt techniques to use thrown weapons effectively. This skill increases the range and projectile speed of your thrown weapons.. Current level effects: +11% to projectile speed. +6% to projectile range.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Dart ThrowingBeginner415.24%
Subskill of Thrown Weapon Mastery You have learnt techniques to use effectively use darts as weapons. This skill increases the damage and critical damage of your thrown darts. Current level effects: +18% damage of thrown darts. +14% critical damage of thrown darts.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Knife ThrowingBeginner385.67%
Subskill of Thrown Weapon Mastery You have learnt techniques to use effectively use throwing knifes as weapons. This skill increases the damage and critical damage of your thrown darts. Current level effects: +16% damage of thrown darts. +13% critical damage of thrown darts.
Jack noticed that his Thrown Weapon Skill hadn¡¯t improved much. ¡®Maybe because I wasn¡¯t moving around much? I will try to move around and hit targets at different ranges to increase Thrown mastery faster. Also the subskills seem to provide damage and critical damage bonus, but with different weapon types. I will get all of them, but I should probably specialize if I want to maximize my damage potential. Meh, I will train all of them for four weeks, and specialize in those which I find fun to use. I will also alternate unarmed practice and throwing practice.¡¯ Jack planned his future course of action at the training Hall. Jack was almost finished with his bath and reviewed his status screen.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
Title---
CONDITION
HP330/330HP/s0.3729/s
MP90/90MP/s0.7232/s
Stamina330/330STA/s4.3392/s
Satiety / Thirst97% / 97%Weight Limit2.5/40
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Beginner lv6)
STATS
Strength21Vitality21
Dexterity21Agility21
Intelligence12Willpower17
Luck10Endurance12
Sustenance12Balance12
Flexibility12Concentration6
Wisdom6Free Stat Points0
SKILLS
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 3: 18.18%)
  • Controlled Breathing (Beginner Lv 6: 85.98%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Beginner Lv 2: 85.38%)
  • Dart Throwing (Beginner Lv 4: 15.24%)
  • Knife Throwing (Beginner Lv 3: 85.67%)
Unarmed Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 62.23%)
Jack reviewed his stat growth while grabbing a bath robe. He put his beginner Cloth set in his inventory and went to his dorm room. He equipped one set of Library Employee Tunic, Library Employee Pants and a pair of Library Employee shoes. None of them gave any defense bonus unfortunately. He dumped the bathrobe he had equipped in his locker and jogged to the cafeteria where he had his dinner. After dinner, he went to meet Madam Curie. She instructed him to read about the different kinds of magic, after he had finished with his job of sorting the books. Jack looked a bit panicked, if sorting books took the whole night, then he would never learn anything. Noticing his expression, the Head Librarian assured him that all of the alcoves combined had a hundred books, unlike his first day where each alcove had around hundred books. She also stated that, she had ¡®disciplined¡¯ the regular employees in the library, and that there would be far fewer books, on the tables in each floor. Jack went to the first floor of the library, and started dealing with the unsorted books on the table. To his delight, there were roughly a third of the books he had encountered on the first day. He started tackling the alcoves. Since there were far fewer books, Jack decided to start form the sixth floor and move downwards. He dumped as many books as he could in his inventory and sued the sorting trick to deal with them as quickly as possible. It was 1 am before he could start reading. Jack decided to start reading about magic, as Madam Curie instructed and later move on to history and geography of Terra. Jack was now quite familiar with the layout and classification of his library. He quickly zipped to the introduction to magic section, and started reading about mana. After reading a variety of books on mana, he summarized his findings in his NOTEPAD. Mana is the currency which fuels Magic. No one knows the exact nature of mana, and there are many conflicting theories on the subject. However most agree that for sentient beings, maximum mana capacity or Max MP, depends on the user¡¯s mental condition. Depending on the willpower and concentration of the user, the user slowly absorbs MP from the surrounding. There are potions made from various herbs and monster parts which quickly restore MP. Disciplined users could also enter a special state of mind in order to regenerate MP faster naturally. Certain places also had beneficial or detrimental effects on MP regeneration. However, there were no naturally occurring places were MP regen stopped completely. It was theorized that constructing places where MP regeneration stopped completely was almost impossible for mortal mages. He received an alarm notification, signaling that it was time for breakfast. Jack had his breakfast and continued with more unarmed training, and returned to the library. After he was done sorting the books, It was 6 am in Real Life Time, and it was time for him to wake up. He regretted that he couldn¡¯t read any more, but decided to log off. After Jacob woke up, he went for his customary morning parkour circuit. He returned, to have a quick shower and breakfast, before connecting to AO through instant mode. Jack continued his grinding in the training hall, sorting the library books, and reading about magic in whatever time he could spare. He adjusted alarms as necessary, for having Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner both in RL and IG. He was playing Asunder Online almost all day in his vacation from work. He used Full Dive mode, only when it was time to sleep in RL. Periodically Jacob reviewed his AO gameplay videos on his computer, and stored a few clips of each of his grinding activities. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Jacob was in touch with his circle of friends from work. As agreed, they didn¡¯t give much character details, or even locations or the name of their avatars for that matter. They just discussed a vague overview of their avatars. Carlos was an elven mage specializing in fire and thunder. Adam was some sort of human priest who specialized in healing, but had some offensive options with earth magic. Dion was a human tanky warrior. He was however, aiming to turn into a paladin of a deity which would provide him offensive spells. All of them were in the level range of 8-10, grinding on the mobs they had access to inside the starting city limits. But above level 10, they experience the got form those weak mobs was almost negligible, so they were filling their time doing various quests and errands to gain ingame currency for better equipment, while waiting for access to better hunting grounds, outside their starter zones. Meanwhile, Jacob¡¯s avatar was still lv 0, and diligently following his grinding in the training, his work and reading assignment in the library. His friends were shocked that he was still Lv0, with his starting equipment and 10 coppers, but Jack explained that he had stumbled upon a very demanding quest with a grade of ???. His friends were even more shocked. Quest Grades ranged from F to A. There were supposed to be special quests with Rank S and above, but no one expected any player to encounter it for a year at least. Jack made them swear, not to reveal in any message boards about his ??? quest grade. Ingame, Jack learnt more and more about magic. There were two main types of magic, namely Arcane and Deific magic. Arcane Magic¡¯s power depended solely on the user¡¯s mental condition and spells used, whereas deific magic depended largely on the user¡¯s faith and patron deity. Most metals interfered with the casting of arcane magic and introduced a chance of spell failure. Whereas, it was observed that channeling the power of your patron deity became much more taxing on the mana pool of divine magic user. Hence priests were usually lightly armored. Meanwhile, paladins had less usage of divine spells, and concentrated more on increasing the effectiveness of their allies. There were rumored to be certain metals, which dwarven mastersmiths could forge into armor, which could bypass these restrictions. The most common type of arcane magic was hermetic magic, utilized by hermetic magicians or simply ¡®mages¡¯. They had a very rigid system of closed magic. Researching new spells was very expensive and time consuming, although researching a spell with the same effect independently, resulted in exactly the same spell. Hence mages formed guilds, most often form the same kingdom, where the most academically inclined studied the hermetic system of magic and researched new spells. To cover the costs of researching spells, rest of the mages bought spells form the mage¡¯s guild. Basic spells were cheap, but higher tier spells were very expensive, and the mage sometimes had to earn enough favor with his guild to be able to buy them. Most mage guilds were had amicable relations with each other and were academic in nature. Their spell-casting action required complicated gesture and chants. Extremely powerful spells were usually rituals and required sacrifices. There were many other systems of casting arcane magic, but gaining access to their secrets was no mean task. There were druids, who could use a variety of nature based magic, but their spells were generally considered weaker than mages in cities and locations further form nature. Most druids were hidden covens of elves and were very secretive about their magic. The most enigmatic of spellcasters, were perhaps the Shamans. They were essentially arcane spellcasters, but made deals with spirits, both benevolent and malevolent in order to gain access to arcane knowledge. Shamans are powerful, but specialized depending on the spirits they have contracted with. Some researchers theorize that druids are essentially shamans, who have contracted with Gaia, the spirit of Terra, but it has never been proved more than conjecture. There were many more systems of arcane magic rumored to exist ranging from warriors in harmony with the elements who dive into melee with blades of fire and armor of earth, to cursed warriors who gain strength from slaughter and exude an aura of insanity. Yet none of these rumors have been verified and documented. Deific magic was essentially magic granted by the deities. There were two main classes of deific magic users, namely priests and paladins. Priests were similar to shamans. Whereas most shamans got their knowledge of spells from deals with spirits, priests gained their spells from their faith and the veneration of their patron deities. Paladins could be termed as mortal warriors of their patron deities. Paladins could cast fewer and weaker spells than priests, but more than made up for it with their fighting prowess, which was usually on par with warriors, approaching the martial prowess of knights. After Jack familiarized himself with the basics of the various magic systems over two weeks, he decided to study the history of Terra and the main deities who granted spells to their priests and paladins. The world of Terra was once a utopian society in antiquity guided by divinities, where many sentient races lived in peace and prosperity. The deities, who had invested a lot of their power to created Terra and life on it, had expected to recover their power from the devotion and veneration of sentient creations. For a time, it was so¡­ however the races of Terra advanced magic themselves, and slowly neglected to venerate their creators. The divinities began fearing the loss of their power in the declining faith of their creations. They granted certain mortals a portion of their power, and instigated proxy wars against each other, which soon degenerated into full-scale wars where they created their avatars among mortals to monopolize their worshippers in what was dubbed as The Divine Wars. Although there were neutral faction of deities, they were few and far in between. This caused an age of turmoil and destruction which lasted for centuries and Terra was devastated. In the present day, no reliable records exist, which chronicle the time before the war of divinities, beyond legends and folk lore. Unknown to the deities Gaia, the spirit of Terra, had woken up from her slumber. Seeing such devastation on her, she gave an ultimatum to the divinities. They either stop their interference on Terra, or she wipes out all sentient life on Terra, leaving them nothing to fight over. Now the collective of deities were more powerful than Gaia, but Gaia¡¯s real was Terra, and she could easily fulfill her promise. Most of the divinities agreed to a treaty. They will never interfere directly with mortals on Terra, nor create powerful avatars to do so. They would also greatly reduce the power they grant their mortal followers. Most deities agreed that this was the most sensible course of action. However, there were a group of gods, only known as The Forsaken, who refused to secretly comply with this treaty. They continued to secretly wage wars on Terra. Gaia, noticing this, was furious and started sinking the continents which were being devastated by The Forsaken. The other deities, shocked at this, launched The Divine Inquisition. In the mortal realm Gaia was on a rampage, and in the divine realms the deities brutally flushed out The Forsaken. They stripped The Forsaken of their power, and banished what remained of them to eternal sleep. By the time The Divine Inquisition was over, only one continent was left on Terra. The deities had succeeded in restraining their own, and Gaia returned to her sleep millennia ago. Much of the knowledge of technology and magic, before the Divine Wars was lost, and all civilization returned to its infancy. Jack absorbed the salient features of the history/mythology of Terra. The exact role of specific deities in The Divine War and The Divine Inquisition has been lost to history. There are many deities, some prominent, some unknown. However, the most popular among them are: Isis: Goddess of childbirth, healing, fertility and reincarnation. Osiris: God of the afterlife, reincarnation and justice. Zeus: God of sky, rain and thunder. Hecate: Goddess of the underworld and enchantment. Minerva: Goddess of wisdom, protection and peace Mercury: God of Luck, chance, commerce and dreams Neptune: God of the ocean, marine life and voyage Astarte: Goddess of War, Victory and sexuality. Diana: Goddess of the moon, hunting and protector of virgins Saturn: God of harvest and farming. Vulcanus: God of fire, forge and crafting Cybele: Goddess of Earth, Dungeons and revenge Jack concluded that the deities of Terra were a bunch of jerks who fucked up royally. ¡®Oh well, I don¡¯t plan to be a priest or a paladin. If want some divine magic to remove curses or something, I can pay the churches.¡¯ Jack reasoned. After Jack had finished reading up on magic, history and the popular deities, his four weeks of confinement to the City of Rotang were almost over. It was almost time for him to log out for his morning parkour circuit in RL. ¡®Hmm let me review what four weeks of grinding in the training hall and library have got me. After that I can do my free running circuit, and have breakfast. When I return, I can turn in the quest to the head librarian. I sure hope the reward is worth the slave labor I put in every night.¡¯ thought Jack, as he summoned his Status Window.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat
CONDITION
HP900/900HP/s1.044/s
MP450/450MP/s3.1784/s
Stamina900/900STA/s12.992/s
Satiety / Thirst67% / 67%Weight Limit4/102
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv1)
STATS
Strength51Vitality50
Dexterity51Agility50
Intelligence50Willpower51
Luck10Endurance40
Sustenance40Balance39
Flexibility41Concentration41
Wisdom40Free Stat Points0
SKILLS
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 5: 23.18%)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 1: 05.18%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 1: 05.38%)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Beginner Lv 8: 15.24%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 25.34%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 23.67%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 12.23%)
¡®I got the ¡°Packrat¡± title? Nice! Guess that is what increased my inventory slots by 10. My HP, SP and Stamina are 9 times what they were initially! I probably have more HP than a Lv10 warrior who puts half his stats into Vitality! My unarmed mastery, thrown weapon mastery and controlled breathing are all intermediate now. I didn¡¯t unlock any more special stats, but the once I unlocked are almost 40, except Luck that is¡­ And base stats are around 50. Although I lack money and equipment, I hope the head librarian gives me something juicy! Anyways let me check my Unarmed Mastery and Controlled Breathing.¡¯ Jack thought and summoned skill info windows.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Unarmed MasteryIntermediate212.23%
You have learnt the Art of fighting with your bare hands and feet. Increases the damage inflicted, the speed of attacks and reduces the feedback damage. Current level effects: +36% Damage +24% Attack Speed +31 to 62 Bonus Attack Feedback Damage is 1% to 5% of damage dealt.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Controlled BreathingIntermediate105.18%
Subskill of Meditation You have adapted your meditative breathing techniques to function out of your meditative state of mind. This subskill increases your natural HP/SP and STA regeneration, but to a lesser degree than meditation. It can be activated outside meditation only without system assist. Current level effects: +16% to natural HP/MP and STA regeneration.
Jack was satisfied with his progress in unarmed mastery. The Intermediate tier reduced his feedback damage to 1% from the previous 3% to 8%. ¡®Hopefully, the next tier will eliminate all feedback damage.¡¯ Jack thought as he fantasized pulverizing monsters with his arms and fists. He was a bit disappointed by the regen bonus from controlled breathing, having expected a higher regen bonus from intermediate tier. ¡®Oh well guess the AI managing AO doesn¡¯t want anyone to get too OP easily.¡¯ Jack speculated as he lay down in his dorm bed and waited to log off from FuDi mode.
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Chapter 004 Chapter 004 ------------------------------------- ¡® ¡® for thoughts ¡° ¡° for speech Hope you enjoy this chapter! ¨Cplease point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you notice and feel free to post any comments you might have. I had a date today, but got stood up. So what do I do to cheer myself up? Bring another chapter! ------------------------------------- Jacob logged out and got ready with stretches for his morning free running circuit. After completing his circuit, he had his ablutions, took a warm water shower. For breakfast he decided to bake leftover tortilla flour to make some shrimp tostadas with avocados. After his breakfast, Jacob decided to browse through some forums till lunch, since his four weeks in game wouldn¡¯t be complete till 2pm today. The forums were either filled with praise for the life like fantastical experience, or filled with whining about game mechanics. Mages who had an extremely easy time one shotting rabbits, foxes and slimes with the starter spell fireball were the most verbal. Their spells increased damage as they got more intelligence and skill proficiency rose, but it was no longer enough to one shot lv15 wolves. Furthermore, wolves usually were in packs of three to five, so it was almost impossible to solo for squishy mages who usually pumped intelligence and willpower, with a bit of vitality. More damaging spells, like flame tornado or thunderstorm, had level requirements and very quite expensive. The initial elemental spells like fireball, thunderbolt, icicle strike or stone bullet cost around 2 silvers apiece, which was easily obtained by doing starter quests. Also, new mages were given one of these free of charge, much like warriors were given a melee weapon of their choice. But flame-tornado for example, went for 3 gold. On top of that one cast took away 150MP, and cast time was around 10 seconds and had a cooldown of a minute. The starter thunderbolt, in comparison was 25 MP with a cast time of 1.5 seconds with a cooldown of 5 seconds. Sure a flame tornado could wipe out a pack of wolves in one shot, but the wolves weren¡¯t exactly statues waiting to be hit like the grazing rabbits. Priests on the other hand had a different reason to bitch. They gained spells automatically as they leveled up and their Faith increased. The first 4 weeks, most priests easily achieved a faith of 30 or so by doing their class specific easy quests, and donating a chunk of their earnings to their temple coffers. But to maintain their faith they had to spend a minimum set of hours to just keep on praying. Obtaining Faith above 50 via donations was very expensive. Sure they had to increase their intelligence for Mp, and it boosted their spells, but they wouldn¡¯t get more spells, if they didn¡¯t meet minimum Faith and level requirements. Both offensive and support priests were severely restricted by Faith. Jacob was amused at the problems, most spellcasters were facing. The problem of dependency on expensive tomes for hermetic mages and the faith for priests were kind of obvious, if anyone bothered to do some research ingame. ¡®I wonder how Carlos and Adam bitch about the costs to keep their spell arsenal updated.¡¯ Jacob thought amused. After reviewing the forums he was glad that he didn¡¯t run to the nearest guild of hermetic magicians to quickly start casting spells. Jacob speculated that Carlos, was not the run of the mill hermetic mage, as he wasn¡¯t whining about the cost to acquire new spells and whining was second nature to him. Jacob resisted the urge to pry Carlos about this. ¡®I will get to know about it when we meet anyway, hopefully in three RL weeks anyway. Although, in hindsight it looks like it might have been a mistake to start randomly in different locations. Travelling looks like a bitch ingame, so we will probably have to meet later than planned.¡¯ Jacob speculated. Warriors faced quite a bit of problems with their playstyle too. In the initial four weeks, they would grab a rusty iron sword and could whack foxes all day long. Their damage output however, was severely limited by their equipment. They couldn¡¯t invest all their stat points into strength, as they usually took a defensive approach to building their character. Warriors did get some skills to increase their damage output, but they consumed quite a bit of stamina and hence had artificial cooldowns since they consumed more stamina with their armor and constant melee swinging. Better equipment was expensive, but it wasn¡¯t just a onetime deal as better equipment had higher repair costs. Archers also faced problems with their resource management as they needed more expensive arrows to do reasonable amount of damage to stronger mobs. Furthermore, critical hits in combat were very rare when used with System Assist. This was because; system assist used the luck stat as a factor for critical hit chance. And there was no known way for most players to increase luck. ¡®If an archer can train his luck along with his dex and agi, he will become a machine gun spamming critical hits. They won¡¯t have to worry about cast times and cooldowns apart from their skills, but ammunition cost would become quite exorbitant.¡¯ Jacob speculated. Rogues on the other hand whined that their damage output was similar to archers in melee, but they were extremely squishy if there was no tank to attract agro. They could opt to use bows as weapons, but their class skills were mainly stealth based, and focused on burst melee damage output. They did get skills to make exploration easier like mapping and trap finding/disarming¡­but were too squishy to solo them. The consensus on the forums was that if they had to level up efficiently, they could no longer solo. Warriors to tank, and priests to heal were essential. Archers would attract mobs from afar into the killzone, where the mage was casting area of effect spells. They had to co-ordinate it very well taking into account the cast time and movement speed of aggroed mobs, or would risk friendly fire. Due to that, mages along with archers prefer to bring down single targets with focused fire, concentrating on quickly reducing the pressure on the main tank. Rogues usually took up the role of protecting the priests and mages. If some mobs, broke away from the tank to target them, the rogue would quickly backstab them before they could disrupt any spell casting. Despite the amount of complains, and they massive hate towards VDI for the 500$ fee to recreate avatars, most players couldn¡¯t entertain the idea of abandoning AO. It was simply too much fun. They had a chance to live out their childhood fantasies of adventures and magic, and were loath to abandon it due to the difficulty they faced ingame. Guilds and PvP wasn¡¯t a big part yet, as most players wanted to get stronger first before challenging other players or guilds. Furthermore, the cost of registering a guild was very high at this point of time. Some combat oriented classes had picked up a few crafting skills to support their income. But most combat classes had steep penalties to the growth of most crafting skills. The crafting classes had it the hardest. They could get theoretically get rich ingame by offering various services cheaper than NCPs, but they were very slow to levelup due to their comparative lack of fighting prowess. Furthermore, it took a lot of effort and money to practice and levelup their crafting skills in the beginner tier, as their output was far worse than an NCP. Despite this, there was a visible minority of crafters active. Most of them had started playing with their friends in a single location. They were supported with gold to practice their crafting and leeched off experience from leveling parties. They would, no doubt, be very valuable to the guilds their friends formed later on. ¡®Hmm, seems like most basic classes have an essential role in the party. A warrior could focus on DPS, but the rogue would beat him to it most of the time, and the DPS warrior would be a secondary tank at best. A support priest could take up a tanky role, self healing, but the other party members would face a lack of healing spells, due to mana problems. A mage would be great for sieges later on though, raining devastating AoE spells. Although I guess the cooldown and casting times for those spells will be very high, so they just can¡¯t spam it. Such difficulty in the low levels¡­ I wonder what the level cap is, and how difficult it will be to grind at higher levels.¡¯ Jacob speculated as he prepared his lunch of stir fried squid with s peas, mashed potatoes and boiled spinach. While having his lunch Jacob browsed though a certain image board, to see their take on AO. Other than the usual showcase of ingame trolling and griefing, he encountered something interesting. Quite a few members were posting links to ingame footage of certain quests they performed along with screenshots. However, other users called it out as fraud after investigating it. This was not an isolated incident, and there were many instances of a variety of such quests, which other users were unable to find. There was such a big flame war, that an additional sub board was created just to contain them. Jacob was on the fence whether it was an elaborate exercise in trolling. ¡®If this is true, that means the AI might create unique quests on the fly. The game world could theoretically keep on pumping out content before it was consumed.¡¯ Jacob speculated as he chewed a mouthful of squid. After his lunch, Jacob decided to directly connect to AO as it was almost 2 pm. He connected through instant mode and after experiencing a short gut wrenching sensation, woke up in his dorm bed. He checked the ingame time and it was 7:45 am. Jack had a quick free breakfast, stocked up on some pieces of rabbit meat jerky and went to the Head librarian¡¯s office. He knocked and entered after hearing an affirmative response. ¡°Welcome Jack. I see you have performed your duties here to my satisfaction. Before I give you your card, I want to know did you attempt to read up about magic?¡± Madam Curie asked jack inquisitively. ¡°Yes Madam Curie. I did as you asked.¡± Jack replied. ¡®That annoying brat did say that she dislikes mages¡­ could this be something related to that?¡¯ Jack thought as the Head Librarian sternly looked at him. ¡°Then you can begin summarizing what you have learnt about magic.¡± Madam Curie ordered Madam Curie. Jack began summarizing whatever he had learnt about magic in two weeks of reading. He began with mana, then moved on to the two main systems of magic which were Arcane and Divine. He summarized about hermetic magicians, druids and shamans. He also briefly touched upon the various arcane magics rumored to be in existence, but not confirmed. He then gave a brief overview of divine spellcasters namely paladins and clerics. Jack concluded his discourse by stating that metal body armor caused arcane spells to sizzle and that divine spellcasters needed more mana to channel their spells when wearing metal armor. ¡°Those are just the basics every traveler who comes to Terra should know. I suppose with your love for brawling, you didn¡¯t have the time to read more about the intricacies of magic. Now what is your opinion of divine spellcasting? Surely it is tempting to have apportion of a deity¡¯s power?¡± Madam Curie enquired after insulting his lack of diligence. Jack was reminded about The Divine Wars and The Divine Inquisition and snorted, before replying. ¡°Ma¡¯am I don¡¯t mean to be rude or anything, but praying all day to borrow power from deities who were responsible for The Divine Wars and its aftermath doesn¡¯t really sound appealing to me.¡± Jack thought he saw a twinkle in her eyes before she responded. ¡°So you have read more about our divinities and the history of Terra. Smart answer, but don¡¯t tell so to the priests when you go to them for high grade curse removal. They will not be happy. Anyways, what is your opinion on the various types of arcane spellcasters?¡± After pondering for a bit Jack replied, ¡°Druids are restricted to mostly nature based magic, and I am sure they have lots of restrictions on how they can behave in order to keep their power. And shamanism seems interesting¡­but who knows what spirits might do, in exchange for their power? And hermetic magic is just a big scam! You are dependent completely on your guild for your spells unless you want to spend months, or even years, researching a basic spell. They have a smooth operation going, lure in novices with the lure of arcane power with a free spell, and own their finances for life! I really want to try and learn magic, but if all I have is to choose between hermetic spellcasting and divine spellcasting, I would rather just punch and kick monsters all day long. At least by that, I am relying on myself.¡± For the fist time, Jack saw Madam Curie smile. ¡°Oh, we have a feisty brawler here, don¡¯t we? But you show more wisdom than my idiot nephew, which isn¡¯t much I admit, but it is a start. Hand me your provisional employee card for a moment.¡± Jack obeyed her and handed the Head Librarian his card. After pricking herself with a quill, she then wrote some glyphs on his card. The glyphs shone momentarily and were absorbed by the card. The card shimmered and changed to a silver color. Madam Curie returned him his card. ¡°This card marks you as a visiting employee, and will allow you to issue 10 books from any library in the Kingdom of Hinazal. It will also allow you to obtain lodging and meals free of cost in those libraries. But if you damage any books, I can and will revoke all your privileges. Understand?¡± The head Librarian said sternly. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Yes ma¡¯am! And thank you!¡± Jack replied. ¡®I had hoped for something better, but saving the cost of food and lodging while in towns big enough to have a library doesn¡¯t sound too bad.¡¯ Jack was about to get up and leave, when Madam Curie motioned him to sit. She handed him a book and said: ¡°As you know, mana is essential to cast spells. Most hermetic mages have absolutely no control over mana. The spells they learn are etched into their mind by their spellbooks. They have to follow an exact sequence of vocal and somatic components to cast their spell and cannot modify it on the fly. Priests on the other hand have to beg deities to provide them with a bit of their essence so that they can cast spells. Don¡¯t get me wrong, there are certain things only high ranking priests can do, but that path is not for everyone.¡± Julia paused for a bit, pointed at the book in his hands and continued: ¡°What you have in your hands is probably the biggest secret of hermetic mages. It is a very rare skill book, which will allow you to learn how to manipulate mana. Skill books are extremely valuable. The author usually sacrifices a portion of her skill, in order to create it. Anyone can directly learn the said skill, if he meets certain requirements, bypassing months, sometimes years, of training. Now use it.¡± Jack was dumbfounded. This was beyond what he was hoping for. He recovered himself and used the skill book, and it disappeared from his hand. He felt an odd ebb and flow in his body, in rhythm with each heartbeat, almost like having extra muscles he could control. he mentally commanded to display the latest notification.
You have learnt Mana Manipulation
Jack then summoned the skill info on Mana Manipulation.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana ManipulationBeginner100.00%
You have learnt how to manipulate mana in your body and freely channel it. The more proficient you are in this skill, the better control you have over your mana.
Jack was ecstatic. He had learnt how to manipulate mana, but he had no idea how to create his own spell. While Jack was pondering over how he would experiment and try to create new spells, he missed the visibly shocked expression on the usually stern librarian. ¡®Theon said that he was a newborn novice, who wasn¡¯t in a rush to levelup. So he is a Lv0 novice, probably not more than Lv3. That skillbook had a minimum requirement of 80 intelligence and 60 willpower, or 40 intelligence and 30 willpower with at least 20 in wisdom. He must have been very diligent to sharpen his mind to such a degree in these four weeks, even for a traveler.¡¯ Madam Curie quickly gathered herself, and wore her stern fa?ade. She placed a dagger with some some scratches and a reddish looking herb on her desk. She cleared her throat to gain Jack¡¯s attention. Jack snapped out of his reverie, and Madam Curie continued. ¡°You have learnt the skill? Good. Then stop day dreaming and pay attention.¡± Madam Curie snapped. She heard a hastily mumbled apology, and continued, ¡°Now just because you have learnt mana manipulation, doesn¡¯t mean you can start throwing fireballs right off the bat. You need to be more proficient and gain elemental affinities, before you can attempt elemental spells. Mana Manipulation can have a variety of utility depending on your imagination. I will show you a couple of pointers to start off.¡± She paused for a bit, pointed at the herb on the table and continued ¡°Take this herb here on your palm, and then close your eyes. Will mana from your body and imagine the herb reverting back to a seed and being absorbed in your mana. What are you waiting for? Begin!¡± snapped Madam Curie. Jack didn¡¯t know what exactly he had to look out for, so he silently enabled all notifications. Jack closed his eyes and entered a light state of meditation with the herb on his palm. He could clearly feel a major knot near his heart and five more small knots along his spine. From all the knots something fluid was ebbing and flowing to all parts of his body. He concentrated on the large knot near his heart and willed the flow toward his palm. It took a few attempts, but he was finally able to do so. After that he very carefully willed the fluid like substance to cover the herb in his palm. He gently retracted the excess mana back into his body. He then concentrated on visualizing the life of the herb backwards. The film outside his body broke. He repeated the process a few times before he could maintain the film while simultaneously imagining the herb shrinking and receding into his body. He found that if he had to imagine the process slowly if he wanted to maintain the film. Jack lost track of time and slowly repeated the attempts. Finally, he was able to complete the process, and slowly withdrew the mana film in him. *Ding*
You have learnt the subskill Mana Identification!
*Ding*
You have identified the herb Ivelery!
*Ding*
Ivelery
Type:Crafting IngredientDurability:10 / 10
Rarity:CommonGrade:F
This is a very common herb with very weak medicinal properties.
*Ding*
Due to your actions, you have gained +1 to Concentration
Jack was barely able to contain his joy as he snapped out of his meditative trance, and dismissed all notifications. He had learnt how to identify items using Mana. If he trained diligently, he no longer had to visit and pay loremasters to identify items! He looked and Madam Curie and saw that she had her typical stern expression. ¡°Took you long enough. You didn¡¯t respond for almost two hours! I thought you had fallen asleep.¡± Madam Curie paused and noticed Jack¡¯s embarrassed expression. Secretly she was surprised; it had taken almost 6 hours when she herself learnt this subskill! Jack had a very high amount of Concentration to be able to learn it so quickly. She continued: ¡°You see, mana permeates everything. You can use mana to read the properties of unknown items. Learning about the most common medicinal herb took you two hours without any foreknowledge. The more knowledgeable you are about the class of items you are studying, the easier it becomes for you to identify items. For example, if you try to identify a magical sword, without any proficiency in blacksmithing and enchanting, with your current level in mana Identification, you will probably waste months worth of time. Don¡¯t try to identify every herb you come across too, cause you will probably waste plenty of your time, unless you develop a certain level of proficiency in the Alchemy skill. Alternatively, you can read about herbology. But a combination of skill proficiency and knowledge about the relevant field works best.¡± Jack absorbed this piece of information. No way was he going to spend hours identifying common herbs to grind his skill. He decided to utilize system assist for grinding Mana Identification in the lower levels for common items. Also, the skill while still good, wasn¡¯t as awesome as Jack had imagined. He needed to be proficient in the associated skills, or know lore about related things to have higher chance of identifying unknown items. ¡°Now, you will try a similar procedure and attempt to repair this dagger. Instead of simply coating the dagger in your mana, attempt to make a mana bubble around the dagger, so that your own mana is also infused into the dagger. Then imagine the dagger in its ideal state, each and every fault slowly repairing itself.¡± Madam Curie instructed. Jack calmed himself, disabled alarm notifications, and intently observed the dagger. He noticed many minor faults in the blade. After he was able to create a 3D mental image of the dagger, he placed it in his palm. Jack entered a meditative state and very carefully willed his mana to form a bubble around the dagger. After failing around half a dozen times, Jack succeeded in holding a stable mana bubble around the dagger. He then very carefully, and very slowly, willed his mana permeating the dagger to repair the cratches and dents on the blade. His mana bubble collapsed quite a few times. Each attempt, he again inspected the dagger to see how many visible defects were left. Jack repeated this procedure, until finally he received a notification window. *Ding*
You have learnt the subskill Mana Repair!
Jack felt a bit exhausted mentally and noticed that his MP bar was around 90% full. He disabled all notifications except alarm decided to review his skills in detail later, and addressed the head Librarian: ¡°Thank you a lot Madam Curie! These skills which you have taught me are extremely valuable! This is more than I had dared to hope for. You mentioned that I couldn¡¯t just start creating spells immediately and that I needed to gain elemental affinities. However I have one query, how many elements are there and how do I gain affinity for them?¡± Jack inquired. The head librarian looked irritated and said: ¡°Do you think I have all day to tutor you? It is almost 1:30pm now and I need to have Lunch. Here, take this book, it gives a brief overview of the known elements. As for how to gain affinities, there are multiple ways to do so now that you have Mana Manipulation. You could read and research in depth about the properties of an element, and experiment shaping it with your mana. You could also contract with spirits, and they can directly imprint the basics of an affinity on your being. Lastly, you could use Mana Manipulation directly on the concerned element of a high quality source, using mana manipulation on a fire drake¡¯s breath for example. Be sure to meet instructor Theon before you leave Rotang, he had something for you. Now go have lunch. I have plenty of work to do.¡± Jack accepted another book from Madam Curie and thanked her, and said gleefully, ¡°Thank you for your guidance Madam Curie. After I obtain some affinity, I will enhance my fists with mana and pulverize my foes with it!¡± Jack could see a bulging vein near the head Librarian¡¯s temple. Jack figured that it was a mistake to reveal his intentions. Madam Curie said in an icy cold voice with barely suppressed rage, ¡°I teach you highly coveted secrets of mana manipulation, and guide you on your path to obtain elemental affinities... and you decide to utilize this powerful arcane knowledge to better hit things with your fists?? What in Gaia¡¯s name is wrong with you?¡± She then threw the quill she was holding at Jack, which he barely managed to dodge. This infuriated Madam Curie even more and she roared on the top of her lungs: ¡°OUT BOY OUT! GET OUT OF MY OFFICE NOW!¡± Jack took her advice and hastily went to the cafeteria, before it occurred to her to revoke his library card. He reasoned, there was no need to miss free lunch just because he pissed her off a little. After Jack had his lunch ingame and restocked his supply of rabbit meat jerky, he decided to go meet Instructor Theon.
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Chapter 005 Chapter 005 ------------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts ¡° ¡° for speech Hope you enjoy this chapter! ¨Cplease point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you notice and feel free to post any comments you might have. ------------------------------------------------ Jack left for the Training Hall to meet Instructor Theon. After he reached it, he found Instructor Theon chatting with the old man in the corner. As soon as Jack approached him, Theon stopped his conversation with the old man and addressed Jack: ¡°Ah there you are Jack! So tell me how did it go with Madam Curie?¡± ¡°She threw a quill at me and then shouted at me to get out.¡± Jack replied. Instructor Theon looked intrigued and asked Jack to explain in detail what lead to Madam Curie losing her temper. Jack gave a brief overview of his nightly slave labor in the library and his self study assignment. He then went on to explain the rewards Madam Curie had given him: the silver visiting employee card, a skillbook on Mana Manipulation, its two subskills, and the book about the basic elemental affinities to a visibly shocked Instructor Theon. Jack then concluded his monologue by saying: ¡°After obtaining all this, I thanked her and said to her that I intended to use the knowledge I had gained to enchant my fists and beat up my foes. She seemed pissed at me and threw the quill which she was holding. I just barely managed to dodge it, and that seems to have flipped her and she shouted at me to get out of her office.¡± Hearing this Instructor Theon burst out laughing. He calmed himself, but still had an amused look on his face, as he said: ¡°You really are full of surprises! Impressing her enough to give you a such a valuable skillbook, and then infuriating her enough to make her lose her cool. But a word of advice Jack, don¡¯t go freely revealing about your abilities, especially Mana manipulation. That includes both travelers, as well as residents of Terra. Anyway, I had promised to myself, that I would give the first traveler who bothers to train here diligently, a basic melee weapon. But you seem to prefer unarmed combat, and you made my day, making Curie lose herself like that. So I will give you something special.¡± Instructor Theon handed him a white translucent polished gemstone. After Jack finished inspecting and pocketing it, Instructor Theon continued: ¡°Now you know Mana Manipulation, but you haven¡¯t developed any elemental affinity correct?¡± Jack nodded. Instructor Theon continued, ¡°What I gave you is from a family of gemstones called Zahersonite. They have a very peculiar property. Infusing mana into it will cause a very small explosion to the element it is attuned to. If you can contain the explosion in your mana repeatedly, you can eventually gain an elemental affinity!¡± Instructor Theon paused for a bit, letting Jack absorb this piece of information, before continuing: ¡°Now this particular Zahersonite in your possession is attuned to kinesis, kinetic force, or simply force. It is the same phenomena which causes mundane hammers to shatter rocks, and swords to slice through leather. Most mages don¡¯t bother specializing in force is essentially pure physical damage, meaning it is reduced by armor and is useless on incorporeal entities like ghosts. But it does have some advantages. Force is the cheapest element in terms of MP costs, and the easiest to control. Now go upstairs, into the throwing range and to obtain force affinity. If you obtain it, I may have something for you.¡± ¡°Thank you Instructor Theon, I will get to it at once.¡± Jack said as he happily went through a door, which leads towards the staircase. After Jack disappeared from view, Theon addressed the old man and said: ¡°You sure it¡¯s a good idea to send him there? He seems capable and diligent enough, I say. Why not just induct him? And don¡¯t tell me some of your usual vague bullshit, Janus. Tell me the real reason for once¡± Janus chuckled and said: ¡°Only novices can enter there, and it does need clearing out. Besides, I am bored. He managed to surprise you and Curie. Let¡¯s see whether he can surprise me or not.¡± Theon just shrugged and said: ¡°Well he is a traveler after all. He won¡¯t die permanently anyways. But I will teach him a few tricks before I let him loose.¡± Upstairs, Jack disabled all notifications except alarm, and used mana manipulation to infuse the Zahersonite on his palm with mana. After a certain amount of mana was infused, there was a small blast with a diameter of 15 cm which took around 5% of his HP. The zahersonite remained undamaged o his palm. Jack reasoned that once he was able to contain the blast so that it didn¡¯t damage him, he would obtain affinity to kinesis. Jack pondered how to proceed. After some trial and error, Jack decided to combine the mana manipulation techniques he had learnt in mana identification and mana repair. He coated the gemstone in multiple films of his mana. Then he proceeded to infuse the innermost layer of mana (which was directly in contact with the gemstone). As the innermost layer was consumed, he pushed the outer layers of mana towards the gemstone, while simultaneously generating outer layers of mana. Whenever he got low on HP or MP, he would meditate to recover it. Initially Jack could barely hold three layers simultaneously, while each blast took around 4% of his HP. Jack soon got engrossed in his task and lost track of time. Eventually, it was time to mooch some free dinner from the library. ¡®Hope I don¡¯t meet Madam Curie there.¡¯ Jack thought as he went ot the library, ate his fill and took 10 extra pieces of rabbit meat jerky with him. ¡®I can stay ingame overnight, until it is time for my dinner. When satiety falls too low, ill eat some jerky. I don¡¯t want to waste too much time with the regen penalties and get this affinity ASAP.¡¯ Jack resumed his exercise with the zahersonite and was steadily making progress. By the time it was time for Jack to log off for dinner in RL, Jack could maintain 11 layers of mana and each blast damaged him for around 1% of his maxHP. Jacob logged off, did some stretched and prepared a quick dinner of spaghetti with stir fried prawns. He took a quick shower, hurriedly ate his dinner and returned to Asunder Online in FuDi mode. Jack felt a pang of regret after noticing that he had missed his free breakfast ingame. Jack ate some jerky, drank some water from his canteen and returned to his zahersonite. Jack took another break when it was time for his ingame lunch. By dinnertime (ingame), Jack could consistently maintain 16 thin layers of mana and could successfully trigger a blast without damaging his HP visibly. Before going to dinner, Jack reviewed his stats and skills:
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat
CONDITION
HP970/970HP/s1.1252/s
MP465/465MP/s3.3524/s
Stamina920/920STA/s13.2936/s
Satiety / Thirst69% / 69%Weight Limit8.9/102
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv1)
STATS
Strength51Vitality52
Dexterity51Agility50
Intelligence51Willpower53
Luck10Endurance45
Sustenance41Balance39
Flexibility41Concentration45
Wisdom42Free Stat Points0
Elemental Affinity
Physical5%
Elemental Resistance
Physical1%
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Mana Manipulation (Beginner Lv 2: 85.67%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 5: 29.13%)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 1: 15.23%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 1: 05.38%)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Beginner Lv 8: 15.24%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 25.34%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 23.67%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 12.23%)
Jack met Instructor Theon and told him that he had managed to gain affinity to the physical element, and told him that he was leaving for dinner at the library. Instructor Theon looked pleased, and told him to stock up some food and refill his water canteen from the library during dinner. He then instructed Jack to return to the training hall as soon as he had finished his dinner. Jack was puzzled at this odd request to stock up on food. ¡®Maybe he wants me to share some with him. I will bring as many pieces of rabbit jerky as I can get my hands on!¡¯ Jack resolved. Jack managed to store 54 pieces of rabbit jerky in his inventory. Jack went to the training hall, and tried to enter, but found that the door was locked. Jack knocked and Instructor Theon let him in and locked the door. ¡°You returned? Good. I have a task for you, as well as a lesson. First return my zahersonite.¡± Instructor Theon demanded. After Jack complied, Instructor Theon handed him a stone coin. Jack examined the coin before storing it in his inventory. The coin has some strange runes on one side, but was completely flat on the other side. It also had a hole in its center. Instructor Theon continued: ¡°You will require that later. Now that you have mana manipulation and physical affinity, the question is how to utilize it effectively? If you just shape a force bolt and aim it at your enemy, it is the equivalent of just throwing something blunt at it at high speeds. Once you shape mana and release it, you cannot control its nature with your current abilities. But if the mana is connected to your body, you can freely shape it.¡± Theon paused a bit for emphasis, before continuing: ¡°You can change it from unshaped mana to a concussive blast for example. Now doing this takes a lot of concentration in battle, so practice is essential. The idea is to coat your hands and feet in mana and constantly maintain it. On impact, quickly attune your mana within the enemy to a blast not unlike the zahersonite. If executed correctly, this will allow you to bypass a portion of your opponents armor and directly damage them internally. You could also use the blast just before the impact, to knockback your opponent. You can also parry weapons by using less mana for a much smaller blast. The best part about this is that force magic is almost invisible to most.¡± Instructor Theon paused and noticed that Jack¡¯s face had unrestrained glee. ¡°Once you can create these blasts on and before impact with just your intentions reflexively, it will boost your unarmed capabilities significantly. Imagine parrying a massive battle axe with a flick while rupturing your opponent¡¯s heart. Don¡¯t get too happy though, you are years away from such feats. Now stop smiling like an idiot and practice on a dummy. I am going to sleep. If you want to leave before morning, just wake up old man Janus there and he will let you out. But you won¡¯t be able to return till morning if you do leave.¡± Instructor Theon told Jack. Jack collected himself and started practicing on a dummy. Due to his training with the zahersonite, Jack could maintain a mana film on his hands during impact. He had some trouble timing a concussive blast just during impact, and the dummy rebounded. Whenever Jack ran out of MP or stamina, he meditated to recover it. He occasionally ate jerky and drank some water to keep his regens optimum. After some time, Jack could trigger concussive blasts reflexively on impact. Jack then coated his feet in mana and started mixing in kicks. After he could trigger the blasts effectively with his hands and feet on impact, jack switched to triggering the blasts slightly before impact. When he was satisfied that the dummy was rebounding satisfactorily, Jack mixed in blasts which triggered on impact with blasts which triggered just before impact. Soon jack was in a good rhythm. He tried to mix in force aided dodges and lunges, but usually lost his balance. He reasoned that he was not proficient enough in Mana manipulation to control the power of his blasts effectively. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Meanwhile, Janus was pretending to sleep while observing Jack. Jack was in a trance and his arms and feet were moving like powered whips. It was very unfortunate for the dummy. Jack repeated his cycle of training and meditation until he received a notification. *Ding*
Alarm notice: 7am in game time.
¡®So it is time for breakfast. Let me quickly review my notifications, and then I can go for breakfast. Instructor Theon should be awake by the time I return.¡¯ Jack decided. He saw that he had a few gains in strength, agility and intelligence. Among his special stats, he noticed gains in balance, flexibility and a bit of concentration. He had also gained a new subskill to his unarmed mastery, namely mana fists. Jack summoned information on Kinetic Fists.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana FistsBeginner215.68%
Subskill of Unarmed Mastery You have learnt to effectively integrate magic with your unarmed fighting. You can maintain a coat of Mana on your fists and feet triggering elemental blasts at will. You can currently trigger the following elements: Force (at 100%MP cost). Reduces Max MP by 25 for each fist or feet coated with mana. (100 MP for both fists and feet) Costs 1MP/second to maintain for each fist or feet coated with mana. (4MP/s for both fists and feet) Each Blast costs 30 MP (cost modified by choice of element) Current level effects: Each effective blast does 34% of Magic Attack. Damage done ignores 21% of defense and resistance.
Jack was on cloud nine after reviewing Mana Fists. After calming a bit, Jack reasoned that the damage done was quite low at 34% of his Magic Attack. He couldn¡¯t boost his Magic Attack with staves and wands like mages. This also meant that to actually improve the damage of this subskill, he had to train his Intelligence and wisdom. But the best part was the info about ignoring defense and resistance. He reasoned that there were exceptions. His Force blasts wouldn¡¯t affect ghosts. Also, he deduced that using fire blast on a fire elemental, which was a being made of magical fire, wouldn¡¯t result in any damage. Still this was good news. He had a way to deal with armed opponents, without relying exclusively on critical hits. Jack had a quick breakfast, restocked his supply of rabbit jerky and refilled his canteen. He returned to the training hall to find Instructor Theon awake. Apparently, Janus had informed Instructor Theon of jack¡¯s progress as he was looking quite pleased. Theon saked Jack to follow him upstairs and they ended up at the throwing range. Instructor Theon then said: ¡°You now have some basics to integrate force magic with your unarmed fighting. Now I will explain a bit about how to do the same with throwing weapons. During the motion of throwing, you can imbibe your projectile with a blast of force. This will cause it to have increased range, speed and damage. If you imbibe piercing projectiles like darts or javelins with enough force, you can pierce right through your opponent¡¯s armor!.¡± Instructor Theon paused a bit before continuing: ¡°Once you become more proficient with your mana manipulation and throwing mastery, you could do stuff like a throwing dagger¡¯s blade exploding into shrapnel inside your target. Or throw chakrams with enough force to behead your target outright! Once you gain other affinities, you could enchant your projectiles with different effects! Like enchanting a dart with fire to burn a barrel of tar, or freezing the surface of a lake. But this has a downside. Throwing weapons are expensive, but they can be retrieved and reused. Imbibing them with mana will cause them to deteorate very rapidly, so stick with cheap ones until you can afford it.¡± ¡°That seems very useful. Thank you Instructor Theon! I will start practicing immediately!¡± Jack explained. Instructor Theon grunted and said: ¡°When you are done practicing, meet me downstairs, I have a task for you.¡± Instuctor Theon left Jack. He started practicing to imbibe force mana into the training darts while launching them. Ife he imbbed too little mana, his darts wouldn¡¯t make much of an impact; if he imbibed too much it would shatter before it reached his target. Once he got a feel for darts, he moved onto throwing knives and javelins. He figured that since these were the cheapest, he would be using them for a long time. Also, the other throwing weapons like boomerangs, throwing axes and chakrams had a rotational component to their motion. Hence jack concluded that he needed better mana manipulation to imbibe them effectively. After he was done practicing with these three throwing weapons, it was time for lunch ingame. Jack had a quick lunch and stocked some more rabbit meat jerky. Then, he went to meet Instructor Theon to inquire about the job he had mentioned. Instructor Theon saw him and said: ¡°Ah there you are Jack. If you are finished with your practice, I have a quest for you.¡± After jack nodded, Instructor Theon continued: ¡°The stone coin I gave you earlier, is actually a key to some catacombs beneath the city. You can enter it by placing the coin on an unmarked grave in the outer city. Now what I want you to do is to liberate a ghost trapped there. Don¡¯t worry, he won¡¯t be hostile, but his skeleton jailers are another matter. When you reach him, he will tell you the details to free his soul. Here take a few silvers. Be sure to use them to stock up on potions and some darts. It can be dangerous there. Oh and make sure you take the coin after you open the entrance. You won¡¯t be able to exit the dungeon without dying, if you don¡¯t have it.¡± *Ding*
Quest Information
NameCleanse the sealed catacombs of RotangGradeE+
Description Instructor Theon is impressed with your progress and has tasked you to free a tortured soul in the sealed catacombs. The catacombs can be accessed by using a special coin on an unmarked grave in the outer city. You cannot refuse this quest.
Duration / Time LimitTill you leave Rotang.
Privileges You get 50 silvers to buy supplies. You get exclusive access to a dungeon.
Failure You leave the outer gates of the City of Rotang. On failure, you will lose all intimacy with Theon and Janus. You will also be banned from using the Training Hall
Rewards You will get a set of leather gloves and boots. Depending on how you complete the task assigned, you may gain additional rewards.
¡°Yes Instructor Theon. I will go now to shop.¡± Jack replied as he went towards the market. The weakest healing potion went for 3 silvers each, and the weakest mana potion went for 5 silvers each. Jack bought 10 of the healing potions and 3 of the mana potions. A basic wooden dart went for one copper each. Jack bought 50 of them. Including his initial 10 coppers, Jack had 4 silver and 60 coppers left. ¡®I sure am poor.¡¯ Jack sighed mentally. Before leaving for the dungeon jack reviewed his status:
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level0 (0%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat
CONDITION
HP970/970HP/s1.1252/s
MP470/470MP/s3.3872/s
Stamina925/925STA/s13.34/s
Satiety / Thirst94% / 94%Weight Limit16.5/102
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv1)
STATS
Strength52Vitality52
Dexterity51Agility51
Intelligence52Willpower53
Luck10Endurance45
Sustenance41Balance41
Flexibility42Concentration46
Wisdom42Free Stat Points0
Elemental Affinity
Physical7%
Elemental Resistance
Physical1%
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Mana Manipulation (Beginner Lv 3: 15.67%)
  • Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 2: 03.16%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 5: 30.63%)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 1: 18.23%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 1: 09.18%)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 05.14%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 35.23%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 2: 15.68%)
Satisfied, Jack proceeded outside the inner city gates to search for an unmarked grave. There were many other players who were killing the rabbits and foxes there. Jack assumed that they were unable to find a party because of their low levels. They in turn, were staring at the novice in a tattered beginner clothes set without a weapon. Some of them were pointing openly at Jack and laughing. Jack ignored them and went on looking for an unmarked grave with a grove to fit his stone coin. Most of the gawkers, got bored at Jack and went back to grinding. Jack soon found a cluster of bushes. Crawling through them, he arrived at a clearing in the center. There he found an unmarked grave. He noticed that on the tombstone there was a grove the sizeof his coin. He placed the coin there¡­.but nothing happened. Jack was lost for a bit. Then he tried to rotate the coin clockwise , using the hollow centre as lever, but the coin refused to turn. He tried rotating it anticlockwise, and heard a groaning sound. The Lid of the tomb slid open, and there was a staircase leading down. Remembering Instructor Theon¡¯s words, jack pocketed the coin again and entered the tomb. The lid closed over him. ¡®My first dungeon in AO, here I come!!¡¯ Jack thought as he went down the staircase.
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Chapter 006 Chapter 006 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for a proofreader. Please PM me if you are interested. I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading all of them! ------------------------------------------ Jack went downstairs into the catacombs. It was eerily lit in a flickering turquoise blue light. The light originated from glowing crystals embedded in the walls of the dungeon. Jack saw a twisting path wide enough for three people to walk abreast. The walls were constructed with stone, and there were many doors leading sideways from the main path. Jack brought out his NOTEPAD and created a new note for catacomb map. He sketched the main path and marked all the side doors he could perceive. ¡®I don¡¯t have cartography or any map making skill this should be enough. Hopefully this place in not a maze, or I am screwed.¡¯ Jack thought as he cautiously opened a door and peeked into a large room. Inside he saw a couple of giant rats. They came up to his waists, on all fours. The fur on their back was a bit taller and was blue green in color. In comparison, the fur on the rest of their body was grey with a bluish tint. They were gnawing on some sort of brownish grass, growing in between the cracks on the brick floor. The rats immediately sniffed in Jack¡¯s direction and charged at him. Jack quickly activated mana fist and charged at them. The rats were surprisingly agile, and one of the rats tried to bite his thigh. Jack quickly deflected the rat¡¯s head with a swipe of his palm, and punched the other rat in its head activating a force blast. Jack could see the rat¡¯s HP drop by about 15% and it was stunned. Before it could recover, Jack jabbed his index and middle fingers into each of the rat¡¯s eye with both his hands and fired two simultaneous force blasts. The rat had barely a quarter of its remaining. Jack used his embedded fingers as leverage to move the stunned rat¡¯s head downwards, while he smashed the rats jaw with his knee. He then let the rat¡¯s head go, and smashed the side of its head with his right elbow. The rat had a sliver of HP left and Jack finished it off with another punch with his left fist. Jack had used up a third of his MP to deal with one of the rats in a few seconds. He turned and rushed towards the other rat. It had recovered but it wasn¡¯t moving towards Jack aggressively. On the contrary, it was backing away slowly. Jack walked towards it but as soon as he was within 2 meters of it, he was unable to move his legs and fell down knee first. Jack barely managed to avoid falling on his face using what little use of his arms he retained. Jack was now paralyzed and in a kneeling position. Jack noticed that there were shimmering greenish dust particles around him. ¡®Shit. Shit. Shit. The green fur on its back almost looks like some fungus! I got paralyzed by that vermin¡¯s spores. I shouldn¡¯t have gotten overconfident¡­now I am fucked.¡¯ Jack thought as the rat approached him. The fungus on its back kept on releasing the paralyzing spores. The rat tore his pants and nibbled his thigh. Jack felt some pain as if his thigh was being sliced by scissors. Pain was dulled ingame, but it still felt significant. He noticed that the rat was taking his time skinning a part of his thigh. ¡®This bastard has paralyzed me and plans to slowly eat me alive. Oh I will wipe the floor with his ass once I can move.¡¯ Jack thought, but he knew that the spores were being released steadily to keep him paralyzed. The rat was biting his thigh muscle now. Jack noticed that his HP was dropping steadily and that his wounds were bleeding. The rat was lapping up his blood and continuing its nibbling. At the sight of the rat¡¯s dine and wine on his flesh and blood, Jack flipped out. He used every ounce of his consciousness to move his arms and simultaneously started gathering all of his mana in his palms. His HP had dropped around to 80%. Jack was able to slightly move his fingers. He redoubled his efforts to place his palms on the rat¡¯s head. The rat was unconcerned and enjoying its meal. Jack had finished gathering all his mana in the forms of densely packed layers on his palm. With all his might Jack managed to move his arms, as if in slow motion, and placed his palms on the rat¡¯s head. The rat was in a frenzy now rapidly wounding his thigh with its claws and drinking his blood. Jack¡¯s HP had dropped to 40% now. He finally managed to place his palms on the rat¡¯s head and released all of his mana as a big concussive blast directly into the rat¡¯s brain. The rat¡¯s skull exploded and shrapnel consisting of bone along with blood and brain flew in all directions. Some of it hit jack, but fortunately not on his face or eyes. The rat had met a grisly end, but still the fungus on its back was steadily releasing spores. Jack struggled for what felt like hours, but in reality was closer to a few minutes, and he was able to stand up. The fungus was still releasing its spores, but it was a lot less now. Jack figured that he had somehow developed a partial resistance to the paralyzing spores. So with both the rats dead, he did what seemed perfectly sensible to him. He exhaled completely, bent down a little and drew a deep breath and filled his lungs with the paralyzing spore. Jack dropped on the rat¡¯s carcass unable to move a muscle. He kept breathing as much of the spore he could, and attempted to move with all his might. Soon he could move his full body, if only at a fraction of its original speed. The shimmering fog of spores had almost disappeared. Jack ruffled the fur like fungus on the rat¡¯s back and was rewarded with another release of the paralyzing spores. Jack repeated this process with the other rat¡¯s corpse. ¡®It seems that more spores are released when the rat is live. I should grind whatever this is by finishing most rats in a group except one. I should do this until I am near to death or completely unaffected by the spores.¡¯ Jack pondered his course of action as Jack browsed his notifications. Jack had leveled up six times by killing the two rats. This meant that the rats were of a much higher level than him. He had gained a few stat points and unlocked a new special stat, namely Indomitable Body. He hadn¡¯t gained any new skills, but his mana manipulation skill had leveled up to Beginner level 4. ¡®Guess channeling all my mana to the point that it was almost out of control while being paralyzed helped to level it up quite a bit. Still, I expected it to increase more considering the effort it took.¡¯ Jack thought as he analyzed his skill growth. Jack decided to save up his stats for the time being and only invest them if he died in this dungeon. To his playing style, all stats were useful to varying degrees. He still didn¡¯t have a concrete road map so as to in which direction to build his avatar. Hence jack decided to abstain for the moment. He mentally summoned stat information on Indomitable Body.
Stat NameIndomitable BodyStat TypeSpecial
This special stat reflects your ability to shrug off physical status effects. This stat increases your resistance to and chance to ignore physical status effects like paralysis, freeze and stun. This stat is more effective with a higher amount of Willpower. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
¡®Pretty good! Looks like this stat synergizes with Willpower. I get more out of willpower than just MP regen and some magic defense with this stat. I should grind this stat as much as I can. Who knows when I will get another opportunity? I guess I should rest now and explore rest of this fucked up dungeon with its mutated giant rats.¡¯ Jack thought before he entered meditation. After Jack recovered his HP and MP, he skinned the rat with his starter dagger and studied his foe. The fungus grew almost an inch deep into the rat¡¯s flesh. Jack decided to harvest the rat for loot. He cut their tails off, extracted their claws and teeth. He also tried to harvest as much of their skin as he could. He also harvested some meat out of one limb. He did that to check test whether raw meat rotted in his inventory or not. Jack spent almost all of his time ingame days to kill the rats and harvest as much of it as he could. Turns out that meat did rot in his inventory. He made many quite a few trips to the training hall to store his loot and refill his water canteen. Jack took this as an opportunity to grind his Mana Identification and Mana Repair skills with system assist, before storing the loot. After a quick negotiation with Instructor Theon, which involved hugging the Instructor¡¯s legs and begging, he had a deal inked out for Janus to sell his loot on his behalf. Instructor Theon had some contact in the guild of alchemists, who could use the dead fungus and the rat¡¯s tail as reagents. The rat¡¯s skin was too low quality to use, and his horrible skinning didn¡¯t help either .But it could be sold to the tailor¡¯s guild, for their initiates to practice tailoring on leather. In return for this convenience Theon and Janus would each keep 5% of the proceeds. Jack figured that as he wasn¡¯t slaying legendary dragons, the loss of 10% loot wouldn¡¯t matter much in the long time. He would get more time to hunt those bastard rats, resulting in more loot. He also loaned some spit and flints from instructor Theon. Whenever he was low on satiety, he would exit the catacombs, gather some branches, and roast rat meat over a small fire and eat it. It tasted bitter and was quite tough, but it filled his satiety. He didn¡¯t want to disrupt his hunting sessions to go the library three times a day for free meals. Before venturing into the catacombs, Jack would mix soil with water from his canteen, making a thick paste which he would rub all over his body and tattered set of beginner clothes. He would then tie a few pieces of rat fur on himself with rat tails. This proved quite effective to mask his scent. He would then lure a single rat by flinging force imbibed darts at it, thus separating it from its group. Then he would break and/or dislocate all the limbs of the rat. He would then coax the rat to produce the paralyzing spores by rubbing its back. He would continue inhaling as much as he could, all the while he improved his ability to resist it and move under its effect. Whenever the tortured rat couldn¡¯t produce any more spores, Jack moved on to the next rat. Initially when he entered town, the other players would make fun of him as the unarmed mud eating n00b, and the guards muttered about crazy travelers. The guards however, knew he was favoured by Theon, and hence tolerated him without much of a fuss. Soon other players got bored of taunting him when they failed to provoke a reaction and left him alone. The first level of the catacombs unfortunately, didn¡¯t have much loot other than whatever he harvested from the rats. After killing about 60 rats, while grinding his indomitable body on their spores, Jack noticed that he was completely immune to their paralyzing effect. He then quickly slaughtered the remaining rats, taking them in groups and using force blasts from mana fist to dispatch them. Sometimes, just for a change of pace, he would gather multiple groups, each consisting of 2-4 rats, and kill them all without using mana fists, while his health reached critical levels. He figured that he shouldn¡¯t lose touch of his pure unarmed skills by becoming overly reliant on mana fists. In this manner jack explored every nook and cranny of the first level of the catacombs and killing another hundred rats or so. Somewhere in between, jack had gotten rid of his tattered set of beginner clothes and procured multiple set of beginner clothes for cheap with the help of Instructor Theon and Janus. He had noticed that his vitality and constitution rose faster, when his health was low in the thick of battle. So he figured, why the hell should he waste money on armor at this stage and just have the cheapest clothes he could acquire to simply not be naked. Jack had cleared out the first level of the catacombs in eight ingame days, and was ready to proceed to the next level, when he decided to summarize his status and skills:
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level23 (58.94%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator
CONDITION
HP1530/1530HP/s1.7901/s
MP705/705MP/s4.5513/s
Stamina1515/1515STA/s21.3174/s
Satiety / Thirst86% / 86%Weight Limit13.5/130
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv2)
BASIC STATS
Strength65Vitality68
Dexterity64Agility67
Intelligence61Willpower65
Free Stat Points115
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance62
Sustenance61Balance56
Flexibility58Concentration59
Wisdom57Indomitable Body38
Elemental Affinity
Physical12%
Elemental Resistance
Physical2%
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SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Mana Manipulation (Beginner Lv 7: 85.67%)
  • Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 6: 53.26%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 2: 12.43%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 3: 01.42%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 5: 94.63%)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 2: 21.23%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
Survival (Beginner Lv 2: 26.36%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 3: 13.25%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 2: 35.24%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 19.18%)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 45.14%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 02.23%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 7: 65.68%)
After reaching Lv20, Jack¡¯s leveling on the rats had slowed down immensely. At lv 23, each rat gave a measly 0.02% increase in his experience towards the next level. Jack had gained another new title, ¡°Vermin Exterminator¡±. This title allowed him to do 10% bonus damage to rats and gain a slight bonus to his intimacy with merchants, but caused him to suffer slight penalties to his intimacy with nobles. Jack thought that it was really ironic both of his titles were related to rats. Jack had also obtained a new skill called Survival, and two of its subskills. Jack summoned their skill info.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
SurvivalBeginner226.36%
You have learnt how to survive without civilization. This skill improves the effectiveness of various subskills. Current level effects: +4% to subskill benefits.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Survival CookingBeginner313.25%
Subskill of Survival You have learnt to cook with ingredients obtained from the wild. Each level in this skill improves the taste of your cooking and provides a bonus to vitality. Current level effects: +6 to Vitality.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Survival StealthBeginner213.25%
Subskill of Survival You have learnt to mask your presence to setup ambushes. Each level in this skill improves the chance of being undetected, when moving stealthily and provides a bonus to agility. Current level effects: +4 to Agility.
Survival helped Jack to¡­survive on the cheap, so it was definitely useful. Also free stat bonuses are always welcome! Of course, Jack could never cook up food as good as a dedicated chef, who probably used expensive ingredients to gain stat boosts, but he could do without buying ingredients and use monster meat to survive and save money! Speaking of money Jack¡¯s loot had gathered him around 2 gold, 39 silver and 12 copper in total. The rat skin was practically worthless, but the alchemists valued the tails greatly and paid around 1 silver 50 coppers for each of them. The fangs and claws were also of some value to the alchemists who paid 12 coppers for the fangs and claws of a single rat. Jack was poor for his level, because the monsters he hunted gave him valuable xp, but many lower level monsters gave far better loot. A wolf pelt in decent condition fetched 5 silvers in the tailor¡¯s guild for example. And they were actually far easier to hunt than the monstrous rats. Sighing at his poverty, Jack went deeper into the catacombs. The next level of the catacombs was in contrast to the first level. Jack saw a large, roughly rectangular cavern. There were no side doors, but along the edges there were some tombs numbering perhaps half a dozen on each side. A dim reddish glow suffused the level. As jack proceeded cautiously, he heard the clattering of bones form the four tombs closes to him. He saw one skeleton from each of them rising out of their tombs. They were naked, expect for a rust irony skull cap on their skulls. They had no eyes, instead each of their eye sockets had dark purplish glow emanating from it. Two of them were equipped with a set of sword and shield, one of them had a war hammer and the last one had a 7 feet long spear. Jack rushed towards the spear wielding skeleton, deeming it the largest threat. The skeleton attempted to poke him, But Jack angled his path to slam the skeleton with his left shoulder. The skeleton lost its balance and its HP dropped by 8%. Jack turned to see the war hammer wielding skeleton clanked towards him with its weapon raised high. Jack quickly threw a force imbibed dart at its weapon and succeeded in knocking it down. The two sword and shield wielding skeletons were moving defensively, trying to flank him. Before they could Jack rolled forward and dir a leg sweep to simultaneously knock down both of them. By now, the spear wielding skeleton had recovered and jabbed Jack. Jack was barely able to sidestep, causing the spear to hit his arm and jack¡¯s Hp dropped by 10%. Jack quickly activated mana fist on both his hands. He then used his left arm to fling the spear sideways with a force blast. Jack then struck the spear skeleton with his right arm and activated a force blast. To Jack¡¯s surprise the skeleton lost only 12% of its HP and still 80% left. ¡®This pile of bones doesn¡¯t have internal organs. Guess I need to modify my mana fists a bit.¡¯ Jack tripped the clumsy skeleton again and manipulated mana on his right hand to fit like a glove. He then imbibed his mana glove with force and clenched his fist. The war hammer wielding skeleton had recovered and was rushing towards Jack trying to crush him with a sideways swing. Jack quickly lunged into grappling range and strikes the warhammer skeleton¡¯s ribs with his knees causing it to topple backwards. The warhammer skeleton toppled backwards and lost a tenth of its HP. Jack then smashed the skeleton¡¯s skull with his right fist and the skeletons skull cracked. The skeleton lost almost a quarter of its HP. Jack noticed out of the corner of his eyes that the two skeletons with sword and shield had recovered and were coming at him from his left. Jack rolled to his right to gain some distance and stood. His force glove was effective on the skeletons, but it drained his MP faster than mana fist. Jack readied a dart in his left hand, imbibed it with force and aimed at the eye socket of one of the sword n¡¯ shield skeletons. The skeleton lost almost 20% of its Hp and got disoriented. Jack lunged at the other sword skeleton, flicked away its sword and gave it a force glove punch angled sideways; the skeleton lost its balance and tangled with his companion. Jack then returned to the war hammer skeleton, and disarmed it quickly before it could recover fully. He then did a running dash towards the spear skeleton who had recovered. Jack braced himself for impact and lost 15% of his max HP, leaving him with three forth of his HP. He then did a quick twirl and smashed the skeleton with a powerful two handed blow form the stolen war hammer. The spear skeleton lost a half of its Hp and was knocked back. Jack heard the unarmed skeleton clattering towards him. ¡®I fight unarmed bitch! You can have your shitty war hammer back.¡¯ Jack thought as he spun and threw the war hammer at it. The skeleton tried to evade, but was too slow to do so. It had a fifth of its Hp left. Jack activated force glove on his left hand and started pummeling the spear skeleton. After four hits, the skeleton lost the glimmer in its eye sockets and was rendered inanimate. Before the war hammer wielding skeleton could arm itself, jack rushed towards it and pummeled it relentlessly. Within half a dozen hits the war hammer skeleton was out of commission. Jack had around 65% of his Hp left and a little over half his mana. The two sword skeletons had recovered and were charging towards him aggressively. Jack deactivated his force gloves, grabbed the war hammer and threw it towards them with a half spin. Jack then rolled backwards, grabbed the spear lying on the ground, infused it with force and threw it with all his might at the sword skeleton with lower HP who was unbalanced by the war hammer missile. The spear hit the skeleton¡¯s ribcage and was stuck there. It had around a third of its Hp left. The other skeleton recovered and charged at him. Jack activated mana fists, and used the charging skeleton¡¯s momentum against it to throw it towards a nearby tomb. The skeleton cracked audibly and lost 20% of its HP to have around half remaining. Jack rushed at the other skeleton, and started pummeling it with his fists and legs just before it could recover. After around 8 hits, the skeleton collapsed. There was only one skeleton remaining, left with half of its HP. Jack then took the nearby shield from the now unanimated skeleton, imbibed it with force and threw it like a Frisbee towards the remaining skeleton. The skeleton was able to block the metal Frisbee with its shield, but staggered backwards visibly. It didn¡¯t perceive Jack rushing towards it. Jack stepped sideways, activated force gloves and pummeled its flank. Within a few hits, the remaining skeleton was rendered inanimate. The whole adrenaline fuelled battle lasted over a minute. ¡®Dealing with these piles of bone was a bitch. I have only half my HP and a third of my MP remaining.¡¯ Jack thought. He noticed that he had gained roughly 40% of xp and was very close to leveling up. He sat, intending to meditate to recover his lost HP and Mp, when he felt goose bumps all over his body. Not wanting to discard his gut feeling, Jack quickly gulped a few health and mana potions, recovering all his HP and MP. Jack stood up on his guard and saw around half a dozen skeletons, who were wielding large two handed weapons like claymores and war hammers. But the most fearsome sight was the figure towering in between them. It stood over eight feet tall and looked like a massive bat dragging itself with its long forelimbs. Its forelimbs lacked the leathery skin that bats usually had and it looked funny dragging itself with its forelimbs, but its jaws looked extremely powerful with canines measuring almost four inches. ¡®Oh boy, I am going to get so screwed.¡¯ Jack thought
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Chapter 007 Chapter 007 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading all of them! This chapter is shorter than my usual length because writing it all was making it too big (like almost 5k+ words), so I ended the chapter at a comfortable breakpoint. But this just means that you will get the next chapter a bit early! Ch 000 has been proofread thanks to Kuroyuki! Check out his awesome work. It increases the enjoyment of reading it by a lot! ------------------------------------------ The skeletons and the giant flightless bat weren¡¯t rushing towards him. It was almost as if they were confident of disposing Jack. Suddenly the giant bat let out a high pitched screech. Jack felt a wave of fatigue and lethargy overcoming him. He felt an urgent need to fall asleep. ¡®Oh boy, the bat put some kind of status on me. I need to run, or I will be turned into tenderized mincemeat by his skeleton flunkies in no time.¡¯ Jack thought as he tried to fight the urge to sleep and attempt his escape. In a few moments, it was becoming apparent to Jack that he was going to be slaughtered. He used all his concentration and summoned the Inventory. He then equipped his starter dagger and stabbed his left arm. The pain freed him from his stupor and Jack ran with all the speed he could muster, towards the exit to the upper level of the catacombs. After around 15 seconds, the bat screeched again, and he could hear the skeletons clattering towards him. ¡®Fuck, I am feeling sleepy again, I need to cause pain without losing too much HP.¡¯ Jack thought as he attempted to mentally shrug off the bat¡¯s screech. He took his dagger, and skinned apportion of his forearm till he felt fully alert. He repeated this process, to escape towards the narrow staircase leading upwards. By the time Jack managed to reach the staircase, his self-mutilation had caused him to lose around 5% of his max HP. Jack turned around to see that the skeletons were still following him. The lead skeletons were wielding war hammers. Fortunately, the staircase was narrow, so he had to deal with them two at a time. The bat was unable, or unwilling to follow him up the staircase, but it was still screeching in regular intervals. While backpedaling on the stairs, Jack skinned both his palms. He figured he could use his fingers to induce pain in his palms on demand. Jack went a certain distance up the staircase, and he noticed that the skeletons stopped following him and waited for him. ¡®I must be out of range of that damned bat¡¯s screech.¡¯ Thought Jack as he stored his dagger and readied a couple of darts. He imbibed the darts them at the eye sockets of each of the skeleton one after the other. It shaved off 20% of a skeleton¡¯s HP and disoriented them for some time. While they were disoriented for a bit, Jack rushed towards them as he activated force gloves on his hands and mana fists on his feet. He pummeled one of the skeletons. Each of his hits force glove enhanced punches were shaving off a tenth of its HP. After he could land three clean hits, the other skeleton was about to recover, so he kicked the skeleton he was pummeling, using a force blast to knock it backwards. It fell backwards, and tangled the other skeletons. As soon as Jack started hearing the bat¡¯s screech, Jack performed an open palm strike on the recovered skeleton with his left hand, and dug into his right palm with his fists. The cumulative pain his skinned palms caused him was enough to shrug off his mental lethargy sufficiently, to retreat up the stairs deactivating his force gloves. He repeated the process of stunning the skeletons with his imbibed dart eye socket shots, and quickly punching them rapidly with force gloves to shave off almost a third of a skeleton¡¯s HP. Jack got hit with a stab from the claymore wielding skeleton behind just as he managed to ¡®kill¡¯ his first skeleton and the bat screeched. Jack lost around 15% of his HP, leaving him with 80%, he quickly clenched both his fists and dug into his palms. ¡®These two handers are slower and seem to have lower HP, but they do a lot more damage.¡¯ Jack thought as he retreated once more. The claymore skeleton, which had stabbed him, took the place of its colleague and kicked its inanimate corpse downstairs. Jack used another couple of darts. The war hammer wielding skeleton had around 40% HP left while the claymore one had 80% left. Jack rushed at the disoriented skeletons and kicked the claymore skeleton, using a force blast to make him fall backwards. Jack then disarmed the war hammer skeleton, and smashed it with its own war hammer. The skeleton dropped, and Jack quickly retreated as he heard the bat¡¯s screech. He rubbed the shaft of the war hammer with hands and stored it in his inventory. ¡®I should keep at least a weapon of each type for backup. These can prove to be tactically useful¡¯ Jack thought as he readied another couple of darts. The skeletons recovered and another war hammer wielding skeleton took the vanguard. Jack shot them with his darts, disarmed the claymore wielding skeleton. He then bashed the skeleton with an overhead swing with the flat of the blade before quickly retreating. The skeleton had only a third of its health left. Jack heard the bats screech and he gripped the claymore¡¯s hilt very tightly. Jack stored the weapon in his inventory. He then used another couple of force imbibed darts, rushed in to finish off the unarmed skeleton before quickly retreating. Another claymore wielding skeleton took its place and the war hammer wielding skeleton had two thirds of its HP left. In short order, Jack disposed of all the six skeletons while around 18 darts in total. He had around 60% of his HP and a third of his MP left. Jack used a couple of potions to recover his HP and MP. He then skinned both his palms, grabbed one of the lying war hammers and went downstairs to confront the giant ugly bat. The bat screeched and caused Jack to stagger visibly. Jack quickly gripped the shaft of his war hammer tightly. His skinned palms seared with pain, and Jack was able to collect himself. He took a quick turn and threw the war hammer at the giant ugly bat. The bat was too slow to dodge and lost barely a tenth of tis HP. ¡®Holy shit. That move easily shaved off at least 30% of a skeleton¡¯s HP and it lost only 10%? This is going to be a long fight.¡¯ Jack groaned mentally. He backtracked as the bat shrieked more powerfully and jack was disoriented for some time. Jack recovered in time to barely dodge the bat¡¯s attempt to bite it. He quickly backtracked towards the stairs and grabbed another claymore. Jack waited for the bat¡¯s long distance sleep screech. As soon as he heard it, he gripped the sword¡¯s hilt painfully and rushed towards the bat. The bat didn¡¯t attempt to doge, but stood stiffer. As Jack approached the bat balanced itself on one forelimb, and swiped Jack with its other forelimb. Jack able to block the swing with his claymore, but he was shoved sideways. Jack gripped the sword hilt much harder than required, and as expected the bat shrieked to disorient Jack. The bat was swooping down on Jack to bite him, when Jack quickly ducked and stabbed the claymore in the bat¡¯s body before rolling sideways out of reach. The bat had lost another 15% of its HP leaving three forth. It was unable to dislodge the weapon from its body and hobbled at Jack with vengeance. It shrieked again, catching Jack unawares and disorienting him. Jack recovered, but he was slammed sideways by one of the bat¡¯s forelimb losing a third of his HP. Jack quickly ran away from the bat, grabbed a spear form one of the nearby skeletons. He then imbibed it with force and threw it at the bat. The bat was struck losing another 8% of its HP. Jack saw a nearby longsword and he quickly stored it in his inventory, when the bat used its sleepy screech. Jack went on all fours and rubbed his skinned palms to resist it. He grabbed a nearby shield, imbibed it with force, and threw it like a Frisbee at the bat¡¯s head. It caused the bat to barely lose around 2% of tis HP, but it appeared stunned. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Jack grabbed a nearby longsword, held the blade¡¯s edge and balanced it between his thumb and forefinger. He then imbibed it with force and threw it towards the bat. IT was lodged in one of the bat¡¯s shoulder causing it to lose around 9% of its HP. The bat had a little over 50% of its HP left. Jack repeated his force imbibed shield and longsword throw leaving the bat with around 45% HP. Jack grabbed another war hammer spun himself and threw it towards the bat. Before the war hammer could hit it, it screeched, forcing Jack to damage himself again so that he could remain lucid. The war hammer collided with the bat and it had a little over a third of its HP left. Jack looked around and saw only one war hammer and one claymore lying around. Jack grabbed the claymore and threw it in an overhead arc to land behind the bat. He then grabbed the remaining war hammer and charged towards the bat. Anticipating its disorienting shriek, Jack did a half spin and threw his war hammer at the bat. He had timed it correctly and he heard the disorienting shriek as soon as he had released the war hammer. When Jack regained his senses, he was pleased to see that the bat had only a quarter of its HP left. Jack rolled back and readied a couple of darts. His force imbibed darts did a measly 5% damage each leaving the bat with 15% HP. Jack then ran around the bat, towards the last claymore. He grabbed it in both hands and ran towards s the bat. The sluggish bat had almost turned to face him, when Jack did a running jump and landed on the bat with the claymore piercing the bat¡¯s torso and finally managed to finish it off. Jack sighed in relief and started collecting loot. After looting, he had ten iron helms, three claymores, four war hammers, two shields, two long swords and a spear in his inventory. Jack tried to use mana identify on the spear, but he failed to identify it. Jack shrugged, resolving to identify and repair all his loot before dumping it at the training hall. Jack quickly reviewed his notifications. He had gained some stats, and had leveled up to lv24 and reached 40% of xp towards the next level. He had also unlocked a new stat, Indomitable Will and a new subskill, Danger Sense. He had also gained another subskill to unarmed mastery, namely Mana Gloves. Jack summoned the respective stat and skill info:
Stat NameIndomitable Will Stat TypeSpecial
This special stat reflects your ability to concentrate in the face of external intrusions in your psyche. This stat increases your resistance to, and grants a chance to shrug off mental status effects like fear, charm and confusion. This stat is more effective with high Concentration. You cannot invest stat points into this stat.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Danger SenseBeginner10.00%
Subskill of Survival You have honed your instincts to detect approaching danger. This subskill alerts you to approaching danger and ambushes and provides a bonus to your Max HP. Current level effects: +20 to Max HP.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana GlovesBeginner121.63%
Subskill of Unarmed Mastery You coat your hands or feet with mana, imbibing it with a certain element. This adds a portion of your magic attack to your unarmed strikes. Some elements may provide additional bonuses. You can currently use the following elements: Force: Negates feedback damage of unarmed attacks. Reduces Max MP by 50 for each fist or feet coated with mana. (200 MP for both fists and feet) Costs 3 MP/second to maintain for each fist or feet coated with mana. (12MP/s for both fists and feet) At your current level of mana manipulation, you cannot maintain mana fists and mana gloves on a single hand (or foot) simultaneously. Current level effects: +52% of magic attack to your unarmed attacks.
Jack had mixed feelings about this stat. On one hand he was happy to have a mental analogue of Indomitable Body¡­ but it meant that to grind it, he had to prolong his battles with the monstrous bat. His new survival subskill improved¡­ his survivability by giving a chance to avoid ambushes while increasing his Max HP. Jack skinned the bat, and stored its furry hide in his inventory. He then salvaged some of its meat and its fangs. Jack was still not overloaded, had around 30 darts and a few HP/MP potions left. Jack decided to continue exploring. He went into meditation and recovered all of his HP/MP and STA. Jack cleared the rest of the level by using a similar strategy. He separated the skeletons form the monstrous bats as much as he could and used his darts and unarmed skills (along with Mana Fists and Force Gloves) to finish them off. He then used the weapons dropped by the skeletons to main and kill the bats. He didn¡¯t wield the weapons like a ¡®proper¡¯ melee weapon, instead opting to use each weapon once consecutively at the most. He also kited the bats with his darts to hear them shriek and screech to grind his Indomitable Will. Whenever Jack was out of darts and potions, or his weight limit was full. He returned to the inner town to refill his supplies, dump his loot and refill his canteen with water. He grinded his Mana Identify and Mana Repair on his loot at every stop he made at the training hall. Each cavern in the second level of the catacombs had one of those bats and around 10-12 skeletons wielding a variety of weapons. In this fashion, it took Jack 12 days ingame (3 days in RL) to clear around 16 such caverns. Jack was lv29 with 30% of xp towards the next lvl, and had gained a new trait in his Unarmed Mastery and Thrown Weapon Mastery. They were Opportunistic Brawler and Improvised Missiles. The Opportunistic Brawler trait allowed him to gain a third of the benefits of his unarmed mastery with scavenged melee weapons, however, he would lose this trait if he gained any additional melee weapon mastery. The improvised missiles trait allowed him to utilize one half of the benefits of Thrown Weapon Mastery for non-standard throwing weapons. Jack arrived at a huge set of sealed double doors with a small circular depression in the center. Jack placed his stone coin, given by Instructor Theon in the depression. The stone coin disintegrated and the set of doors started disappearing. ¡®Oh boy, I bet there is some OP boss ready to rape me in there¡¯ Jack thought as he entered. It resembled a derelict throne room with a dim blue light suffusing it. Jack could see a stone throne with a figure of a bluish translucent humanoid sitting on it.
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Chapter 008 Chapter 008 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading all of them! ------------------------------------------ Jack activated mana fists on his hands and feet and cautiously approached the translucent figure. ¡®That guy is probably the ¡°tortured soul¡± I am supposed to free, but I might as well be prepared in case there is something nasty prepared to jump me.¡¯ Jack thought as he approached closer. He noticed a stone platform next to the throne with a triangular flask on it. The triangular flask had some sort of purplish viscous fluid in it, which seemed to be in motion. The translucent figure noticed him, and after a while it said; ¡°Welcome Disciple. I see the order has finally found a worthy novice to free me. It has been so long since the promise, but better late than never I suppose.¡± The spirit chuckled. Jack was a bit confused and inquired: ¡°Order? Disciple? I just got a quest to free a tortured soul here. I am guessing that is you?¡± ¡°Ah, never mind that disciple, the ravages of time has taken its toll on me. It has been a while since I had a conversation with anyone other than myself.¡± The spirit glanced at his hands and chuckled again, before saying: ¡°I see you are familiar with the art of manipulating mana. This is better than I expected, although you can rest easy. If you managed to come so far, there are no more enemies to beat in this prison.¡± Jack was shocked that the spirit could see his mana fists. He himself couldn¡¯t see mana¡­he could only feel it inside his body. Jack deactivated his mana fists and relaxed visibly, before saying: ¡°So what is your story? And how do I free you?¡± The spirit had a vacant look in its eyes as if pondering something, before it gathered itself and said: ¡°Ah young one, that is a long story. My memory has quite a number of holes in them, and I am almost powerless here in my prison. I will try to recall what lead me to my fate here¡­ but you have to promise to free me, at least temporarily.¡± The spirit looked at Jack with hope and sorrow. Jack nodded and muttered: ¡°Yes spirit. I promise.¡± The spirit looked visibly relieved and began its story: ¡°I am no spirit. At least not in the conventional sense, although I am one now I suppose. Eons ago, before the era of The Divine Wars, I was a devout and powerful Paladin. I was faithful and immensely blessed with powers beyond the reach of mortals, by my patron.¡± The spirit paused, with a look of deep longing on its face, before continuing: ¡°But the gods were jealous, insecure and petty. They instigated the divine wars, and for a time I fought for my patron. But seeing the devastation in my world¡­ my faith was shattered. I had forsaken the gods, and allied with the order of mortals who rebelled against the deities. With this act of betrayal, I was stripped of my divine powers, but even then I was formidable.¡± The spirit paused, being overcome with grief and pity. It sighed, before continuing: ¡°The gods were on a rampage and with no end in sight. The order had a reckless idea to wake Gaia form her slumber to restrain the gods. I warned them of the consequences, but I eventually succumbed to their reasoning. I performed the worst sort of blasphemy on my soul and turned into a lich. I lingered in this plane for centuries, helping the mortals awaken Gaia.¡± The spirit had deep regret etched on its being. It sighed and continued: ¡°We developed the ritual while Terra was burning. The ritual required the power of many mortal souls. We used vile perversions of magic and alchemy to trap hundreds of thousands of mortal souls on this plane. However, the gods had noticed this, and we were running out of time. The trapped souls were fuel for the ritual, and it needed a spark. I volunteered my damned soul for it.¡± The spirit had a blank expression; however its eyes were full of turmoil. The spirit steeled itself, before saying: ¡°I initiated the completion of the ritual, and my soul burned like a beacon to the gods. We woke Gaia and she went on her rampage. However, I was in the focus of the gods, and they for once, united and sent their mortal agents after me. I knew my fate was sealed. I pleaded the order, to free my consciousness from whatever eternal torment the gods had planned for me. They owed much to me, even if the end result was devastation, and promised to help me.¡± The spirit stared at him, and Jack felt as if his soul was being probed, before continuing: ¡°The mortal agents found and overpowered me. They banished my soul to the realm of deities for judgment. And a harsh judgment it was! I was denied the unburdening, which reincarnated souls were usually granted wiping away their burdens and memories before their next life. They instead, stripped me of all the arcane power I had cultivated and damned my soul for eternity here.¡± The spirit pointed at the flask with the purplish fluid in motion, before continuing: ¡°That was my phylactery, when I was originally a lich. My torment is to be trapped in this plane with my phylactery in reach but unable to do anything about it. They reasoned the best course of action to imprison me. If my prison was immensely powerful, it would be conquered by adventurers sooner or later. There are laws, even beyond divinity. And one of them is that nothing is eternal. So, to prolong my suffering, they tasked their mortal agents to create the most powerful prison for my soul as they could¡­ but only novices could enter it!¡± The spirit lost its composure and broke into an eerie laugh radiating insanity. ¡°How effective it was! I have spent over millennia in my prison, and you are the first one to meet me. Now disciple, you free my soul as promised.¡± The spirit looked at Jack with longing. ¡°I will fulfill my promise, tortured soul. But how exactly do I free your soul? I have no knowledge of the arcane beyond some basics of mana manipulation. Also I have many questions. Who was your patron? What was your name? What is the order you speak of? Why did you refer to me as a disciple?¡± Jack inquired about a few of the questions rummaging in his psyche. The spirit gave a sad smile and said: ¡°The specifics have long since escaped me, I am afraid. You have two options to free my soul. You can place the phylactery on this throne and once my soul is absorbed by it, shatter and destroy it. That will grant me a temporary respite before I am reincarnated to begin anew this cycle. However, there is a more dangerous path. Since you know to manipulate mana with just your will, you could gift me eternal rest. You would grant me the peace of oblivion, and gain some portion of my powers. However, be warned disciple, that if your psyche is weak, this will destroy you. Do you want to grant me this gift I am seeking for centuries? It will leave a mark on your soul however.¡± The spirit looked at Jack quizzically. Jack pondered his choice. The more he learnt about the gods, the more he was sure they were assholes of the largest degree. The lich and the ¡°order¡± may have fucked up royally waking Gaia but it was in essence, to reign in the devastation initiated by the deities. Jack was on the fence about his decision, but he took a look at the spirit and resolved to free it permanently, no matter what the costs were. Having made his decision, Jack replied: ¡°I will attempt my best to grant you eternal rest spirit. No soul should suffer as you have. In hindsight, waking Gaia wasn¡¯t the best idea¡­ but it at least limited them from interfering too much in Terra. How do I grant you oblivion spirit?¡± Hearing Jack¡¯s answer, the spirit had the look of rapture on it. Its voice visibly cracked as it said: ¡°Ahh disciple! I am so glad of your answer. To grant me eternal rest, drink the full contents of my phylactery. Then use your mana manipulation and absorb this incorporeal form. It will be very difficult on your psyche, but my consciousness will aid you in this task to the best of my abilities. Should you be successful, you will gain a fraction of my mental prowess. However, I do not want to damn you and ravage your psyche, of which there is a possibility. Grant me a temporary reprieve form this torture if you are unsure, disciple.¡± Jack took the phylactery and without hesitation, drank all its contents. It burned like acid down his throat, and he was overcome for some time by the pain he felt. Jack steeled himself and gathered all his mana in his right hand. He placed his right hand in the incorporeal being before him, and infused all of the spirit with his mana. Jack then closed his eyes and went into a light meditative trance. Jack then imagined sucking the spirit along with his projected mana into his being. As soon as Jack started the process, he was bombarded with visions of which he could comprehend almost nothing. He was about to black out, when the tide of visions were halted momentarily. He heard a whisper in his mind: ¡®Do not attempt to absorb my consciousness, disciple. It will destroy you. Feed on the energy of my soul! Devour it! Use it to rip my consciousness into shreds and discard it! I cannot aid you much longer disciple, free me!¡¯ Hearing the desperate plea of the soul begging for oblivion, Jack focused all his being and channeled the massive spiritual energy coursing through him to his stomach. He imagined feeding on its power. Whenever he felt the foreign consciousness invading his psyche, Jack imagined ripping it to shreds using the power coursing through his being. After an agonizing and exhilarating while, the tide of power and consciousness was ebbing, when he heard a faint, almost inaudible, whisper in his mind: ¡®Thank you. There are others---¡® and the whisper faded, while Jack felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Jack opened his eyes, and he could see psychedelic patterns all over the place. He was also aware of a dim field of energy behind him. ¡®The spirit sure changed me! What were his last thoughts about others? I guess I will know when I meet them. I also feel strange inside, kind of like when I learnt mana manipulation but, a lot more intense¡¯ Jack thought as he walked towards the stone throne and sat on it. He closed his eyes and meditated, recalling the feeling of mana in his body. To his surprise, instead of the dim awareness he usually felt, he could feel six blazing clusters of mana along his spine and brain. The lowermost was at the base of his spine, and the highest near his forehead. The brightest of them all was the one near his heart. It throbbed with each heartbeat, while the others were relatively static. Jack instinctively felt that two of the mana clusters were distinct. The one at the base of his spine, felt like the type of mana he usually infused in his fists. The next mana cluster near his navel had an ethereal otherworldly feel. ¡®Guess those are my elemental affinities. The cluster near my tailbone feels like physical affinity. I must have gained another one devouring that spirit. This means, excluding the heart mana cluster, I can gain three more affinities. Time to check my notifications¡¯ Jack thought as he came out of his meditative trance and browsed his notifications. He had gained quite a bit of stats during the battles to reach the spirit. After absorbing the spirit, Jack had leveled from lv29 to lv33! ¡®I am glad I didn¡¯t have to fight him. The bats were obnoxious enough and gave me only 17% xp per head at lv23.¡¯ Jack thought with relief as he browsed the rest of his notifications. He had gained a new skill ¡®Spirit Eater¡¯ and a subskill ¡®Eternal Rest¡¯. He had gained a new resource Spirit Energy or SE. He had also gained a new trait ¡®Spirit Sense¡¯. He had also gained a new affinity called ¡®Soul¡¯ and furthermore, his Mana Manipulation skill had been changed to ¡®Mana Control¡¯. For successfully devouring an extremely powerful soul entity with its consent, he had gained a whopping +50 to Intelligence, Willpower, Wisdom and Concentration by the spirit! ¡®That is a fucking awesome boost! Plenty of skills, a new affinity and +50 to four stats! And two of them are special stats! The gain in intelligence and willpower alone is worth 20 levels of stat points! I should review my status, and see the skill descriptions.¡¯ Jack thought as he summoned his status, and skill details:
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassNovice
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level33 (04.94%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator
CONDITION
HP1900/1900HP/s2.223/s
MP1350/1350MP/s8.7516/s
Stamina1730/1730STA/s23.3298/s
Spirit Energy63/110SE/s- 0.9% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst100% / 100%Weight Limit136.5/148
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv2)
BASIC STATS
Strength74Vitality80
Dexterity76Agility78
Intelligence123Willpower121
Free Stat Points165
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance73
Sustenance61Balance64
Flexibility62Concentration118
Wisdom114Indomitable Body38
Indomitable Will32
Elemental Affinity
Physical16%Soul12%
Elemental Resistance
Physical3%Soul2%
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
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  • Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 28.16%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 4: 02.13%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 4: 61.26%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 02.63%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 2: 46.13%)
Spirit Eater (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 4: 16.12%)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv2: 21.34%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 4: 53.15%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 3: 15.63%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 69.38%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 15.27%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 14.23%)
  • Opportunistic Brawler (Trait)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 8: 86.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 3: 21.16%)
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Spirit SensesTrait------
You have obtained a powerful ability to perceive arcane energy and consciousness in your surroundings like spirits. This ability allows you to feel mana in the environment. It also enables you to sense the presence of beings with consciousness within range (both living and dead). Range is dependent on your Soul Affinity. The amount of information you can process is dependent on your concentration stat.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana ControlBeginner10.00%
Your ability to manipulate mana within your body has evolved as you can sense mana outside your body. This skill allows you to manipulate mana in your surroundings as long as you can perceive it. Higher levels allow you to shape mana efficiently and at a higher range.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Spirit EaterBeginner10.00%
You have gained the ability to consume the energy of spirits and other soul entities. Higher levels allow you to devour more powerful spirits. The effectiveness of this skill increases with your Willpower. However, this ability (and its subskills) encroaches on the domain of the gods. If you are discovered using this ability by beings aligned with deities (like priests or paladins), you will be ostracized by the churches and hunted by their agents.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Eternal RestBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Spirit Eater You can grant oblivion to undead entities, both corporeal and incorporeal, replenishing you satiety, thirst, HP, MP, Stamina and Spirit Energy. The amount replenished depends on your skilllevel, willpower and the power of the undead targeted. Current level effects: This skill can only be used once per day.
Jack analyzed his upgrades, while sitting on the stone throne. He felt a something rubbing his butt. Jack stood up and saw that it was a stone coin, which had allowed him to enter the dungeon. ¡®So it didn¡¯t disintegrate, but was transported here? Hmm, I need it to exit this place after all¡¯ Jack thought as he stored the coin in his inventory. Jack resumed his analysis of his status and skills. Mana Control and Spirit Senses looked extremely valuable. After he experimented and created a few spell, with his uber +50 stat upgrade, he could play as a pure mage without any of the hermetic bullshit! Also, as a backup he had his fists and darts. ¡®I will need some work creating spells, but when I am done I will be a mage-monk! I still need to figure out what soul affinity is and about this spirit energy thing.¡¯ Jack thought as he summoned system help on Spirit Energy.
Spirit Energy This is a special resource obtained directly from spirits and other soul entities. Instead of contracting and bargaining with them, you can absorb it from their very being. Your Spirit Energy (SE) decays rapidly with time. You can store more SE and hold it longer, with a higher willpower.
¡®I should research how to use SE, in secret of course! Don¡¯t want those churches getting butt hurt over this. Right now all I get is HP/MP/STA/Satiety/Thirst refill from my only active skill usable once per day. Sure it isn¡¯t bad, but it isn¡¯t worth making enemies of the churches. I almost forget about the book Madam Curie gave me about the affinities! I am at full satiety and thirst, so might as well read it now.¡¯ Jack thought as he withdrew the book from his inventory and started reading. He took out his NOTEPAD and summarized what he read:
There were quite a few elemental affinities obtainable without a patron diety. They were:
  • Physical/Force/Kinesis: This represented what he knew of as kinetic energy. It was the cheapest and easiest element to shape. However, it was reduced by the targets physical defense and resistance. It could also not affect incorporeal entities.
  • Fire: Fire had the largest raw damage dealing potential among the basic elements. Hence it was immensely popular. It could cause burning DoT (Damage over Time). Wind magic, when combined with fire magic, made this destructive element, even more devastating.
  • Water: Water had less destructive power than fire, but it had a lot more utility. Defensively, it could counter fire spells and heal some status ailments like poison. Offensively, it caused little damage, but was mainly used to reduce resistance to lightning and stun. Hence it was often picked up by mages specializing in lightning.
  • Wind: Wind magic also had less offensive potential than fire. It could however buff users with speed. It was also effective defensively against archers. Offensively, it could cause Bleeding. It could also be combined with fire to increase the damage potential of fire spells.
  • Earth: Offensively, Earth magic did the same physical damage as physical force. It however had lot of other utility, over force spells. It was used in defensive enchants, or used as a general purpose counter to most offensive spells. Skilled users could also manipulate the terrain, immobilizing their foes.
  • Light: This element is very expensive in terms of MP costs. When combined with water magic, light magic can heal wounds and regenerate HP. Offensively, it could be used to attack enemies with intense bursts of light.
  • Gravity: Gravity was a peculiar element. It mostly dealt with increase and decrease of mass. It was extremely effective when combined with earth magic for offensive purposes. It could also be combined with wind magic to travel great distances quickly.
  • Void/Energy: This element is what results, when shaped spells were not infused with any element. It could theoretically be used by any spellcaster. It was mainly offensive in nature, and a portion of its damage reduced the target¡¯s MP.
  • Ice: Ice is more offensive than water. It can freeze and slow the target.
  • Lightning: Lightning is an offensive oriented element, specializing in stuns and paralysis. It is highly effective on wet targets.
  • Soul: Soul is an enigmatic element. It has been observed to only be used by shamans, or spellcasters affiliated with spirits. This element attacks the consciousness directly and cannot affect inanimate objects.
  • Dark: Dark is the polar opposite of light. It can be used offensively as well as for stealth.
Jack summarized the basic elements, although lightning and ice didn¡¯t sound basic to him. If he had inferred correctly, if he channeled mana from the cluster near his heart, he would produce void or energy element. Jack resolved to try it out. He pondered where to gain advice about spellcasting. ¡®I should probably meet Madam Curie and apologize to her. I should tell her that trying to punch with mana isn¡¯t cutting it and I want to learn deeper arcane mysteries.¡¯ Jack thought as he resolved to visit the library after he had cleared the quest with Instructor Theon. Having decided on his course of action, Jack left the catacombs and went to meet Instructor Theon. Jack checked the in game time, and it was just past lunch. Jack reactivated his in game alarms for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the library and entered the training hall. He dumped rest of his loot after identifying and repairing them. The iron weapons and helmets he was collecting were valuable as scrap for blacksmiths. Each weapon netted him around 7 silvers and each helm was worth 2 silvers. After selling his current loot and deducting the expenses of his potions and darts, Jack was left with 12 pieces of gold, 32 pieces of silver and 48 pieces of copper. Having concluded his financial matters, Jack told Instructor Theon that he had freed the tortured soul. Instructor Theon asked jack for details, and Jack recounted his experience. Jack kept the order, disciple and spirit eating parts secret. He told Instructor Theon, that he had placed the phylactery on the throne. The bound soul was sucked into it and that he had then smashed the tube. Instructor Theon glanced at Janus, who seemed to smile. Instructor Theon shrugged and handed him a pair of leather gloves and boots. Jack inspected the items. They were of E rank, having 100 points in durability and provided +10 to Physical Defense each. Jack shrugged and equipped them. +20 to Physical Defense from equipment was better than the grand total of +0 his clothes gave him. Jack thanked Instructor Theon and was about to leave for the library when he heard: ¡°Wait up Jack. You have gotten my reward. But Janus there has something for you too!¡± Jack paused and listened intently, and Janus continued: ¡°Ah Jack nice you succeed. Now what I offer isn¡¯t material in nature, but knowledge and a class! And you will need a class if you want to advance any of your skills beyond Intermediate.¡± Jack pondered at this bit of information and inquired: ¡°What do you have to do for the class Janus?¡± Janus smiled and said: ¡°You will have to accompany me to a cabin in the woods. I will teach you the philosophy of our sect, and grant you your class. Trust me, you will be pleased with it.¡± Hearing this Jack groaned visibly. Instructor Theon and the old man had made him clear a hellish dungeon for his level. Sure he had gained some cool abilities, but he wanted to learn some solid spells from Madam Curie. Jack sighed and replied: ¡°Umm thanks for the offer Janus, but no thanks. I gained new affinity and just want to learn some real spells from Madam Curie. The catacombs with its rats and bats were annoying enough. Hopefully Madam Curie has an Arcane spell casting class for me.¡± Hearing this Instructor Theon sounded agitated as he said: ¡°Look Janus, don¡¯t play around with him anymore. Just take him upstairs, teach him the basics and grant him his class. He did more than we expected of him anyway. It is precisely because of your drama that we aren¡¯t recruiting any new members. Do you want such a promising candidate to be a researcher like Curie? Just get on with it old man!¡± Hearing this, Jack¡¯s veins bulged visibly. ¡®That old man was playing with me? And even after I impressed him, he was prepared to lead me to a wild goose chase for his damn class! Fuck that sadistic geezer. This class better be good.¡¯ Thought Jack. Hearing Instructor Theon and noticing Jack¡¯s reaction, Janus sighed and said: ¡°Young ones these days don¡¯t appreciate any subtlety. Fine have it your way Theon. Jack if you are still interested, follow me upstairs. We only induct the worthy, so not many have this class.¡± Jack calmed down visibly and said: ¡°I just have one question. Can I cast arcane magic using mana manipulation in whatever class you grant me?¡± hearing this Janus laughed heartily and said: ¡°You will get a far deeper understanding about the nature of magic and be able to use it far more efficiently if you follow our teachings.¡± Hearing this, Jack was visibly pleased and he followed Janus upstairs.
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Chapter 009 Chapter 009 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please Pm me if you are interested! I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading all of them! ------------------------------------------ Jack followed Janus upstairs, into the throwing range. Janus sat on the floor cross legged and motioned Jack to do the same. Janus began: ¡°We are an ancient order of monks, from the time of The Divine Wars. Though we call ourselves as ¡®monks¡¯, we do not have a patron deity. We were founded on the principle of abhorring divine intervention in our world. When the Divine Wars started, Terra was devastated. We were formed in this turmoil, to limit the rampage of divinities.¡± Janus paused before continuing: ¡°We assassinated many paladins and even a few avatars. We appealed to the priests to pray to their gods to stop this war. However, it was too little and too late. Gaia woke up and went on a rampage submerging entire continents. This made the gods agree to a ceasefire. However, there were a group of gods only known as The Forsaken.¡± Janus paused and sighed. Meanwhile Jack noticed that the version of history Janus was telling him was different from that of the lich. He guessed that the order lich was speaking about was the one connected to Janus. ¡®Makes sense, I wouldn¡¯t want new initiates to know how our group fucked up.¡¯ Jack thought as he returned his gaze at Janus. ¡°The Forsaken were playing their proxy war here, and Gaia was killing all of us. We came forward and offered the agents of the deities our help in rooting them out. They were reluctant to accept help from the same group that had hunted them from the shadows. However, time was running out and we agreed to cooperate.¡± ¡°The first and the only time, we united with the agents of the gods and rooted out all agents of the forsaken. We used our considerable talents to make them betray their patrons. After the gods sealed the culprits Gaia finally returned to sleep.¡± Janus had a look of deep sorrow in his face as he continued: ¡°After dealing with Gaia, the divine agents started hunting us in revenge. We were nearly wiped out, and much of our influence was countered. We are a relic of what we were. Our goals have changed too. We now watch from the shadows, so that no deity oversteps its bounds. The grandmasters of our order guard the resting places of the forsaken, so that none may awake them.¡± Janus stopped his monologue and looked at Jack as if awaiting a response. Jack smiled ruefully and just shrugged. Janus continued: ¡°We seek the hidden truths of the universe, and knowledge jealously guarded by the divinities. Our goal is personal enlightenment. Each one of us takes a different path to enlightenment, and we do not shove our perception down others¡¯ throats. All we do is strive to maintain balance. If faith weakens too much, who knows what madness the desperate gods will resort to? If faith is too strong, it won¡¯t be long before we have The Divine Wars all over again.¡± Janus glared intently at Jack gauging his reaction. ¡°Now disciple, I will test your understanding of this world. Originally, you would have been a disciple for years, before coming at this stage. However, you have passed challenges which many have failed. Our order will be enriched with your perspective. Now what is mana?¡± inquired Janus. Eating the lich spirit, had changed Jacks perspective on magic quite a bit. Having obtained spirit senses, Jack could literally see Mana everywhere. Life forms had the highest concentration of mana. The more intelligent and conscious the life, the more radiant was the glow of its mana. Jack pondered for a while before replying: ¡°Mana is consciousness. Spell casters use their will to shape mana into energy.¡± Heaing this janus chuckled and said: ¡°Oh? Interesting! Then what is stamina?¡± Janus asked. Jack was stunned. He decided to give the first answer he could think of: ¡°Uhh Stamina represents the physical energy our body has. IF we sue more stamina, we get hungry faster.¡± Janus smiled and the asked Jack: ¡°Then what about knights? Many of their weapon techniques use both mana and stamina to create devastating results on the battlefield. Also, sufficiently skilled hermetic spellcasters are thought techniques which burn through their stamina and reduce the cooldown time of their spells. What about them?¡± Jack frowned. This seemed like a riddle. He had to be careful with his answer, or he would lose this opportunity. Jack was never very religious in real life, nor was he an expert in theoretical physics. ¡®The answer has to be deceptively simple.¡¯ Jack reasoned, else he wouldn¡¯t have gotten this opportunity. Sighing, jack went into a light meditative trance. It was becoming a habit in game, whenever he wanted to ponder something deeply. Jack reviewed what he knew about physics in real life. He was aware of mass energy equivalence, perhaps the most well-known consequence of the Theory of Special Relativity. Energy is equal to mass times the speed of light squared (E=mc^2). Before this theory, the scientific consensus was that mass and energy were separate quantities. Scientists had figured out converting energy from one form to another. For example, hydroelectric power plants converted the kinetic energy of flowing water into electric energy. But the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved that a tiny bit of mass could be converted into an obscene amount of energy! Jack then recalled a few things about Quantum mechanics. Subatomic particles essentially existed in a probabilistic haze or a quantum wave function. The process of observing it, by a conscious observer, somehow ¡®collapsed¡¯ this wave function to an observable state. For example, the more accurately the observer tried to determine the position of a particle, the less accurately the observer knew about the momentum. There were many interpretations of this phenomenon in the scientific community, and many of them sounded quite weird. But it had many applications, the most important of which was the transistor chips! Without transistor chips, there wouldn¡¯t have been integrated circuits, and hence no modern computers! However, modern since had a very glaring problem. It differentiated qualitatively between matter/energy and consciousness. The typical materialist agnostic paradigm could not explain how gross matter can give rise to consciousness, nor that the quantum state collapse requires an observer who is conscious. Jack had a sudden epiphany. ¡®That¡¯s it! Matter, energy and consciousness are intimately linked! Modern scientists may not have developed the relationship between consciousness and energy, like they did for mass and energy, but experiments in quantum physics have proved time and again about the indispensable role of a conscious observer. I know what to tell Janus!¡¯ Jack thought excitedly as he came out of his meditative trance. He smiled at Janus and said: ¡°Consciousness and physical energy can be interchanged. That is why some mages are able to use their physical energy to boost their consciousness for better spell casting. That is also why knights can channel some of their consciousness, into acts of physical energy.¡¯ Hearing this Janus was surprised and chuckled before saying: ¡°Well done disciple. Energy, Consciousness and even physical matter are interrelated, though most do not realize this. Converting energy and consciousness into matter directly, if far beyond mortals, and has remained an exclusive domain of the gods. That is why healing magic is exclusive to the gods. There are a few exceptions in water magic, but even then they don¡¯t heal per se. What they do is increase the natural regeneration of the body appearing to ¡®heal¡¯ it.¡± Janus had a big smile on his face. He was shocked and pleased that a disciple could deduce the answer which took most years of contemplation and meditation. He cleared his throat and continued: ¡°You are deemed worth enough. We belong to the Brahman Sangha. Brahman is the unhanging reality amidst and beyond this world. Yes traveler, if you look for it, you will find its truth even in your world! It is not very easy to comprehend though! And Sangha is an ancient word for Order. I deem you wise and worthy enough to join our order. Will you accept the class of Bhikku?¡± ¡®Finally the old man offers me his class. I sure hope this is good.¡¯ Jack thought as he silently enabled all notifications. He wanted to see what bonuses his class exactly offered him. Jack was ready and said: ¡°Yes Janus, I will be honored to accept the class Bhikku, and join your order¡± *Ding*
You have changed into the secret class Bhikku! You have now lost the benefits and restrictions of the Novice Class.
*Ding*
Due to your class change, you gain the following benefits:
  • You gain an additional +10 to max HP per level! (for a total of +20HP/lvl)
  • You gain an additional +5 to max Stamina per level! (for a total of +15STA/lvl)
  • You gain an additional +5 to max MP per level! (for a total of +10MP/lvl)
  • You gain an additional +10 to max HP per point of Vitality! (for a total of +20HP/VIT)
  • You gain an additional +5 to max Stamina per point of Agility! (for a total of +10STA/AGI)
  • You gain an additional +5 to max MP per point of Intelligence! (for a total of +10MP/INT)
  • You get a onetime bonus of +10 to all Basic Stats!
  • You do not get any bonus or penalties to your skill experience.
*Ding*
Due to having the Enigmatic Wisdom Trait and obtaining the secret class Bhikku, your Mana Points and Stamina resources have combined to form the resource Prana Points (PP)!
  • PP is calculated as the sum of MP+STA!
  • PP/s is calculated as MP/s + STA/s!
  • You can now use any skill consuming MP or STA by using PP at 100% of the MP/STA cost!
  • However, any consumable recovering your MP or STA is only 25% as potent while recovering PP
*Ding*
Since you have obtained the special resource Prana Points (PP), Indomitable Will and Indomitable Body has merged into the special stat Indomitable Spirit!
Jack was confused about the trait ¡¯Enigmatic Wisdom¡¯. He browsed his notifications to find that he had gained it, while answering Janus. ¡®So the old man¡¯s annoying questions caused me to gain a new trait huh? Let me see what it is about.¡¯ Jack thought as he summoned system help.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Enigmatic WisdomTrait------
This trait exhibits your immense potential to think and act using knowledge and insight from beyond worlds. This facet of your nature is a puzzle to even the most learned. Successful utilization of this trait to gain an understanding of enigmas can grant you various boosts. However be careful who you reveal your insight to, certain factions may have negative reactions.
Jack felt that the description was quite vague. ¡®So usually a newly initiated Bhikku doesn¡¯t gain Prana Points? I bet the ¡°certain factions¡± who will get butt hurt are the churches. PP seems like a double edged sword. I can use it to fuel either Magic or physical exertion, but 25% recovery potency of consumables looks like a pain. I also have to be careful that if I use all my PP firing spells, I will barely able to move and vice versa.¡¯ Jack thought as he analyzed the consequences of having a shared MP and STA pool. He was however, immensely pleased about Indomitable Body and Indomitable Mind merging into Indomitable Spirit. That meant a single stat would provide resistance against ALL status ailments. Also, grinding it will be a lot easier! Jack disabled all notifications except alarm and viewed his Status:
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level33 (04.94%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator
CONDITION
HP3230/3230HP/s3.7791/s
PP4665/4665PP/s40.9735/s
Spirit Energy0/110SE/s- 0.9% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst89% / 89%Weight Limit18.5/168
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv2)
BASIC STATS
Strength84Vitality90
Dexterity86Agility88
Intelligence133Willpower131
Free Stat Points165
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance73
Sustenance61Balance64
Flexibility62Concentration118
Wisdom114Indomitable Spirit35
Elemental Affinity
Physical16%Soul12%
Elemental Resistance
Physical3%Soul2%
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SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 28.16%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 4: 02.13%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 4: 61.26%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 02.63%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 2: 46.13%)
Spirit Eater (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 4: 16.12%)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv2: 21.34%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 4: 53.15%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 3: 15.63%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 69.38%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 15.27%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 14.23%)
  • Opportunistic Brawler (Trait)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 8: 86.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 3: 21.16%)
¡°Now that you are a Bhikku, you will refer to me as Master Janus!¡± ¡°Yes Master Janus.¡± Jack replied respectfully. ¡°Now you should strive to have a real in-depth understanding of the relation between energy and consciousness. Once you reach a sufficient understanding, you will unlock your Prana. The path of each Bhikku to access his Prana is different. However mastering meditation, is deemed as the bare essential. It is a hard to walk the path of a Bhikku. Only when you have unlocked Prana, can we move on with your training. Now go forth worthy initiate! Master meditation, and unlock your Prana!¡± Master Janus finished dramatically. Jack cleared his throat and said: ¡°Master Janus? I have already unlocked Prana Points. It is essentially MP + Stamina right? So what do I do next?¡± Master Janus was shocked. A new initiate Bhikku had unlocked Prana? How the hell in the name of Bhraman did he manage it? Even if he was an extremely talented traveler, it was impossible to master meditation in such a short while! It was barely 49 days since Jack was born. After some akward silence, Janus sighed and said: ¡°While I am happy you have obtained a sufficient understanding to unlock your Prana so quickly, I am honestly at a loss about what to teach you. You already know Mana Manipulation and Meditation. Your mastery of them will come with time and practice¡­¡± ¡°But Master Janus, all I know about mana is how to punch with it! Can¡¯t you please teach me how to shape Mana some more? Or should I seek Madam Curie for more Arcane Knowledge?¡± Jack inquired. Janus looked irritated at the mention of Madam Curie, but said: ¡°I could teach you a few things I suppose. A force bolt is almost useless for long range damage, but it can be useful to trip charging foes and keep them at range. Which was the other affinity you have gained?¡± ¡°I gained affinity to soul. And I can always use void, I suppose.¡± Jack replied. Janus looked interested at the mention of Soul Affinity. ¡°Soul Affinity is interesting. We will deal with that later. For now try to channel force mana in your palm and launch it at the dummy.¡± Master Janus said as he performed a force. Jack concentrated on the ambient mana near Master Janus¡¯ hand. He could see an orb of force mana forming in his palms. Around his forearm, Jack could see mana in the pattern of a spring. Master Janus was restraining the orb of force, and compressing the string around his forearm. He then let the orb go, and it shot like a bullet to collide with the dummy. ¡°Remember to propel your force bolt with mana and not just manifest and throw it. You can give your bolt a basic push with mana. However, it is more efficient if you have enough control to launch it from a compressed mana spring. You can also try rotating the bolt for more accuracy. This basic projectile technique works with most basic elements. Soul and light are notable exceptions. So once you master this basic bolt shaping, you have a staple with you when you gain other affinities.¡± Master Janus explained. He then motioned Jack to try it. Jack tried to imitate Master Janus. He could maintain an orb of force on his palms. However, he had problems generating a mana spring to propel it. After a few attempts, Jack changed his approach. Insteadof trying to push the bolt backwards on the spring and then releasing it, Jack created the orb of force and pushed it with his mana spring spring, holding the orb in tension. When he could no longer hold I he released the tension on his force orb and it shot and hit his target dummy. It was no way near as powerful, or as fast as Master Janus¡¯ force bolt, but at least he had got the basics down. Master Janus then instructed him to practice till he could cast it faster. Then Master Janus instructed to add a rotational component to his force bolt. Jack was then made to practice till he could cast a force bolt with rotation, under a fraction of a second. Finally, Master Janus was satisfied with his progress. Jack also asked himself to be excused for dinner at the library, but Master Janus told him to join himself and Theon. After dinner, Janus and Jack left the outer city gates and went towards the wood. Master Janus said that he didn¡¯t have the soul affinity himself. But he knew the basics of creating a basic offensive soul spell. Janus then instructed Jack on the theory of creating a basic soul attack spell called Soul Strike on route. ¡°Soul magic is a lot more volatile than other affinities. To create soul strike, you essentially need to create temporary unstable entities and instruct them to seek a target. This takes quite a bit of willpower to perform. Your target needs to have some level of consciousness for this to work however. For now try creating small unstable entity made up of soul mana and just releasing it towards the sky.¡± Jack attempted to create those unstable entities, but he failed miserably in the first few attempts. He then repeated the process, but also imagined imbibing the entities with rage. They were created, but were too unstable and didn¡¯t leave his palm, exploding in it instead. He then tried creating blobs of soul energy and imagined hunger. He willed the soul entities to seek consciousness and devour a part of it. Jack was successful in this attempt. The blobs of soul amna, shot up and arced downwards and hit Janus. Jack apologized earnestly, and Janus told not to worry, and that it was the intended effect. ¡°You see once you release it, it will hit the nearest target. It takes a lot of willpower and concentration to make it hit your intended target. Now let us find a pack of wolves. They are weak, around lv15. I will keep them occupied, while you release multiple soul strikes and hit ONLY the wolves. Soul strike is no use if you hit your ally in the heat of battle. It is however the fastest homing spell to shape.¡± Janus then tracked a pack of wolves, and proceeded to harass them. Jack then cast multiple soul strikes consecutively, willing them to feed only the wolves. He wasn¡¯t very good at controlling them. However, his soul strikes were shrugged off by Janus without any problems. They practiced overnight on packs of wolves, until Jack could control his soul strikes. Jack also practiced void bolts. Once Master Janus was satisfied with Jack¡¯s casting speed and accuracy in mana bolts and soul strike, it was time for breakfast. Jack reviewed the skills he had gained. Even with his high intelligence and wisdom, each void bolt damaged a wolf for half of its HP. Jack was a bit disappointed at this, those wolves were only Lv15! While walking towards Rotang, Master Janus reassured Jack that, his cast time of these basic spells was under 0.5 seconds. Most hermetic analogs took 1.5 to 2 seconds. Master Janus pointed out that, Jack could shoot his bolts and soul strike almost constantly. Hermetic mages had to worry about cooldowns, and thus cycle multiple spells, whereas priests had to recite a prayer to channel their spells. If enemies did enter melee range, void and force blasts from his mana fists would be enough to finish or distract them. His HP and physical stats were much closer to a melee warrior than a pure mage. Furthermore, PP had a much higher base pool and regeneration as compared to MP, so he could barrage his opponents with these spells for a lot longer, than mages with similar stats. Master Janus also said that there were disadvantages. He couldn¡¯t learn AoE spells of the bat. He had to tier-up his Mana Manipulation to Intermediate at least. (Jack didn¡¯t tell his master that he had Mana control¡­it would raise uncomfortable questions.) Also, if Jack used all his PP casting spells, he won¡¯t have any PP left for running, or even walking! He couldn¡¯t also become a Mana Potion junkie as they would only very inefficient to restore PP. ¡®Not having to worry about Cool down seems awesome! If I train correctly, I can spam void bolts and soul strikes like an archer spamming arrows! Have to be careful to manage my PP though. I should practice more so that I can cast these spells with both hands simultaneously!¡¯ Jack thought as he summoned the information on the new spells he had learned.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Spiral Mana BoltBeginner137.18%
This is a basic long range single target spell moving in a straight trajectory. Your mana bolt rotates to its target, increasing its damage and accuracy. Imbibing your bolt with different elements can have special effects. You can currently imbibe your bolt with the following elements: Force (100% PP Cost) Void (110% PP Cost): 5% of the damage done reduces the target¡¯s MP Current level effects: Costs 31 PP. Does 110% Magical Attack as elemental damage.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Soul StrikeBeginner118.21%
This is a basic soul attack spell. You create homing mass of soul energy, which seek out and harm its targets. This cannot affect inanimate targets. Current level effects: Costs 42 PP. Creates one homing mass of soul energy Each homing mass does 105% Magical Attack as Soul damage.
After having breakfast in game with Master Janus and Instructor Theon, it was time for Jack to have dinner in real life. He asked to return to his world saying he will return in 4 to 8 hours. Master Janus told him to take his time, as he had to catch up on his sleep anyway. With the basics of Mana Bolt and Soul Strike down to muscle memory ingame, Jack logged off. ---------------------------------------------------- A/N: This concludes the training arc! Jack has gained his class, quite a bit of useful skills and a couple of mid-range basic spells! If someone can better explain the quantum physics part, please do so, and I will integrate it into this chapter! Understanding quantum physics is hard as it is... and I had to translate it into English, which is not my native tongue! Guys, from now on chapter rate will be slowed down to perhaps once per week. This is because: Next chapter onwards, Jack is finally free to explore the world of Asunder Online! ----------------------------------------------------
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Chapter 010 Chapter 010 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! I had some free time, and managed to finish this chapter early! I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading all of them! ------------------------------------------ Jacob climbed out of his FuDi capsule and sighed. ¡®Today is Saturday. I just have this weekend, and then it is back to work.¡¯ Jacob thought. He took half a pound of marinated pork belly and set it to bake for 40 minutes. Jacob then prepared some noodles with carrots, capsicum and peas. With his dinner of baked pork belly and noodles ready, Jacob decided to check online on the latest developments of AO. Most regular players were in the mid to late twenties. Players, who had started in the city of Rotang, had moved on from wolves to hunting lv29 bears in parties. This surprised Jacob. He had assumed that he would be behind the curve, as his first four weeks he was level zero. But clearing the exclusive catacombs solo had made him higher level than most¡­even if he was poorer. Jacob was sure there were dark gamers (gamers who played primarily to auction in game items for real money) who exceeded him in level and equipment and had discovered better hunting grounds. Jacob browsed the website which auctioned in game items for real money, operated by VDI. Most items for sale were uncommon Grade E items, and they went for around 20 to 30$. ¡®I guess AO needs more time for it to mature. It has barely been 2 weeks since its release. Still people buying low level items for 30$, means there is future here.¡¯ Jacob thought as he reasoned the real money transactions. Jacob browsed the VDI auction portal and researched a bit more in depth. There was no way to turn in game currency to real world money, and vice versa. However, in game items could be auctioned for both real world money and in game currency. It looked like ten silvers in game was roughly worth 1$ of real money, if the auction s were anything to go by. He noticed this, because there were many items buyable in shops, which were up for fixed price sales! They were mostly potions, ammunitions for archers and hermetic spell books. While Jacob was pondering this development, he decided to register an account with VDI. He used the tag ¡°salesman1234¡± and entered his bank a/c details and his linked phone number. Jack had finished his dinner and was about to log in, when his Instant Messenger (IM) beeped. It was the group chat his colleagues from office used. Jacob joined in: Jacob: Hey guys wassup? Long time no see! Carlos: Hiya Jacob! I am almost Lv28! Hunting with a party. Some sort of rodents and hyenas. Adam: Oh u lv30? Nice! But I am Lv29! Being a priest means I am always in demand for parties! Take that Carlos! Hah! Dion: Oh Nice! I am just lv26, doing a quest to gain a patron deity now, so won¡¯t levelup for a while! Carlos: So you still just a warrior huh? Magic is awesome! I discovered that using weak lightning spells on monster corpses, leaves their meat edible! No need to cook hahaha! Anyways Jacob what¡¯s your level? Jacob: Umm I am just lv33 now. Carlos: WTF bro? You were lv 0 last week! Adam: Yeah! What were you hunting? Dion: Awesome dude! Jacob: Remember my Grade ¡®???¡¯ quest? It lead to an E+ rank quest and exclusive access to a dungeon! I fought some rats, skeletons and huge fugly bats. Carlos: And you soloed the dungeon? Shit! From my experience an E- difficulty quest takes a party of 6, around lv 20-25! Dion: Did you get your class before tackling the dungeon? And what level did you start anyways? Jacob: I started it as lv0 novice! And finished it as lv33 novice! I got my class after I finished the dungeon. Adam: What class did you get anyways? Dion: Adam! Remember what we decided! Don¡¯t be so impatient! Jacob: It¡¯s cool Dion. It is some sort of monk! I got a couple of unarmed spells and void bolt! Carlos: Dude, bolt is such a weak spell! It is good up to lv15 max. If your class doesn¡¯t give you better magic¡­ sounds to me like its gimped. Jacob: Nah. The spell is just to agro mobs from afar! After that I punch them with melee spells! Fucking awesome I tell you! Carlos: Meh pure mages better. Chain lightning fuck yeah!! Adam: Leaving Carlos¡¯ fetish aside, what should we do about meeting up? There doesn¡¯t seem to be any sort of teleportation ¡­yet Jacob: Let us reveal our current locations, we can move on from there! The world map is up on VDI¡¯s website, with the starter cities marked. I am in Rotang City in the Human Kingdom of Hinazal. Carlos: I am nearby Narby in the Aben Forests. It is more like an Elven Kingdom, though Adam: I am near the city of Saham, in the Human Kingdom of Zaharbar. Dion: I am near the mountain town of Cuzcaja, also in Zaharbar. Jacob, I checked the map. Looks like three of us are on the north side of the Bahyrst Ranges, while you are just to the south of it. Jacob: Fuck. Guess that means you three can meet up early. It will take me quite a while to cross the mountains. Adam: I think once we are rich enough, we should start our own guild! It will take three of us quite long to meet up and we will probably level up quite a bit. You can join us later, when you can Jacob. Carlos: Yeah! Guild sounds like fun! Sucks to be you Jacob. You¡¯ll be late to the party! Dion: Don¡¯t gloat Carlos. The Bahyrst range probably has plenty of high level monsters. When Jacob manages to cross it, he will out level you quite a bit! Jacob: yeah sounds like a plan guys! But I am piss poor atm. I leveled up fast, but I only have around 12 gold. But I don¡¯t plan to approach the mountain range anytime soon. I will be too weak for quite some time. Adam: Dude¡­were you spamming healing potions to level up? Even with donating to my patron¡¯s temple to boost faith, I have more than 30 gold. And that is after level appropriate equipment! Jacob: :( Something like that guys. The dungeon also had shit loot. I just have a pair of gloves and boots now¡­ Anyways, cya later guys. I am going to enjoy the last weekend of my vacation in AO. Carlos: Guess I will log into AO too. Bye bros! Adam: Sounds like a plan. Cya later. Dion: Me too. ta ta! Jacob stripped, and prepared logged in to AO using FuDi mode. When Jack woke up in the training hall, and noticed that it was past lunch time. Jack approached Instructor Theon and inquired: ¡°Instructor Theon, how strong should I be before I attempt to cross the Bahyrst range?¡± Instructor Theon laughed and said: ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it now Jack! The monsters there are at least lv110! You should just explore south of here and gain power. Be at least lv100 even before you think about it.¡± Jack looked visibly crestfallen at this revelation and sighed: ¡°Any pointers where to start?¡± Instructor Theon pondered for a bit, before replying: ¡°Look for Captain Zubin, in the guard barracks and say that I sent you. He has his hands full, and would appreciate some help.¡± Jack thanked Instructor Theon and resolved to meet Captain Zubin. Instructor Theon also gave Jack another 4 gold as his portion of the wolf pelts Jack and Master Janus had collected. Jack noticed that he had gained barely 5% of xp slaughtering almost 100 wolves! Jack decided to meet Madam Curie and salvage some intimacy with her. ¡®I might not be able to learn any AoE spells now due to my low Mana Control, but it shouldn¡¯t harm to keep myself in her good graces.¡¯ Jack thought as he went towards the library. Jack knocked on the head librarian¡¯s office and entered after hearing an affirmative. Madam Curie looked up from her paperwork and said: ¡°Ah Jack, welcome back! I may have overreacted on your folly, in our last meeting. So what brings you here?¡± Jack took out the book on elemental affinities and placed it on her desk, saying: ¡°I am here to thank you for all your help and guidance. I found this book very useful, but I don¡¯t require it anymore. I also wanted to apologize about my earlier attitude. It seems that punching with mana isn¡¯t the best of ideas. I am currently using void bolts while working on my Mana Control.¡± Jack realized that he had a slip of tongue and immediately regretted it. Madam Curie perked up on hearing about Mana Control and said: ¡°So you must have succeeded in the fool¡¯s errand Theon sent you on then? Tell me about it¡± Jack then began his experience about the mutated rats, skeletons and the monstrous bats. He hid his act of spirit eating, and said that at the end of the dungeon he had contracted with an undead spirit. In return for destroying its phylactery, Jack had obtained Soul Affinity and his Mana Manipulation was upgraded to Mana Control. He also told her about Spiral Mana Bolt and Soul Strike. Madam Curie heard him with a straight face, and said: ¡°Well, it seems reckless of Theon! I will have a word with him about that!¡± Jack was alarmed and said: ¡°It is alright Madam Curie. I had volunteered for it anyway. I got a skill, a class and an affinity out of it, so it wasn¡¯t so bad. Please keep the part about Mana Control and spirit contracting a secret, I haven¡¯t told anyone else.¡± Jack thought he could see a flash of disappointment, for an instant, on Madam Curie¡¯s face when he told her about his class, although he wasn¡¯t sure about it. Madam Curie sighed and continued: ¡°Alright then, if you say so Jack. I can¡¯t teach you anything more now. Be sure to meet me once you are Intermediate Lv5 in Mana Control! I have a gift for you, before you leave adventuring.¡± Madam Curie got up, rummaged through a cupboard and kept some greyish blue clothes on her desk. She gazed at Jack from top to bottom, before continuing: ¡°It seems Theon didn¡¯t give you anything other than some gloves and a pair of boots. Here, take these clothes. It consists of a tunic, breeches and a hooded cloak. The tunic and breeches have a mild enchantment to boost your spell casting ability. The cloak meanwhile will protect you from the extremes of climate to some degree. Use them wisely. And don¡¯t Mana Repair them until you are at least at Intermediate tier. Else you will just erode its maximum durability.¡± Jack accepted the set of greyish blue clothes and said earnestly: ¡°Thank you a lot Madam Curie! They seem extremely valuable!¡± jack then tried to identify them using system assisted Mana Identify. Each article of clothing took around 20 odd attempts. While Jack was busy trying to identify them, he didn¡¯t notice Madam Curie¡¯s expression. ¡®Just how much MP does this boy have? He can¡¯t be more than lv35¡­and he used Mana Identify more than 50 times!¡¯ thought Madam Curie as she collected herself. After successfully identifying them, Jack summoned their Information Window:
Researcher¡¯s Tunic
Type:ClothingDurability:75/75
Rarity:UncommonGrade:E
This is an enchanted article of clothing, usually worn by researchers. Restrictions: Lv30 and 50 INT Bonus on Equip: +5 INT
Researcher¡¯s Breeches
Type:ClothingDurability:75/75
Rarity:UncommonGrade:E
This is an enchanted article of clothing, usually worn by researchers. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Restrictions: Lv30 and 50 INT Bonus on Equip: +5 INT
Traveling Hooded Cloak
Type:ClothingDurability:100/100
Rarity:UncommonGrade:E
This is an enchanted article of clothing. This hooded cloak offers some protection from the extremes of climate. Restrictions: Lv30, 50 INT and 25 VIT Bonus on Equip: +5% to Fire and Ice resistance
Jack equipped his new set of clothes, thanked Madam Curie again, and left the Library. He summoned his MAP, and went towards the Guard Barracks to meet Captain Zubin. Jack faced some resistance, when he stated his intentions of meeting Captain Zubin. But after a presumably senior guard recognized him as ¡°Theon¡¯s Boy¡± He was then lead to Captain Zubin¡¯s office. Jack noticed well-built wheat skinned bald man in Full Plate frowning at some documents. As Jack entered, the bald man looked up and said irritably: ¡°What do you want kid? I am busy here.¡± ¡°I was told by Instructor Theon to ask you if you had some tasks to complete, Captain Zubin. He seemed to think that you had your ¡®hands full¡¯.¡± Captain Zubin snorted at that and analyzed Jack before saying: ¡°You don¡¯t look like much. But appearances can be deceiving and Theon did send you here.¡± He rummaged in the pile at his desk and took out a folded piece of paper. ¡°That is the map of the surroundings of Rotang City. It isn¡¯t very detailed but it will do for what I have in mind for you. Now we have got reports of goblins kidnapping people from the nearby village of Falluen. It is around 2 day¡¯s journey on foot if you stick to the roads. Now goblins are extremely stupid creatures. They usually raid farms and merchant caravans and kill their unfortunate victims before looting them.¡± Captain Zubin had a worried look on his face, and continued: ¡°They don¡¯t bother with kidnapping or anything which requires plans really. I had dispatched guards to investigate, but they returned empty handed. Apparently, the goblins cease their activity whenever the guards approach. This seems to suggest that there is something controlling them. Now goblins are around Lv45, but whatever is controlling them seems to be much stronger. Now are you willing to undertake this task? I cannot guarantee your safety.¡±
Quest Information
NameInvestigate the Goblin KidnappersGradeE
Description Captain Zubin has asked you to investigate reported kidnappings by goblins in the nearby village of Falluen. The goblins seem unusually organized, and may have a leader guiding them. Investigate them and report your findings to Captain Zubin.
Duration / Time Limit---
Privileges You get a map of the region nearby Rotang City.
Failure You abandon the Quest. You will lose intimacy with the City Guards and Instructor Theon on failure.
Rewards You will get a bounty of 5 Gold. Depending on how you complete the task assigned, you may gain additional rewards.
¡°Yes Captain Zubin. I will undertake this quest.¡± Jack replied and accepted the map Captain Zubin gave him. Captain Zubin grunted and said: ¡°Good. Don¡¯t take too long though¡­more people might get kidnapped.¡± Jack said his farewell to Captain Zubin. He then left for the south city gates. Jack used the map and memorized the path to Falluen Village. Jack mostly stuck to the roads. He took detours to refill his meat supply from monsters, and took every opportunity to refill his water canteen from nearby lakes and streams. While hunting, jack the opportunity to level his Spiral Mana Bolt and Soul Strike Skills. He of course, also skinned the carcasses and looted as much as he could. Jack had to log out once, for his parkour circuit and breakfast in RL. Finally, after 40 hours of travelling in game, Jack arrived at the village of Falluen. It was a small village of around 1000 people spread over approximately 16 acres. Jack sold his wolf and bear skins at the local tanner. He had a total of 20 gold 32 silver and 46 coppers. He found directions to Chief Wolnoth¡¯s place without much difficulty. The Chief greeted him: ¡°Greetings to you, traveler. I am Wolnoth, Chief of the humble village of Falluen. How can I assist you?¡± Jack noticed that, despite his politeness, Chief Wolnoth was shrewdly assessing him. Jack replied: ¡°I am Jack. Captain Zubin from Rotang City sent me to investigate the kidnappings nearby.¡± Chief Wolnoth looked visibly dejected and sighed. ¡°Honestly traveler, I was hoping for the detachment of a platoon of guards. Last time the guards tried to investigate, the kidnappings stopped. Their mere presence discouraged the goblins. These goblins seem shrewd and capable unlike most of their species. I don¡¯t think your presence will deter them. You will only put yourselves in danger from these savage beasts.¡± ¡°Chief, I would like to try nonetheless. Can you provide me whatever information about these kidnapping?¡± Jack enquired. The Chief went to explain the tactics employed by the Goblins. They had their regular raids on lightly guarded merchant caravans and outlying farms. They usually stole only livestock from the farms, whereas they killed most of the caravans, but a few bodies were missing, presumably kidnapped.¡± Jack digested this piece of information. But something seemed amiss to him. ¡®If the goblins and their leader are so smart, why don¡¯t they launch an organized attack on the village itself? There may be a thousand of these villagers. But I saw just 4 active guards. Most of them seem like low level non-combatants. Something is fucked up. This Chief knows more than he is revealing.¡¯ Jack thought and groaned mentally. ¡°Chief, can you tell me possible hideouts of these goblins? I don¡¯t plan to take them out, I am too weak. I just plan to gather some intel on them.¡± Jack said. Chief Wolnoth frowned and said: ¡°There is an abandoned underground coal mine a few hundred yards south west of here. The forest has reclaimed the nearby area now. That is my best guess anyway. Just follow the path leading south from our village. On the second intersection, take the faint trail leading westwards and follow it. There are some powerful bears there though. It takes a team of four hunters to bring down one of the beasts.¡± ¡°I will be sure to avoid them. Thank you for your help chief, I should get going.¡± Jack said as he exited Chief Wolnoth¡¯s hut. Jack stocked around a dozen healing potions and around 30 darts before setting of towards the abandoned mine. In a few minutes Jack approached the almost invisible trail. Jack went off the trail. He unequipped his current equipment, except his boots, and equipped he set of beginner clothes. ¡®I don¡¯t know how acute, the sense of smell goblins have. Never hurts to be cautious.¡¯ Jack thought as he created a muddy puddle with his water canteen. Jack then proceeded to rub the mixture all over his body. Jack then moved stealthily through the woods, observing the surrounding s of the trail. He found a suspicious lack of wild life near the trail. Jack also observed goblin sentries placed around the trail strategically. They were muscular humanoids standing around 5 feet tall and were just equipped with a loincloth and a weapon and had extremely ugly faces with a huge crooked nose. Their green skin allowed them to blend with the surrounding flora without much trouble. ¡®If I had approached via the trail, I would have been spotted, before I could spot them. I would have forced to go into an all-out battle and alarm rest of them.¡¯ Jack thought as he brainstormed a way to silently dispose them one by one. Jack equipped his starting dagger. He wanted to distract them using force bolts and OHKO them with a slash to their throats from behind. His starting iron dagger was lacking attack power to do so however. Jack tried to channel force mana over the dagger coating it. It was a lot more difficult to do so than his fists. After Jack managed it, he willed the force mana to extend an inch around the blade. Jack then sharpened the force mana along the edge as much as he could and ending it at a sharp point one inch away from the point of the blade. After Jack could maintain his Force Blade over the dagger blade without problem, Jack tried to stab a nearby tree. He felt surprisingly little resistance, and his shitty knife went through the though wood like a hot knife through butter. ¡®This can be useful in so many ways.¡¯ Jack thought. He then fired a force blast causing some leaves to rustle. The nearest goblin sentry had a stupid look on his face as it went to investigate the source of noise. Jack could make out it was a male, with the visible bulge in its loincloth. Jack stealthily followed it, leading it with strategic force bolts. Once sufficiently far away, Jack quickly activated force gloves on his left hand. He then covered the mouth of the goblin with his left hand and slashed his throat with his Force Blade. He heard a satisfying gurgling sound as the goblin drowned in his own blood. ¡®This is a pretty nifty way to assassinate. I bet the Brahman Sangha used similar techniques during The Divine Wars. Force affinity might not be good for a pure mage, but it does have its uses.¡¯ Jack thought as he proceeded with his slaughter of the remaining sentries after looting the few coins and the goblin¡¯s sword. He did not touch the filthy loincloth. In a similar fashion, Jack carefully lured the remaining sentries away from their post and eliminated them. After dealing with around a dozen sentries, Jack reached the entrance of the abandoned mine. It was guarded by another couple of bored looking sentries. Jack disposed of them and entered the abandoned mine.
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Chapter 011 Chapter 011 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading them! If you enjoy reading this FF, please R&R! It really helps my motivation to write when I receive positive feedback and constructive criticism. WARNING: This chapter depicts explicit scenes of an adult nature (18+). Read at your own discretion, you have been warned. ------------------------------------------ Jack stealthy went down the sloping path and reached an almost circular passageway almost 10 meters in diameter. Rather than an excavated coal mine, it looked as if a gigantic earthworm had burrowed its way through. A few meters away, the passageway opened into a large cavern. Along the edges of the cavern, there were numerous cages. Each cage had people chained to the bars. There were around a dozen cages and each cage had around 5 people in it. There were around twenty goblins in total. Most of the goblins were grouped around small fires. They were roasting and eating some kind of lizards and rodents. A few goblins were patrolling the cages, growling at their occupants occasionally. The prisoners of the cage were young humans, and they looked as if they had lost all hope. The cavern reeked of their piss and shit. ¡®The fires should be unsafe for a coal mine. So this dungeon probably isn¡¯t. Looks like the chief never expected me to survive. Oh I will have words with him, when I am out of this shit.¡¯ Jack thought angrily as he analyzed how to take them down. There was a single wooden door at the far end, and the layout of the cavern was such that it was impossible to stealthily kill all of them, or even sneak through. The goblins or the prisoners were bound to notice him as he lacked any form of invisibility. ¡®Looks like I will have to go all out eventually. I should thin them out a bit. Some of those lone goblins look vulnerable to sneak attacks, if the prisoners don¡¯t out me.¡¯ Jack thought as he sneaked towards the nearest lone goblin, who was aiming his piss at a nearby cage. Jack used the same tactics he had used to dispose of the sentries, but he had to be a lot more careful as he couldn¡¯t lure them away and had to wait for a perfect opportunity to strike. Fortunately, the cavern had huge pillars of earth, around a meter thick, and quite a few crates and barrels strewed about. Jack approached the pissing goblin and slashed his throat. Fortunately, the prisoner being tormented didn¡¯t make too much of a noise seeing his tormentor die. Jack motioned the young man to silence and continued with his grisly work. Many of the prisoners had noticed jack, but had the sense to not alert the goblins to the stalker amidst them. As Jack disposed his fifth goblin in the cavern, one of the goblins around the fire noticed him and raised an alarm. The remaining goblins heeded their colleague and armed themselves. They yelled a short war cry and swarmed Jack. ¡®Shit Shit Shit. Fifteen of these ugly fuckers I have to kill off quickly.¡¯ Jack thought as he stashed his dagger in his boots and fired off a couple of void bolts rapidly. Each void bolt hit a goblin reducing its HP by a fifth. Jack fired a few force bolts to trip the lead goblins and quickly climbed the nearest cage. Fortunately there were no ranged attackers among the goblins. Jack then ran on the cage tops firing soul strikes rapidly with both hands. He didn¡¯t bother to aim, willing the soul strikes to home in on the weakest goblin. Whenever a goblin tried to climb up the cage he was on, Jack stomped on them with his force blasts, causing them to fall on their comrades. The goblins started to climb the surrounding cages, and Jack fired a few force bolts at them. Jack kept at his hit and run tactics and managed to kill four of these ugly creatures using his soul strikes. Jack was in danger of getting overwhelmed and he decided to take a gamble. He took a running leap form the cage-top and activated force blasts with his legs and managed to sail over the goblins. His landing was far from smooth and caused him to lose around a tenth of his HP. ¡®I am lucky these ugly brutes are so stupid¡­ otherwise this would have been suicide with my current skills.¡¯ Jack thought as he fired soul strikes form each of his hands alternately. He managed to finish off another couple of weakened goblins before he ran away from the approaching mob. He then used a force blast augmented jump to grab the top of the nearest cage. Franticly climbing up, jack resumed firing soul strikes at the goblins. Jack¡¯s PP, despite its prodigious regen, had dropped by almost 25%. Fortunately, there were nine of the initial twenty goblins left. Jack alternated between soul strikes, force bolts and force blast augmented jumps and climbs to finish the goblins and evade them. He was getting better at jumping using force blasts and had managed to lose only 5% of his HP each jump. Occasionally a goblin managed to land a clean hit on Jack, causing him to lose almost 10% of his HP. With half of his HP and 60% of his PP remaining, Jack managed to finish off another four goblins, leaving five of them. As Jack was getting surrounded by goblins, he used his force blasts to jump straight upwards, out of the reach of the goblins. He then quickly grabbed a bunch of 10 darts from his inventory, over imbibed them with force and hurled them downwards. His imbibed darts burst into shrapnel and distracted the goblins, while jack was falling back. Jack arched his back, and used force blasts from all of his hands and feet, to soften the fall considerably. Jack then quickly, removed his dagger from his boots, used force blade and stabbed the nearest goblin ¡®s heart, while simultaneously firing off a soul strike with his left hand. Jack then did a leg sweep, knocking three of the goblins off balance, but receiving a clean hit from the other, leaving Jack with barely a third of his HP. Jack lunged at the standing goblin, slashing its throat and firing a void bolt to finish it. One of the goblins was regaining its balance and standing up, when Jack stomped on him and activated void blasts with his feet before decapitating it with a force blade stab to its neck. The two other goblins had recovered and were about to attack Jack, when he rolled sideways to evade it and stored his dagger back in his boot. Jack then fired void bolts constantly at one of them, killing it in a few seconds. Jack picked up a nearby club and threw it at the last remaining goblin. While the goblin was busy dodging it, Jack fired void bolts at it, finally killing all of them. With barely a third of his HP and half of his PP remaining, Jack assessed the prisoners who were both delighted and disgusted at the carnage he had invited on their captors. ¡°I will free you all soon, but I must kill all of these assholes before I do so. Can anyone tell me what to expect deeper?¡± Jack said as he glared at them. One of them, a man in his late 20s with brown hair and tanned skin, replied: ¡°You are the first traveler to survive the goblins. Deeper in, there are about a dozen of very powerful bandits lead by some kind of vile magician. The magician probably has the master key to our cages.¡± Jack wasn¡¯t surprised at this revelation, as he expected something like it. He asked the man: ¡°What do you mean first traveler to survive? And what are those bandits and the magician doing now?¡± The man had a look of deep regret, shame and anger in his eyes when he replied: ¡°I will tell you whatever I know later traveler, you must hurry. The bandits are currently drunk and took the women among us to satiate their perversions. You must not lose this opportunity and quickly finish them while you have the chance. Go quickly traveler, you are our only salvation.¡± After hearing this piece of information, Jack gulped a few health potions to recover his health. He then equipped the clothes given by Madam Curie and stashed a few swords, axes and clubs in his inventory. Jack then stealthily went through the door at the far end of the cavern. Through the door, Jack saw a long passageway, a smaller version of the one he arrived at the cave in, leading to a circular stone room with another door. On the sides, there were half a dozen passageways splitting from the main path. Jack crouched, equipped his dagger, activated force blade and followed the nearest split. The split led to an alcove of some sort. There was a tough looked man snoring on a floor mat. On the far edge of the alcove, he saw a couple of bruised chained naked girls. They had dead eyes with no hope and their spirit looked broken. The barely noticed him, but Jack motioned them to keep silent nonetheless. Jack then quietly assassinated the sleeping bandit with force blade, and using his force glove enhanced hands to stifle tis screams. Jack told them: ¡°I will be here to free you shortly. But I have to deal with the rest first. Stay quiet.¡± The girls barely acknowledged him. Jack sighed and moved on to the next alcove. He saw another bandit, rutting a forlorn looking girl. The girl had her back towards her aggressor, facing the wall, and was chained to a nearby pole. The man abusing her had a dagger at her throat. ¡°I only get one of you whores for today.¡± The man slurred. And he pressed the flat of his blade against the girl¡¯s throat. ¡°Moan you bitch! Or I will be fucking your dead asshole instead!¡± The man shouted. The girl moaned in a dead pan voice and the man hastened his hips. Jack waited for the telltale groan of the man as he thrust his hips into her. The oppressor visibly relaxed, and Jack took this opportunity to quickly slash his throat with his while muffling his cries. Jack then took the dropped dagger and addressed the enslaved woman: ¡°You wish to live? Good. I will free you shortly. Just stay silent.¡± Jack then went towards the next alcove. He witnessed various scenes of depravity as he dispatched the rest of them. He also stored the weapons he noticed in his inventory. He had a zweihander, a long sword, a war hammer, a battle axe and a morning star along with the dagger from the bandits. They seemed like good quality stuff. Jack had regained all his PP while assassinating the bandits. With full HP, PP, around 20 darts, some weapons and a few health potions, Jack deemed himself ready and entered the stone structure to confront the unknown spellcaster. Jack entered and saw a circular chamber with a robed staff wielding man in the center. He looked an unhealthy pale with grey hair. Around him, there were 5 huge crystals. With his spirit senses Jack saw each of the crystals filled with an odd pulsating energy. The crystals were at the edges of a pentagram etched into the floor. The etched pentagram was filled with what looked like blood infused with mana. There were various unknown runes etched along the pentagram and the crystal. The blood circulated along the channels and collected in the center near the robed man¡¯s feet. Noticing Jack, the robed man said: ¡°Ah so you were the one who was killing off my errand boys? It¡¯s a pity I am busy, or I would have disposed of you myself.¡± Jack noticed that the crystals with energy were getting slightly dimemr as more and more of it flowed to the blood pool near the man¡¯s feet. Jack said: ¡°I see. You are using the energy of the victim¡¯s soul to power some sort of arcane ritual? The blood seems to assist you in channeling it.¡± The robed man looked surprised, but gave out a short chuckle saying: ¡°Not blind to the arcane, I see. You must be capable if you managed to reach here, however you look too weak to beat me. However, you can interfere with this process. How about you wait for me to complete it? Then I will teach you forbidden arcane secrets?¡± Jack looked at the man hopefully, and enquired: ¡°Hmm you do look strong. And you are absorbing a lot of energy. But what exactly are you doing? I should have an idea what I expect to learn, no?¡± The man smiled and said: ¡°Pragmatic I see. Very well, I am conducting a ritual so that death doesn¡¯t force my soul to leave this plane of existence.¡± Jack absorbed this bit of information ¡®So this guy is preparing to turn into some sort of undead?¡¯ Jack replied by shooting a couple of quick void bolts at the man. The man lost around 5% of his HP and looked irritated. He said: ¡°That was rude! I may not be able to cast the most powerful spells now, but with if you are only capable of this much, I should be able to beat you.¡± The unknown spellcaster waved his left arm in a complicated series of gestures and started muttering something. His staff glowed and n orb of fire was forming on it. ¡®Oh shit. Looks like a standard fireball. He looks pretty strong, and I should avoid getting hit.¡¯ Jack thought as he fired a force bolt to disrupt the unknown spellcaster. The spellcaster didn¡¯t even flinch, completed the spell and launched it towards Jack. Jack barely dodged it in time, having expected the force bolt to disrupt the spell caster. The fireball singed his left arm barely, but Jack still lost 5% of his HP. ¡®Shit. He seems to have high concentration and Intelligence. 5% of HP for a glancing blow? I won¡¯t be able to take two of those fireballs head on, and I can¡¯t interrupt him with my shitty spells.¡¯ Jack thought as he fired a couple of soul strikes while being constantly on the move. A purplish shield materialized around the spellcaster. The soul strikes collided with the shield and shimmered briefly before both dissapeared. ¡®Fuck me. He is prepared for my spells now. I can only damage him with spells when he finishes casting one.¡¯ Jack groaned mentally as he launched a force imbibed dart. The darts penetrated his translucent purple shield but did only 1% damage. ¡®That dart barely hurt him! And I only have 19 left. Guess I have to kite this asshole now¡¯ Jack thought as the spellcaster started casting another fireball. This time Jack abstained from attacking and readied to dodge. Jack focused his spirit senses. He noticed that the shimmering field of mana around the spellcaster was down for a moment. As if on cue Jack rolled sideways, successfully dodging the fast fireball completely. ¡®So I just have to time my attacks and dodges right.¡¯ Jack thought as he flicked another force imbibed dart at the spellcaster. Jack also noticed that the crystals were getting slightly dimmer as the battle progress. He concluded that he didn¡¯t have long before the spellcaster could go all out. Jack then took every opportunity to fire void bolts or soul strike while the spellcaster¡¯s mana shield was down to attack with void bolts or soul strikes. He threw force imbibed darts, whenever the mana shield was up. With his focus on the offensive, jack couldn¡¯t completely evade the incoming fireballs. Whenever Jack¡¯s HP fell below three forth, he relented on his offensive to gulp a health potion. In this way, Jack had exhausted all his darts, most of his health potions and almost two third of his PP, managing to reduce the spellcaster¡¯s HP to a third. Jack noticed that the crystals had almost lost their glow by now. ¡®It is time to get up close and personal now. I will fuck him up before he can cast more powerful spells¡¯ Jack thought as he equipped the morning star in his right hand, activated mana fists in his left hand and rushed at the spellcaster. The spellcaster looked a bit taken aback at this. He had assumed Jack to be a mage of some kind and unable of melee combat. He looked taken aback at the sight of Jack rushing in with his morning star. The spellcaster quickly began to chant a spell. Before he could complete it, Jack smashed his jaw with the morning star. The spellcaster lost around 5% of his HP, disrupting his spellcasting and stunning him. Jack took this opportunity to equip the war axe and took a two handed aiming for his neck. The spellcaster managed to recover in time and block Jack¡¯s axe-strike with his staff. Jack swung his axe downwards towards his left arm using force blasts to accelerate his swing and managed to embed his axe in the spellcaster¡¯s shoulder. The spellcaster screamed in pain as he lost another 5% of HP, leaving him with barely a quarter of his HP. Jack quickly retrieved his morning star and smashed one of his knees. The spellcaster groaned in pain again, and leaned heavily on his staff for support, while he began another chant. Jack interrupted him by smashing his ribs. The spellcaster was knocked down with the impact. Jack followed it with another smash at the spellcaster¡¯s uninjured knee leabing him with 10% of HP. Jack noticed that his PP was dangerously low, so stalling for time Jack taunted the spellcsater: If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Looks like a couple of more swings and you will be dead. Any last words?¡± The spellcaster chuckled, coughing up blood. ¡°I have finished the ritual, traveler. I was just stalling for time. Destroy this body if you must, but I promise you that after I return as a lich, I will haunt you for eternity and kill you repeatedly till you lose all your power.¡± Jack frowned at this. He glanced around and noticed that all the crystals and the blood was devoid of mana. The to-be lich seemed serious. Each death would cause him to lose a level and be locked out form the game for 24 hours in RL. Jack was only able to gain the upper hand in this confrontation because the spellcaster was focusing on completing his ritual. ¡®If only there was a way to stop him from reanimating as a lich¡¯ Jack thought. Suddenly, he smiled. Jack had an idea, but it was risky and there were no guarantees on its success. Jack stored the morning star and battle axe in his inventory. ¡°What are we? We are like eggs! The body is just a shell, for the yolk that is our soul! I have cracked your shell. Now it is time to devour your yolk.¡± Jack said as he equipped a dagger. He used the hilt of the dagger to break the spellcaster¡¯s teeth one by, until he had barely 2% of HP left. ¡®I don¡¯t want this asshole to mutter incantations while I test out my theory¡¯ Jack thought as he used a set of beginner clothes to tightly bind the spellcaster¡¯s limbs and gagged him. Jack took a deep breath, closed his eyes and placed his hands on the spellcaster¡¯s heart. He attuned his prana to soul affinity, and invaded the spellcaster¡¯s pulsating mana center near his heart. He faced quite a bit of resistance as Jack forcibly flooded the almost dead spellcaster¡¯s body with his soul attuned prana. Jack then imagined absorbing all the energy and consciousness he could feel. He recalled the feeling he had first devoured the lich spirit. He began feeling a surge of energy entering him, but his consciousness was also assailed relentlessly by the spellcaster. Jack used all his willpower and imagined ripping the foreign presence in his mind to shreds. He simultaneously directed all the energy he felt to his abdomen. Soon Jack felt the excruciating and exhilarating feeling he had felt while devouring the lich spirit, but a lot more intense. It felt as if all the nerves on his body were on fire, while simultaneously experiencing the most intense orgasm of his life. After what felt like eternity in an instant, Jack was finished and he opened his eyes. He felt incredibly alive and noticed that the spellcaster¡¯s body was reduced to a lifeless husk. Jack searched his corpse and looted his clothes, a few accessories and his staff. Jack then relaxed and reviewed his notifications. Killing the goblins, the rapist bandits and the spellcaster had leveled him up ten times! Jack had gained quite a few stats and raised many of his skills. He had gained a few new skills, namely Dagger Mastery, Assassinate, Mana Blade, Opportunistic Striker and Devour Soul. Jack had lost the Opportunistic Brawler trait as he had gained Dagger mastery. Due to gaining the subskill Devour Soul, the Spirit Eater skill had jumped up a tier to Intermediate! He had acquired a new elemental affinity for Fire and had gained a boost to his mental stats from devouring the spellcaster¡¯s spirit. ¡®Looks like this spellcaster was a lot weaker than that lich spirit I first ate. I had a lot more difficulty as this idiot was resisting, but gained only around 10 stat points in each mental attribute.¡¯ Jack thought as he summoned information for the skills he had gained.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Dagger MasteryBeginner412.38%
You have learnt the Art of fighting with daggers and knives. Increases the damage inflicted, the speed of attacks and gives bonus damage to critical hits. Current level effects: +18% Damage +16% Attack Speed +19% Critical Damage
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
AssassinateBeginner502.86%
Subskill of Dagger Mastery You have learned the art of silently dispatching opponents, before they are aware of your presence. This skill does greatly improved damage when used on unaware humanoids. Costs 50 PP per use and can only be used on unaware humanoids. Current level effects: +350% Damage
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana BladeBeginner352.36%
Subskill of Mana Control You have learned to coat bladed weapons with your mana, increasing its damage. Different elements have different spell effects. Depending on the level of your mana control, you can use this skill on larger blades. Currently, you can use the following elements: Force: Does not reduce weapon durability. Soul: Causes the target to panic on a critical hit, depending on the target''s Willpower. Void: 5% of the damage done reduces the target''s mana. Fire: Does Burning DoT on a critical hit, depending on the target''s Vitality. Reduces your Max PP by 100 for each weapon. Costs 4PP/s to maintain for each weapon. PP Costs may increase depending on the size of the bladed weapon. Current level effects: +104.5% of your Magic Attack is added to your Weapon attack.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Opportunistic StrikerTrait------
Subskill of Survival You know the value a decisive first strike can have in a conflict. If your first strike in a combat encounter is a critical hit, you do double damage with it.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Devour SoulBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Spirit Eater Due to your enigmatic wisdom, you have realized that bodies are just an elaborate shell for the soul. You can attempt to devour the soul of a single humanoid target in critical condition. This replenishes your HP, PP, satiety, thirst and Spirit Energy. The amount replenished depends on skilllevel, willpower and the power of the targeted humanoid. Current level effects: This skill can only be used once every 12 hours.
¡®A combination of Mana Blade, Dagger mastery, Assassinate and Opportunistic Striker sure is powerful! I managed to one shot those lv60 bandits due to this awesome synergy. I probably can¡¯t beat someone with a class specialized for assassinating from stealth, but with mana blade and opportunistic striker, I can sure come close!¡¯ Jack thought happily. He also wondered why Devour Soul could be used once every 12 hours, while Eternal Rest could only be used once a day initially. ¡®That¡¯s probably because Spirit Eater is Intermediate tier now. Meh, might as well check info on Eternal Rest¡¯ Jack speculated as he bought up the skill info window.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Eternal RestBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Spirit Eater You can grant oblivion to undead entities, both corporeal and incorporeal, replenishing you satiety, thirst, HP, PP and Spirit Energy. The amount replenished depends on your skilllevel, willpower and the power of the undead targeted. Current level effects: This skill can only be used once every 12 hours.
Jack then summoned his status and reviewed it. He decided to invest his free stat points mainly into Intelligence, Vitality and Willpower, with a bit of Strength and Agility.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level43 (41.26%)Fame / Infamy20 / 0
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator
CONDITION
HP5248/5248HP/s6.1402/s
PP6675/6675PP/s53.5509/s
Spirit Energy31/110SE/s- 0.9% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst86% / 86%Weight Limit56.5/200
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv2)
BASIC STATS
Strength100Vitality175
Dexterity90Agility100
Intelligence230 + 10Willpower175
Free Stat Points0
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance80
Sustenance70Balance70
Flexibility65Concentration130
Wisdom125Indomitable Spirit35
Elemental Affinity
Physical19%Soul21%
Void12%Fire6%
Elemental Resistance
Physical3%Soul4%
Void2%Fire1 + 5%
Ice0 + 5%
(A/N: Intelligence 230+10 means that the +10 is the result of equips and buffs. Skills and titles which grant a passive to stats (example: the Survival subskills), are included before the +)
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 12.38%)
  • Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 02.86%)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 4: 43.21%)
  • Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 58.46%)
  • Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 3: 52.26%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 5: 12.13%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 4: 61.26%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 03.13%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 2: 51.43%)
Spirit Eater (Intermediate Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 5: 83.92%)
  • Opportunistic Striker (Trait)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv4:23.53%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 5: 13.15%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 5: 18.13%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 71.18%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 19.87%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 17.02%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 12.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)
Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv4: 31.76%)
Soul Strike (Beginner Lv5: 62.34%)
After Jack finished investing his stat points and reviewing all his skills, he received an alarm which signified it was time for Lunch in RL. ¡®I have to deal with these victims and that asshole Chief Walnoth. Meh, I will skip lunch today and tie up loose ends here.¡¯ Jack thought as he went to loot rest of the dungeon and free the unfortunate victims.
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Chapter 012 Chapter 012 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading them! If you enjoy reading this FF, please R&R! It really helps my motivation to write when I receive positive feedback and constructive criticism. NOTE: I made a significant edit in the last chapter, around a day after I posted it. After clearing the goblins, bandits and the miniboss, Jack is lv43 (instead of the previous 37). You can check the updated status table in the previous chapter. ------------------------------------------ Jack exited the stone chamber after thoroughly searching it for loot, and searched the rooms of the bandits for any possible loot. He freed each chained woman with a key, which he usually found somewhere nearby in the alcove. Jack gave them a choice of living or dying. He told them that if they didn¡¯t want to live, he could kill them here and now, allowing their souls to pass on. If they wanted to live however, he would guide them along for a while. Only four of the captive women wanted to live. The rest of the women either begged Jack to kill them or were too unresponsive, and Jack dispatched of them anyway. ¡®They are NCPs anyways. It¡¯s a mercy to kill them now rather than leave them for further torture. I can¡¯t babysit them anyways.¡¯ Jack rationalized his killing of the victims. Jack had found the master key of the cages in the stone chamber. Jack, followed by the captive women, entered the huge cavern with the prisoner cages. There were around 60 people in a dozen cages. Jack said loudly: ¡°I will free you shortly after I identify and repair the weapons of these goblins. We will make a stop at a nearby village, before I entrust you to the guards at Rotang City. Some of you may have relatives or lovers looking for you. Many of these crates and barrels contain weapons, but a few contained various trade goods like silk and ingots. I expect each of you to arm them and carry the rest of it. Half of the proceeds from the sale of this loot, you can keep to help you in your new life, and half I will keep.¡± Jack paused and glanced around. He wanted to save them, and had planned to use the captives as mules for all the low quality weapons stockpiled. ¡®I have to report to Captain Zubin anyway, might as well drop them there. I need to prevent them from deserting with my loot, a small share of it and a threat should be sufficient.¡¯ Jack thought as he continued: ¡°If you do not wish to fight, say so now, and you can be on your way with a single weapon of your choice. If you desert on the way to Rotang however, I will not hesitate to strike you down and strip you naked for the wolves.¡± Jack let loose a force bolt at a nearby crate, smashing it, to demonstrate his point. Jack then organized the loot, committing it to memory. He then opened all the cages and asked them to eat the roasted lizards and rats if they were hungry, but to maintain order, or he won¡¯t hesitate punishing them. Jack then grinded his Mana Identification and Mana Repair on the low quality weapons used and stocked by the goblins. There were around 150 of them in all. He kept the best ones in his inventory, while leaving around 140 poor quality ones for the captives to arm themselves. Jack then instructed each of them to arm themselves, and warned them that he knew how much of each item was present, and won¡¯t tolerate if any of it went ¡®missing¡¯. Jack then approached the man, who had first spoken to him and asked him for any knowledge he had. The man was remarkably calm for the situation and explained the operation in brief. The spellcaster needed people to power his ritual. He had intimidated a group of goblins into service and used the bandits to manage them. The goblins attacked lightly guarded caravans and small groups on the roads and took prisoners. The bandits could use the women captives as they wished, as long as the spellcaster got enough bodies for his ritual. A few parties of travelers had encountered by the goblin sentries. A goblin sentry would rush in and warn rest of the goblins and the bandits, and the travelers were quickly slaughtered. Jack assumed that parties had rushed in head on and were decimated by the combined might of the goblins and the bandits. Having faced such crushing defeat, the players had probably decided to grind elsewhere and tackle this encounter at higher levels. Jack realized that he was lucky as he had avoided the sentries and caught the bandits distracted. If the sentries alerted rest of the goblins and the bandits, he would have been dead for sure. Jack double checked the captives and led them towards the village of Falluen. It was a short walk to reach there. The guards looked hesitant allowing so many armed people into the village. Jack patiently explained that they were the goblin captives. He had some business with Chief Wolnoth, and then he would take them to Rotang City to meet Captain Zubin. After the guards led them in, Jack guided them to Chief Wolnoth¡¯s House. He instructed them to surround the house and wait for him. Jack knocked and Chief Wolnoth opened the door. There was shock registered momentarily on his face. Jack forced his way in, and motioned the Chief to have a seat. He kept the door ajar. Jack then chuckled and said: ¡°Surprised Chief Wolnoth? Didn¡¯t expect me to survive? I may not look like much¡­but looks can be deceiving.¡± Jack said. Chief Wolnoth stammered: ¡°Not at all, traveler. I am glad you have returned safely with the captives. How can I help you now?¡± Jack had a look of rage on him and he growled: ¡°Do I look like an idiot old man? I know that the trail was watched by goblin sentries, and it wasn¡¯t a coal mine, abandoned or otherwise. Now those people were captives for long and have watched many of their fellow captives die. They stared helpless as the bandits raped and disposed their wives and daughters. One word from me, and they will kill you and your family. And I bet many of the villagers will join in too if I reveal your role. Now cut the shit and tell me the truth!¡± Chief Wolnoth was visibly intimated and continued: ¡°Forgive me traveler, I did the only thing I could do for greater good. Our village is peaceful, and would have been no match for the goblins lead by the bandits. In return for sacrificing a few nearby caravans and warning them of potential threats, they left us mostly in peace. My first duty is to my family and my village.¡± Jack glared coldly and said: ¡°The ex-captives outside are ready to lynch you and your family. Or they can restrain others as I drag you to Rotang to face judgment from Captain Zubin. I am not a hero of justice however. Convince me why I should leave you alone.¡± With an emphasis on convince. The Chief looked visibly relieved and said: ¡°I thank you for your understanding traveler. I have saved up some gold and am in possession of a rare enchanted amulet. You can have them, if this stays between us. I will also instruct the shopkeepers to provide you a discount on your purchases and to purchase your loot at a premium¡± Jack grunted and continued: ¡°Hmm, that is cheap for your life old man. Now get on with it.¡± Chief Wosnoth returned with a steel amulet and a pouch of coins. The amulet looked plain, but jack could see a higher than usual intensity of mana from it. The chief also handed him a few notes, and assured him that he would receive a 10% bonus to his transactions. Jack threatened the Chief one last time with dire consequences, and left his house. Jack then sold most of his loot inside the village shops, taking advantage of the Chief¡¯s notes. He sold most of the weapons and brigandine armor he had acquired. Jack collected all the gold, and kept his word by giving the former captives a portion of their gold. After distributing the gold (excluding the Chief¡¯s bribe), Jack was in possession of 84 gold, 56 silvers and 32 copper. He had also kept a ring, a bracelet, the Chief¡¯s Necklace, a few weapons, leather body armor, and a leather pants. These were the items Jack could equip and he reviewed them:
Fine Iron Dagger
Type:Weapon: Dagger (One Handed)Durability:100 / 100
Rarity:CommonGrade:E
This is an iron dagger with decent craftsmanship. You can use this to poke your foes! Restrictions: Lv30, 50 AGI and 25 STR Bonus on Equip: +30 ~ 50 Damage
Fine Iron Long Sword
Type:Weapon: Sword (One Handed)Durability:100 / 100
Rarity:CommonGrade:E
This is an iron long sword with decent craftsmanship. You can use this to slash your foes! Restrictions: Lv30, 50 STR and 25 AGI Bonus on Equip: +45 ~ 80 Damage
Fine Iron Battle Axe
Type:Weapon: Axe (Two handed)Durability:120 / 120
Rarity:CommonGrade:E
This is a massive axe wielded with both hands. It is made of iron with decent craftsmanship. You can use this to bash your foes! Restrictions: Lv30, 75 STR Bonus on Equip: +90 ~ 160 Damage
Fine Iron Morning Star
Type:Weapon: Mace (One handed)Durability:100 / 100
Rarity:CommonGrade:E
This is a spiked iron mace of decent craftsmanship. You can use this to smash your foes! Restrictions: Lv30, 60 STR and 15 AGI Bonus on Equip: +60 ~ 90 Damage
Leather Armor
Type:Armor (Light)Durability:100 / 100
Rarity:CommonGrade:E
This is body armor made of leather offering some protection, yet allowing agile movements. The leather and craftsmanship are of moderate quality. Restrictions: Lv30, 50 Agi and 25 VIT Bonus on Equip: +30 Phy Def
Leather Pants
Type:Armor (Light)Durability:100 / 100
Rarity:CommonGrade:E
This is leg armor made of leather offering some protection, yet allowing agile movements. The leather and craftsmanship are of moderate quality. Restrictions: Lv30, 50 Agi and 25 VIT Bonus on Equip: +20 Phy Def
Copper Ring of Arcane Power
Type:Accessory(Ring)Durability:50 / 50
Rarity:UncommonGrade:E
This is an enchanted copper ring which boosts your Intelligence and Wisdom. Accessories of this type are popular among arcane spellcasters. Restrictions: Lv30, 50 INT Bonus on Equip: +10 INT, +10 Wisdom
Copper Bracelet of Focus
Type:Accessory(Bracelet)Durability:50 / 50
Rarity:UncommonGrade:E
This is an enchanted copper bracelet which boosts your Willpower and Concentration. Accessories of this type are popular among spellcasters, s it allows them to focus on their spellcasting in the heat of battle. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Restrictions: Lv30, 50 Willpower Bonus on Equip: +10 Willpower, +10 Concentration
Dryad''s Silver Amulet of Life
Type:Accessory(Necklace)Durability:75 / 75
Rarity:RareGrade:E
This is a silver amulet which blessed by a minor nature spirit. It boosts your Life and Physical resistance. Restrictions: Lv40 Bonus on Equip: +200 Max HP, +5% Physical Resistance
Jack equipped the ring, bracelet, amulet, leather armor and leather pants. He also hid the dagger in his leather boots and sheathed the sword in a sheath near his waist. He had to spend a few silvers on a leather belt and the sheaths for his long sword and dagger. But all in all it was quite a profitable haul which provided him decent equips. Jack then gathered all the victims and set for Rotang city. It was mostly a long and uneventful journey. Periodically, Jack hunted wolves and bears to feed his retinue. After a while, it was time for jack to have dinner in real life. He instructed the captives, that he would return in a few hours. They could continue along the path to Rotang at a gradual pace, and he would catch up to them when he returned. Jacob logged off Asunder Online. He prepared a dinner of boiled rice, pan fried beans and an omelet of egg whites. He did a few stretches, took a quick shower and had dinner while browsing forums dedicated to AO. He received a few IMs from his office friends, but explained to them that he was in the middle of another quest, and that he would update them tomorrow in office anyway. After jack finished his dinner, he logged in to AO using FuDi Mode. He sprinted till he depleted 3/4th of his PP, then walked till he regenerated his PP. He managed to reach the captives in some time and after a while, they reached Rotang City. Jack explained the guards, that these were kidnapping victims and he had received a quest regarding them from Captain Zubin. Hearing Captain Zubin¡¯s name, they let him in and one of them accompanied jack and the captives to Captain Zubin¡¯s Office. The captives waited outside, while Jack went in to meet Captain Zubin. Jack then explained his ambush of the Goblin hideout. He explained how the bandits who were leading the goblins were abusing the women when he dispatched them. Captain Zubin had an expression of disgust at hearing this. Jack went on to explain, how the main leader was the spellcaster who had an ambition to be a lich and that Jack had taken care of him. When asked by Captain Zubin, how jack managed to deal with a to-be Lich, Jack hid about his spirit eating abilities. He said that he had crippled and maimed the spellcaster, rendering him unable to cast spells. Then he had found and destroyed the phylactery nearby and finished him off. Jack also hid the role Chief Wosnoth with the goblins. He rationalized that the main threat was over, and he had extorted him anyways. After hearing jack¡¯s account, Captain Zubin seemed visibly impressed and said: ¡°Impressive traveler, this is beyond my expectations. The best I had hoped for is a solid lead, but not only did you eliminate the threat, you also helped the captive victims reach here. We will wrap it up from here. Some of these people have relatives waiting for them, so it won¡¯t be an issue. Rest of the men can probably find work as miners or farmers.¡± Captain Zubin paused and a look of sorrow was visible. He continued: ¡°If the women have skills in cooking, tailoring or herbology, I can get them placed as cooks in the castle or with the respective guilds. If they lack the required skills however, the city brothels are all that¡¯s available, I am afraid.¡± Captain Zubin paused observing Jack. Jack appeared to be apologetic, but in truth what he was waiting for was the quest reward. Captain Zubin continued: ¡°Now we have to deal with the question of your reward. For information on the kidnappings, I was to give you 5 gold. You have exceeded my expectations, and I would like to reward you with more. But, I am only authorized to reward you with this sum.¡± Captain Zubin handed over a small cloth pouch, which Jack accepted. After jack finished counting the gold coins and storing it in his inventory, Captain Zubin continued: ¡°However, the city guards have plenty of business dealings with the various guilds in town. Normally, if you aren¡¯t a crafting class and want to learn a crafting skill, you have to do a length apprenticeship where you help your mentor with menial tasks, as well as paying a substantial fee before learning it. Now the blacksmith¡¯s guild, the alchemy guild and the enchanter¡¯s guild owe me a favor. You can either obtain a hefty 20% discount on the services offered by one of the guilds for a month, or you can choose to learn one of these crafting skills.¡± Captain Zubin paused and waited for Jack¡¯s answer. Jack thought about his choice of reward. The 20% discount sounded appealing. He could buy potions for a discount and resell them slightly cheaper than NPC shops for a hefty profit as potions were always in demand. On the other hand, learning a skill sounded more useful in the long term. Since his class didn¡¯t have any penalties or bonuses, he wouldn¡¯t struggle to grind his crafting skills as much as other combat classes. Jack pondered on which skill to learn. His playstyle wasn¡¯t overly dependent on weapons and armor. So blacksmithing wouldn¡¯t compliment his playstyle much. Alchemy was good, as potions were always in demand. But MP restoring potions only had 25% effect, and Jack figured that collecting the various herbs and alchemical reagents would be pain. Having made up his mind Jack replied: ¡°I would be very thankful if I could learn the art of Enchanting Captain Zubin.¡± Captain Zubin gave a snort. He took some parchment and quickly wrote a note. He handed the note to Jack saying: ¡°Meet Tristan. He is the Head Enchanter of the Enchanter¡¯s Guild here in Rotang. This note should allow you to meet him. However¡­he can be eccentric. Attempt to learn Enchanting all the same. If it doesn¡¯t work out, return to me and I will refer you to the alchemist or blacksmith¡¯s guild.¡± Captain Zubin said with an apologetic expression. Jack pocketed the note, thanked Captain Zubin and was about to leave, when he heard: ¡°Oh one more thing Jack. In 20 days from now, we will send an expedition to exterminate a colony of giant arachnids. They are quite strong and have started getting bold, preying on people traveling the main roads. The whole expedition should take around a week. If you are interested you can join it.¡± Jack thought that it was fortunate, as the expedition coincided with a weekend in RL! ¡®Maybe the AI is arranging stuff on the weekends purposefully! This will be a good chance to level-up with a party.¡¯ Jack thought as he replied without hesitation: ¡°Yes Captain Zubin, I would be honored to join this expedition.¡± ¡°Good then be present here after breakfast in 20 days¡± Captain Zubin grunted. Jack left the barracks, and after quickly consulting his map, Jack went towards the Enchanter¡¯s Guild. He used Captain Zubin¡¯s note to gain an audience with Head Enchanter Tristan. Although Jack couldn¡¯t understand why the other guild members were giving Jack looks of pity, he guessed it had to do with the Head Enchanter¡¯s eccentricity. Jack was soon outside the Head Enchanter¡¯s office. Jack knocked and waited for a reply. After a while, hearing no response, he knocked again harder. Jack knew that Head Enchanter Tristan was inside, but was wondering why he wasn¡¯t responding. ¡®Maybe he is sleeping. I need to knock harder.¡¯ Jack thought as he activated force gloves and ¡®knocked¡¯ as hard as he could. There was an audible crunch from the door and the imprints of his knuckles were visible. Jack was about to ¡®knock¡¯ again, when he heard a raspy voice from inside: ¡°Oh for Gaia¡¯s sake stop breaking my door and enter.¡± Jack suppressed a grin and entered. He saw a bald old man wearing aquamarine robes doodling on some parchment. He had a short crop of gray hair and was clean shaved. Jack bowed and said politely: ¡°Greetings Head Enchanter Tristan. It is an honor to meet you.¡± The Head Enchanter was visibly pleased at this flattery, but snorted and said: ¡°Don¡¯t waste my time boy. What do you want? And why were you allowed to meet me?¡± Jack handed the Head Enchanter Captain Zubin¡¯s note and said: ¡°I wish to learn the noble art of enchanting, Head enchanter. Captain Zubin directed me to you to for that purpose.¡± ¡°Not just anyone can learn enchanting right off the bat. You need dedication and skills to be a good enchanter.¡± Head Enchanter Tristan said. ¡°I am ready to dedicate myself and follow your guidance, Head Enchanter.¡± Jack said politely while he mentally imagined slapping the old fool silly. Head Enchanter grunted and said: ¡°We will see about that. You must ¡®dedicate¡¯ 50 gold to our guild. That will be a start.¡± The Head Enchanter was shocked when Jack placed 50 gold on his desk. This was more than double the cost of a regular apprenticeship. He quickly pocketed the gold, while Jack was crying mentally. ¡°Good Good. Now you can¡¯t learn enchanting from me unless you can directly manipulate mana without hermetic structures.¡± Head Enchanter Tristan said. He clearly didn¡¯t expect the answer he received from Jack. ¡°Yes head Enchanter, I can directly manipulate mana.¡± Jack said. Head Enchanter Tristan snorted and said in a mocking voice: ¡°Yes sure you can. And I am 20 years old, with all the ladies pining for my sensual touch.¡± Jack was almost about to punch his sneering face, but he controlled himself. He activated mana fists in his hand and sent a blast of fire attuned mana in the air, to demonstrate his point. On witnessing this, Head Enchanter Tristan¡¯s Jaw dropped. He was shocked that Jack actually knew the lost art of mana manipulation. The Head Enchanter recovered and boomed in a magically enhanced voice: ¡°Skinny apprentice, come to my office at once.¡± Jack was taken aback at this. Since the Head Enchanter wasn¡¯t offering him a seat, he took one anyway. After a few seconds, a skinny boy of 16 wearing gray robes entered and said: ¡°Master, my name is ---¡° ¡°Shut up brat. Did I ask your name? Now get me an enchanting skillbook written by that fat journeyman. Also bring along a book cataloging the basic runes.¡± The apprentice looked shocked and said: ¡°But Master ---¡° ¡°Just listen to your master boy! Now do as I ask!¡± Head Enchanter Tristan roared. The apprentice just whimpered and left. Jack kept a poker face, but he was both irritated and amused at the Head Enchanter¡¯s behavior. After a few minutes, the apprentice kept a couple of books on the desk and retreated as fast as he could. The Head Enchanter smiled crazily at Jack and said: ¡°Initially I thought to just shoo you away. But lucky for you I am in a good mood! Use the skillbook to instantly learn about Enchanting and its main subskills instantly!¡± Jack was surprised at the sudden eagerness of the Head Enchanter. But he shrugged regardless and used the skillbook. ¡°You were smart enough to use the skillbook? Good! Now you should have the Enchanting skill, and two subskills, namely Bestow Enchant and Absorb Enchant. Enchanting at its core, is altering the mana signature of a product.¡± Head Enchanter Tristan explained. He pointed to the other book and said: ¡°Now that is a book detailing the most basic runes any enchanter should know. You feel the mana in an object and carve the runes into it. Initially, you will be able to imbibe an object with only one rune. But later of you can use more runes on a product, combine multiple runes into glyphs, and use multiple glyphs!¡± Head Enchanter paused for a bit. He observed Jack while continuing: ¡°If you come across any enchanted item, you can use the subskill Absorb Enchant to restore a portion of your mana and learn the runes used. After learning runes you can use Bestow Enchant to enchant an item. The better quality material an item has, the more powerful your enchants are. You can memorize common runes from that book and try it out on items you find.¡± Jack pocketed the book and wept mentally. ¡®All the loot from the goblins, except the accessories I am using was mundane. If I had known enchanting then, I could have enchanted it before selling.¡¯ Jack thought as he resolved to identify, repair and enchant all loot he obtains. Head Enchanter Zubin continued: ¡°Since you have paid me 50 gold, I will authorize you to use your apprentice enchanting. You can practice your enchanting skills on copper and iron accessories there. However, you can only take away accessories which you have paid for or were yours originally.¡± Head Instructor Zubin handed Jack a steel gray card. Jack pocketed the steel gray card and went to the library. He was immersed in memorizing runes when he received an alarm signifying that it was Monday morning. Sighing, Jack logged off and woke up. He did a few stretched, and went for his morning parkor circuit. He then took a quick shower, had a cold breakfast of ham sandwich and left for work.
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Chapter 013 (Proofread) Chapter 013 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading them! If you enjoy reading this FF, please R&R! It really helps my motivation to write when I receive positive feedback and constructive criticism. Thanks to CanadianBacon for proofreading ------------------------------------------ Jacob droned on at work. After his first six months, he was habituated to it. ¡®This shit is boring. But meh, it pays the bills.¡¯ Jacob thought as he heard Adam calling him. ¡°Jacob, it is time for lunch. Let us go!¡± Jacob got up from his cubicle and noticed that all three of his friends had gathered. Jacob sighed and told his friends: ¡°The first day at work after vacations is such a bitch, damn it.¡± Carlos looked pissed and grumbled something which sounded like ¡®traitor¡¯. They made their way to the cafeteria, and were discussing about the latest developments in Asunder Online. Jacob was pinning for the sweet embrace of his FuDi capsule, and had a grumpy look on his face. They sat down on their usual table and continued discussing about Asunder Online. Dion looked visibly excited and said: ¡°Guys I finished my quest and changed from warrior to a Paladin! I didn¡¯t get any healing spells, though I got some cool buffs! So what about you guys? Anything interesting over the weekend?¡± Carlos immediately replied: ¡°Guys I picked up alchemy! Brewing potions is good way to gain money. I also partied with this hot warrior babe and leveled up to lv33! While she was swinging her claymore, her chainmail clad bubble butt was ---¡° Adam interjected: ¡°Looks like you had a nice time. I regret becoming a priest. Pray and donate to get more Faith. And every fucker begs for free heals. But I leveled up to 34! That¡¯s got to count for something!¡± Adam had a forced smile on his face. Dion said: ¡°Yeah praying for faith is shitty, but you aren¡¯t alone. Also you get cool spells! I got one which allows me to light up my weapon on fire! And due to focusing on my class upgrade quest I am just a sad lv30. How about you Jacob? Did you finish that quest you were in the middle of?¡± Jacob replied: ¡°Yeah, I had to kill some goblins, a few bandits and a spellcaster miniboss. But the reward was shitty.¡± Jacob grumbled recollecting the sudden loss of 50 gold towards enchanting. Carlos immediately inquired: ¡°What do mean by a shitty reward? Goblins are fucking lv45! The highest known player is some obsessed rich lv42 Korean who pours in a lot of RL money ingame.¡± ¡°Well I had problems dealing with the goblins. But turns out, my quest was just for investigating the kidnappings. I didn¡¯t just investigate, but solved the kidnapping and collected plenty of loot. Turns out 5 gold was the maximum cash reward. I also got a chance to learn enchanting¡­but had to pay 50 gold for it! I barely have 40 gold now, but on the plus side I am lv43!¡± All three of them were open-mouthed at this revelation. Dion collected himself and said: ¡°Lv43? Shit that means you had soloed all of them. And Enchanting is a poor choice of a crafting skill for someone short on money though.¡± Jacob looked puzzled and asked: ¡°Well I had the choice between alchemy, blacksmithing and enchanting. I didn¡¯t want to run around collecting herbs and I don¡¯t really use metal armors so I picked up Enchanting.¡± Hearing this Carlos said in a mocking tone: ¡°Jacob, you haven¡¯t tried enchanting anything yet have you? Each enchanting attempt reduces the durability of an item. You can mine ores and gather herbs for smiting and alchemy, you actually have to pay for repair costs! Well unless you have crafting skills like blacksmithing, carpentry and tailoring to repair metal, wooden and cloth items yourself.¡± Adam and Dion looked at Jacob with pity, but Jacob seemed unconcerned and replied: ¡°Meh, I¡¯ll manage. I got access to an apprentice enchanter¡¯s workshop. I will grind my enchanting there. We should all save up for our future guild. Now let us get going, lunch is almost over anyways. And you guys know our boss¡­¡± Jacob was secretly pleased at this turn of events. ¡®This means I can grind Mana Repair, and consequently Mana Control too!¡¯ Jacob thought as he planned to grind his Enchanting skill. Jacob finished work, drove home and had a quick dinner. He was impatient as he climbed into his capsule and connected to Asunder Online in the library. Jack had finished memorizing the book on the basic of enchanting. It consisted of runes for each basic stat, each basic element, offense and defense. To effectively enchant an object, mana has to be channeled in the form of a rune on the item. This is usually done by carefully engraving the desired runes, and using the skill Bestow Enchant on it. Each failed attempt would distort the etched rune also reducing its durability. Once an object was successfully enchanted, the etched rune had no utility. In fact, the standard practice was to file off the runes used after a successful enchant, so as to keep the runes a secret. Jack reasoned that since he had Mana Control, he could manually embed the object with the rune by directly using mana and avoid engraving. While learning the runes seemed cumbersome, an Enchanter had to learn a rune only once before he could enchant it! In comparison, Alchemists and blacksmiths had to gather the raw material multiple times, even after they learnt an advanced recipe or technique related to their skill! The effect of an enchanting rune depended on various factors. It depended on the type and quality of the item being enchanted. For example, a basic fire rune on a melee weapon added a bit of fire damage to it. The same fire rune used on a piece of armor would give fire resistance. Furthermore, as the enchanter grows in skill, he can use multiple runes to enchant a single object, and also combine runes into glyphs for various effects! ¡®I am lucky I have Mana Repair and Mana Control, it seems to complement enchanting nicely. I don¡¯t know any good hunting grounds now so might as well grind my enchanting and repair till I have to meet Captain Zubin in the weekend.¡¯ Jack thought as he made his way to the Enchanter¡¯s Guild. He found his way to the apprentice workshop without much trouble and grabbed a nearby iron ring. Jack noticed that there were a few other apprentices doing the usual engraving and attempting to enchant items. Jack found an isolated corner and focused his Spirit Senses on the iron ring in his hand. He could see a roughly uniform bland mana emanating from it. In contrast, his enchanted ring and bracelet¡¯s mana signature throbbed gently with psychedelic colors. ¡®So it seems, that I have to use the enchanting runes until the mana from this ring changes permanently.¡¯ Jack thought as he quickly identified and repaired the Grade F iron ring. Jack tried using bestow Enchant with system assist, while thinking of the HP rune. His spirit sense allowed him to see a mild change in the mana of the iron ring before it quickly returned to its default state. Jack also noticed that the iron ring had lost a bit of its durability. ¡®Seems like it will be forever before this stupid system assist can bestow a simple enchant on this shitty ring.¡¯ Jack thought irritably as he repaired it to full durability. Jack then entered a light meditative trance and pictured the HP rune clearly. He then proceeded to shape mana from his index finger into the shape of the rune in thin air. It took quite a few attempts before Jack was able to maintain the delicate shape on his finger tip. Jack then tried to infuse the iron ring with his rune shaped mana. He found out that too much mana, cause it to dissipate quickly in a bright flash, while too little mana caused the mana signature to become bland slowly. After about a dozen attempts, Jack was successfully able to enchant the iron ring with the HP rune. Jack got excited when he saw the familiar psychedelic glow of mana from the iron ring. He quickly identified the now enchanted ring and sighed loudly in frustration. ¡°I get only 20 HP?¡± Jack questioned aloud as he went back to grinding his Enchanting skill. Meanwhile, unnoticed by Jack, a certain skinny apprentice left the workshop. He went to meet the Head Enchanter and told him: ¡°Master I was observing the traveler Jack, as you instructed. For the past few hours, he was just touching an iron ring and muttering to himself. Just now, he exclaimed about a +20HP enchantment. What does it mean master?¡± The Head Enchanter smiled and said: ¡°It means that he has a lot of potential in Enchanting. With his talent, if he is dedicated, he can hope to create legendary or even epic enchants! Unlike you useless lot, who can at best hope for a rare enchant. Now shoo! Go watch him some more and report, perhaps you will learn a thing or two.¡± The apprentice grumbled mentally in jealousy as he went to the workshop again. Jack spent the weekdays in game grinding his Enchanting skill. Before heading to Captain Zubin, Jack had enchanted his leather gloves, boots, pants and armor with +VIT enchants. He figured since vitality gave both HP and PP, it was the best stat to enchant. He also enchanted all four of his weapons with the Offense rune. Jack abstained from enchanting additional accessories as he vowed to earn his 50 gold back. He also abstained from using absorb enchant on his accessories, as it provided a much higher bonus than he could manage to enchant. Jack reviewed his status once, before meeting Captain Zubin.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level43 (83.51%)Fame / Infamy90 / 10
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator
CONDITION
HP5658/(5458+200)HP/s6.6764/s
PP6930/6930PP/s56.8288/s
Spirit Energy0/110SE/s- 0.9% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst96% / 96%Weight Limit69/200
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv3)
BASIC STATS
Strength100Vitality175 + 10
Dexterity94Agility110
Intelligence231 + 10Willpower178+10
Free Stat Points0
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance81
Sustenance73Balance70
Flexibility65Concentration132+10
Wisdom128+10Indomitable Spirit35
Elemental Affinity
Physical19%Soul21%
Void15%Fire6%
Elemental Resistance
Physical3 + 5%Soul4%
Void3%Fire1 + 5%
Ice0 + 5%
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SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 12.38%)
  • Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 02.86%)
Enchanting (Beginner Lv 3: 01.38%)
  • Bestow Enchant (Beginner Lv 3: 12.62%)
  • Absorb Enchant (Beginner Lv 2: 96.47%)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 5: 36.48%)
  • Imbibe Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 58.46%)
  • Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 3: 52.26%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 8: 07.83%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 7: 21.76%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 05.13%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 3: 11.43%)
Spirit Eater (Intermediate Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 5: 83.92%)
  • Opportunistic Striker (Trait)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv4:23.53%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 5: 13.15%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 5: 18.13%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 71.18%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 19.87%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 17.02%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 12.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)
Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv4: 31.76%)
Soul Strike (Beginner Lv5: 62.34%)
Jack analyzed his status. He had gained some fame, infamy and quite a bit of experience from completing the kidnapping quest, thought it wasn¡¯t enough to levelup. ¡®Why do I get infamy for threatening that asswipe of a village chief? Stupid AI.¡¯ Jack grumbled mentally. On the bright side, grinding his enchanting for a week had gained him a few mental stats along with some dexterity and sustenance. Jack went to the market square and bought a dozen health potions and 30 darts spending over 60 silvers. He noticed that some players were hawking mildly enchanted gear. Jack had an hour in game left, before he had to report to Captain Zubin, but he browsed a few of them. He was shocked to see that an Uncommon Grade E leather Armor, not too different from his own, with +5AGI went for 8 gold! The unenhanced leather armor could be bought from NPC shops for just 3 gold. Jack inquired the somewhat chubby player merchant about tis inflated price. The merchant glanced at jack and replied: ¡°You don¡¯t look like a noob with the armor and sword you have equipped. There are a very few players picking up enchanting, as it requires significant investment at the start. Those who do are mostly supported by their RL friends and are assured to be dedicated craftsmen in future guilds.¡± The merchant paused. Jack replied: ¡°But you are a merchant right? You should have skills to buy this cheaper from NCP shops. And you can also get it enchanted for a discount at the Enchanter¡¯s guild. Considering that, shouldn¡¯t you be selling this for cheaper?¡± The chubby player snorted as he said: ¡°While it is true I can get items from NCP shops for a discount, the Enchanter¡¯s guild charges a hefty fee depending on the type of item. They don¡¯t provide discounts to me. Furthermore, each enchant is slightly random. I could have easily got a +3 AGI on that, while paying for it to be enchanted. I am just a low level merchant, without other players supporting me. I don¡¯t have any combat skills, and level up by making profitable transactions. In fact, I haven¡¯t killed anything other than rabbits and foxes.¡± The player merchant looked quite dejected as he ended his monologue. Jack thought for a bit ¡®I can enchant his merchandise by undercutting the enchanter¡¯s guild!¡¯ Jack then offered ¡°What if I can broker an enchanting service with cheaper fees than the guild? How much would you pay for having equipment enchanted to say +3 stat and above?¡± The merchant player sized up Jack for a bit, before replying: ¡°I will play half of the enchanting fee.¡± Jack sighed: ¡°Now be realistic. I could go with this offer to any other merchant. Like you said, players enchanting themselves are taking a risk of incurring repair costs with every enchant attempt. How about 80% of the enchanting fees?¡± The chubby player then replied: ¡°But I too want to make additional profit, too. If I sell your enchanted gear at market price, I will be hard pressed to sell them fast. I have contract costs to cover too, dealing with another player. I will not go above 65% of the enchanting fees, and only if your enchanter can deliver.¡± Jack did not have time to actually deliver now, because of Captain Zubin¡¯s quest. Jack pondered for a bit and replied: ¡°Hmm, can you provide me other services? Like buying consumables at a discount and selling loot for a premium?¡± The merchant player had a salesman smile stuck on his face as he replied: ¡°Sure! I can buy potions and other consumables for a 10% discount. 12%, if you buy more than 50 of an item at once. I can also sell identified loot for 10% more to NCPs. Now these rates are already 2% higher than my competitors, so they are non-negotiable. In addition, if I find any usable piece of equipment which can be enchanted and sold, I will pay you 20% more than what you would get by selling to NCP shops.¡± Jack analyzed the merchant¡¯s offer. ¡®This guy is smart. He wants loot to be identified before he buys it. NPC shops usually play 25% of an item¡¯s value. So he is offering me 30% of an items value for resalable loot. Whereas, he has to buy equipment from NPC shops at around 80%, if the rates he offers is anything to go by.¡¯ Jack replied: ¡°To me this is just a bit more profit, but for you it is level ups too! I agree with your first two terms, but I want 70% of the cost of the equipment in NCP shops.¡± The merchant player had the salesman smile plastered over his face as he replied: ¡°Make that 65% and you give me the equipment at maximum durability, then we can have an official contract.¡± Jack sighed and said: ¡°OK, fine. I will be a bit busy for a week in game. I am Jack, add me to your friend¡¯s list and I will contact you later to finalize the contract.¡± The merchant nodded, and said: ¡°Nice meeting you Jack, I am known here as Timon. Send Friend Request to Jack.¡± Jack didn¡¯t receive any notification. ¡®Ohh, I have them disabled except for alarm.¡¯ Jack realized as he mentally summoned the latest notification.
You have received a friend request from the player Timon. Do you wish to accept?
¡°Accept friend request from Timon.¡± Jack said. He said farewell to Timon, and went to meet Captain Zubin. ¡®Good thing I don¡¯t have phobia of spiders¡­or I would be screwed in this extermination quest. I should have thought about buying potions from player merchants earlier though¡¯ Jack thought as he left the market square. Chapter 014 (Proofread) Chapter 014 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! I may not reply to all comments, but I sure am reading them! If you enjoy reading this FF, please R&R! It really helps my motivation to write when I receive positive feedback and constructive criticism. This Chapter is shorter than my usual length because if I included the next segment, it would become too long and also RL stuff. Thanks to CanadianBacon for proofreading this chapter ------------------------------------------ Jack went towards the guard barracks. After a brief explanation, he was led to Captain Zubin¡¯s office. After entering, Jack greeted Captain Zubin and noticed that there was someone else present in the office. He was an olive skinned man in his early thirties equipped in chainmail armor. ¡°Welcome Jack. So have you decided to join our extermination party?¡± Captain Zubin greeted Jack. After Jack nodded, Captain Zubin introduced the third occupant of the room to Jack. ¡°He is Lieutenant Gail. He will be leading the extermination. The approximate location of the arachnid nest is roughly half a day¡¯s canter on horseback. Follow Lt. Gail, he will introduce you to rest of the party, and discuss the specifics.¡± Captain Zubin said to Jack. Hearing this, Lt. Gail got up and beckoned Jack to follow him. While they made their way, Lt. Gail initiated conversation with Jack. ¡°So you are the young traveler who solved the kidnappings and impressed Captain Zubin, eh? Now before we continue, do you accept to accompany us on this extermination quest?¡±
Quest Information
NameArachnid ExterminationGradeE+
Description Captain Zubin, has tasked you to join the extermination squad. The target is a nearby nest of giant arachnids. The more you contribute, the better your potential rewards are.
Duration / Time LimitOne Week
Privileges N.A.
Failure You abandon the quest, or you are separated from the squad for too long. On Failure, intimacy with the Rotang City Guards is reset.
Rewards You will gain money, fame, intimacy with the guards on successful completion of quest. Depending on your contribution, you may gain additional rewards.
¡°Yes Lt. Gail.¡± Jack said. ¡°Hmm now the squad I am leading consists of 10 swordsmen, 5 pikesmen, 5 hunters and 4 priests apart from us. The swordsmen are defense oriented melee combatants, whereas the pikesmen pack some ranged capability with crossbows. The hunters are mainly for ranged damage with their bows, but have some scouting and ambush capabilities.¡± Lt. Gail said. ¡°The Church of Isis has provided us four of their acolytes specializing in healing and recovery for this extermination. The hermetic magicians on the other hand, refuted our request for aid and demanded compensation! Most of the Squad members are over lv60. Now you look like you are around lv40 with your equipment, a bit on the lower side, but what are your capabilities, both combat and noncombat?¡± Lt. Gail inquired. Jack pondered for a bit on how to best answer the question. Finally he replied: ¡°I have basic stealth, but I probably won¡¯t compare to hunters. I have a couple of single target mid-range attack spells, but I can also handle melee opponents in a pinch. Outside combat, I can repair equipment as long as it is of common rarity. I can also identify and enchant, but only the basics.¡± Lt. Gail continued seemingly without a care, but mentally he was deep in thought. ¡®What the hell does this traveler aim to be? Spreading his skills over spellcasting, melee and crafting? He is quite capable though, seeing how he managed to impress Captain Zubin. Hmm, might as well use him to repair and enchant our equipment for free. The Royal Guards have such a large budget while they stay in the palace, and we can barely scrape enough for supplies for these exterminations.¡¯ ¡°I see. Well, we are equipped with common weapons and armor. So between skirmishes, you can repair and possibly enchant them. The hunters will take up the role of scouting and reconnaissance. As for the actual battles, stay in the rear and shoot spells at the monsters, and don¡¯t hit us.¡± Lt. Gail said as a matter of fact. ¡°Yes Sir! I will do my best to contribute to this extermination!¡± Jack exclaimed enthusiastically. He was really pleased, that he could grind his Mana Repair and Enchanting skills. ¡®I can grind my skills on these NCPs! I cannot repair an item fully once it is enchanted though, but that just means I will have to absorb the enchant before repairing it, further grinding my skills! On the other hand, xp and loot is divided between 26 of us. I hope my repairing and enchanting counts as contribution, and I hopefully get some good rewards.¡¯ Jack pondered. They had reached a large courtyard near some stables. A couple dozen people were preparing for the journey. Jack paused. He had almost no idea about horses and riding. ¡°Lt. Gail? Are we going to make the journey on horseback?¡± Jack inquired. ¡°Of course! Or do you prefer to walk all the way?¡± Lt. Gail replied. ¡°Not really. But, I don¡¯t own a horse nor do I know anything about riding.¡± Jack answered. Jack observed that Lt. Gail was frowning. ¡°Learning riding won¡¯t be possible in such a short time. And we can¡¯t spare a horse anyway. We won¡¯t be going at a full gallop, but somewhere between a trot and a canter. We will also take a break every couple of hours. We can arrange a mule, but honestly, it will be much faster for you to walk all the way.¡± Lt. Gail informed Jack. Jack was irritated at this turn of events. The mule sounded too annoying to bother with. From what little he knew about horses, a canter was approximately 13 miles per hour (A/N: Roughly 21 km/hr). While he was confident that he could run at a similar speed, he wasn¡¯t sure how long his PP would hold. ¡°Lt Gail, I would prefer to go on foot. But can you please tell me about the route and destination? I can probably take a more direct path and arrive on time.¡± Jack informed Lt Gail of his decision. Lt. Gail chuckled and called a private to bring a map. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Lt. Gail then explained to Jack the route they planned to take and the final destination. The whole journey was estimated to take around 6 to 7 hours. Jack summoned his own ingame MAP and was pleased to see that a new location was updated. The route which the guards planned to take was approximately 65 miles long (105 km) making it almost triple the distance of a marathon! In RL, the best athlete completed a marathon in just over 2 hours. Fortunately, the route wasn¡¯t straight and Jack estimated that had to travel roughly 40 miles (64 km) if he went in a straight line towards the final destination. Jack had to travel through the woods. But he was confident that he could tackle the wolves and bears in them without much difficulty. ¡®Lt. Gail did warn me that the woods didn¡¯t have dangerous monsters, but the terrain is a bitch to travel through. If a pack of wolves or a bear attacks me, I can dispatch them easily enough.¡¯ Jack thought as the squad left the city gates. Unknown to Jack, most of the guards were placing bets when Jack would reach them. Since the extermination was supposed to take almost a week, odds were that Jack would be a day late at least. Jack confirmed the final location on the map, before he began. He roughly matched his pace with the horse¡¯s canter while keeping an eye on his PP. Jack ran across the beginner fields and entered the nearby woods. Quite a few players noticed Jack with the guards and speculated about it. But when Jack shot off into the woods alone, they just shrugged and returned to their grinding. Jack estimated that he could maintain the pace for an hour before he completely depleted his PP. He decided to take some rest every time his PP was depleted by half. As Jack ran through the woods, the terrain gradually became unfavorable. The density of trees increased and there was significant underbrush. The terrain was also somewhat rocky, which made maintaining the pace challenging. Jack used his RL proficiency in parkour to maintain his pace as much as possible. It was quite challenging, but not beyond his capabilities. Jack however noticed that navigating the difficult terrain drained his PP faster. After 20 minutes, Jack had depleted half his PP and he took a break. After a few minutes of meditation, Jack was good to go. Jack continued running through the woods towards his destination. Whenever his satiety and thirst were low enough to give him regeneration penalties, Jack ate some rabbit jerky and drank some water from his canteen. He was attacked by the wildlife a few times. It was mostly wolves, bears and boars. Jack dispatched them with mana bolts and soul strikes when he was facing more than one. When he was facing a single monster he also used his mana blade enhanced sword. Jack refrained from collecting loot since he had a time limit to worry about. In this way, Jack traversed the woods and managed to reach the designated location, but found t empty. ¡®The horses didn¡¯t just disappear; they must have made a camp near the roads.¡¯ Jack thought as he made his way towards a road the guards were expected to come from. Before long, he could see them in the distance. In the meanwhile Jack decided to review his notifications. He had made a few stat gains, mostly in agility and sustenance. He had also unlocked a new skill called ¡®Free Running¡¯. Jack summoned the skill information window for Free Running.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Free RunningBeginner215.72%
You have adapted your movements to travel more efficiently, maintaining your momentum as much as possible while still remaining safe. This skill reduces the PP cost and possible damage due to injury of all movement related actions. Higher Balance and Flexibility, improve its effects.
Jack was quite pleased at this turn of events. This skill partially countered his PP consumption in battle. As he used the same PP pool for all physical actions and spellcasting, with reduced recovery from mana potions, anything that aided his resource management was welcome, and as a bonus, he also took less damage from movement related injuries. ¡®This is quite useful. Not only do I have more PP for spells in combat, but I also take reduced damage from movement. Bet this will be useful if someone knocks me against walls. Grinding this skill also seems to have improved my agility and sustenance! More agility and sustenance means more total PP and PP/s! I should get this to intermediate ASAP.¡¯ Jack thought happily as the guards finally approached. Most of the soldiers were shocked to see that Jack had overtaken them. He greeted Lt. Gail, who seemed cheerful for some reason. Jack was instructed to enchant the weapons of the squadrons while they tended to the horses and set up camp. Jack was then approached by the guards. He set to task of enchanting their melee weapons, ranged weapons and staves with strength, dexterity and intelligence respectively. By the time Jack was finished with enchanting their weapons, most of the preparations at camp were done. He was thanked for the enchantment, and they regretted that they didn¡¯t have enough time to get their armor enchanted too. It was mostly Grade E Common equipment, so it wasn¡¯t much of a challenge for Jack and he could consistently enchant them with +3 to +4 stat. A fourth of the personnel were to remain at camp with the horses, in shifts and the rest would go on with their extermination. Finally 7 swordsmen, 4 pikesmen, 4 hunters, 3 priests, Lt. Gail and Jack made his way towards the entrance of the giant spider nest. A couple of hunters scouted and reported that there were giant spiders in groups of three, in the first level of the dungeon. Lt. Gail ordered them to join a party. Jack joined the party and he saw a notification stating that exp was in Even Share mode. When he inquired a nearby guard about it, he explained that exp would be distributed evenly among party members according to level. Jack realized that they had priests with them, who would concentrate on healing and buffing and generally refrain from offensive actions. This setting would enable them to receive a portion of their exp. Jack dismissed all notions of leeching exp though. He reminded himself that he had to contribute as much as he could for better quest rewards. After climbing through the opening, the swordsmen and pikesmen arranged themselves in a practiced formation. Five swordsmen were leading, with three of the pikesman between them. Then were the hunters and priests along with Jack. The remaining swordsmen and a lone pikesman were guarding the rear along with Lt. Gail. Chapter 015 (Proofread) Chapter 015 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Thanks to CanadianBacon for proofreading this chapter! ------------------------------------------ Lt. Gail¡¯s squad and Jack started exploring the dungeon. They were cautiously proceeding through a wide oval tunnel when they reached a cavern of sorts. There were many cocoons made of spider web around the edges. ¡®Hope they contain loot¡¯ Jack thought as he noticed them. As Jack was speculating about the cocoons, three giant spiders approached their squad. They were chest high, and looked like giant tarantulas. The spiders had four eyes, two huge ones in the center and two smaller ones to the extreme. They had wicked looking fangs which were almost as long as Jack¡¯s forearm. They were also covered with brown fur which seemed to be waving. The hunters focused fire and one of the spiders and it soon lost almost half of its HP. ¡®I totally get arachnophobia now. Die Creepy motherfuckers. Die!¡¯ Jack thought as he shot a couple of soul strikes in rapid succession at the weakened spider. His first soul strike shaved off almost a third of its HP and the second soul strike finished it. Lt. Gail was a bit surprised. He had expected Jack¡¯s spells to be far weaker when Jack had explained his capabilities. ¡®It looks like a basic spell, but he cast it silently and so fast! And a lv60 mage would be hard pressed to that much damage with such a basic spell¡¯ Lt. Gail thought as he surveyed the battle, giving commands only if the situation warranted. The guards were clearly experienced at this as they proceeded to eliminate the two remaining spiders. The swordsmen blocked them from reaching the hunters and acolytes, while the pikesmen focused on poking one of them. The hunters were careful now, and took their time aiming, as they wanted to avoid friendly fire. The acolytes chanted prayers and healed the vanguard when it was required. Jack let loose another soul strike overhead. It arced and hit the weaker spider, reducing its HP to half. Jack was used to fighting solo, and he couldn¡¯t just fire off his mana bolt spells as it could hit his party members engaged in the melee too. The spider lunged and tried to bite one of the swordsmen, but a spear pierced its eye shaving off a quarter of its HP. The swordsmen finished it off and turned their attention to the last remaining spider. Jack fired another couple of soul strikes at it, reducing its HP to around 40%. The pikesmen and hunters quickly dispatched it. Their first skirmish was over pretty quick, yet they didn¡¯t let their guard down. Lt Gail form the rear said in a commanding voice. ¡°Good work men. However, don¡¯t let your guard down! This is only the first level. Things will get only more difficult as we proceed. Hunters, conserve your ammo and only shoot to bait the spiders. If a monster displays ranged capabilities, quickly focus fire to take it down. Jack, your spell seems to be homing. Keep using it as much as you can. Men if your equipment deteriorates, we will take a break and Jack can repair them.¡± Lt. Gail paused for a bit, and said in a much politer voice. ¡°Acolytes, please take good care of my men. If you are low on mana, don¡¯t hesitate to ask for a break. We don¡¯t have a lot of mana potions and one heal could mean life and death in a critical situation. Continue aiding us with the divine power of goddess Isis.¡± They continued systematically exploring, hunting and looting the giant brown spiders. The coccons turned out to be clusters of spider eggs and the guards were ordered to burn them. The guards in the rear were cycled periodically. The fangs, eyes and their exoskeleton were collected while Lt. Gail kept a record of it. Jack also used his dagger to collect chunks of flesh from the spider. While harvesting the meat, Jack had accidently poked one of the glands near the base of the spider fangs. A greyish fluid squirted on him and he was immediately poisoned. Fortunately, one of the acolytes quickly detoxified him. Secretly, Jack was pleased. He collected all the venom glands, planning to grind his indomitable spirit by purposely poisoning himself later! ¡°Jack! Be more careful! Don¡¯t make the acolytes waste their mana. Why do you need the meat and venom glands anyway? There were no requests from the alchemist¡¯s guild about any of it.¡± Lt Gail admonished Jack. ¡°Lt. Gail. They will help me train one of my skills. I am running low on food anyway, and the meat doesn¡¯t look poisoned.¡± Jack replied. Most looked visibly displeased at the suggestion of eating the lumps of icky flesh Jack was harvesting. Lt. Gail frowned and said: ¡°It is your stomach. However I will not allow you to eat it if you get poisoned. Mana of the acolytes is precious and we have sufficient spare rations for you in any case.¡± ¡°Yes Lt. Gail. Let me check immediately whether the meat poisons me or no.¡± Jack replied. Jack then cleaned and sheathed his dagger. He skewered a chunk of meat with his sword. Jack held the sword in his left hand while he used fire mana manipulation on his right hand to roast the meat, turning the sword. The rest of the guards avoided him and returned to gathering loot. After Jack judged it cooked, he let it cool for some time and took a bite. The meat tasted quite a lot like shellfish, but with a sour aftertaste and pungent odor. As Jack finished his grisly meal, the guards looked outright disgusted and the acolytes were alert monitoring Jack for signs of poisoning. The spider flesh didn¡¯t seem to poison him. After jack was done, he took a gulp from his canteen and was amused to notice the expression on everyone¡¯s face. ¡®Oh right. I can experiment with shit here, I wouldn¡¯t dare in RL. While to them, I must seem pretty disgusting, and possibly retarded.¡¯ Jack thought as he shrugged. ¡°It looks like the spiders are safe to eat. And it doesn¡¯t taste too bad either, even if it is a bit on the sour side. Lt. Gail I will continue eating this to conserve our rations, as it doesn¡¯t seem to present any danger. The venom from the gland was almost instantaneous.¡± Jack reasoned to Lt. Gail ¡®I do hope all travelers aren¡¯t as eccentric as him. The trick with the fire is pretty neat though.¡¯ Lt. Gail thought as he just grunted an affirmative and ordered everyone to get back to work. As they went deeper and deeper, the spiders got larger and more aggressive. They battled dozens and dozens of the giant brown spider groups ranging from two to five. Breaks to repair equipment and regenerate mana were getting more frequent. Every few hours, few of the group retreated outside the dungeon and sent in replacements from the camp. Jack could play almost 40 hours ingame continuously till he needed to have breakfast in real life. However, the NCPs soon required sleep. They found a large side alcove and the acolytes performed some sort of lengthy ritual singing hyms and using what looked like powdered limestone to draw intricate figures on the ground. Jack noticed with his spirit senses that the mana around them formed a distorting multicolor dome. When Jack inquired a nearby guard, it was explained to him that his was a ritual used by many priests to provide temporary succor from monsters. It functioned as some sort of warding, and most monsters would instinctively avoid it. It wasn¡¯t perfect however, and they would still require keeping watch in shifts. But still it allowed them to rest without the full dungeon of monsters descending on them. Jack was also advised not to hunt the monsters nearby while the ward was up. Jack volunteered to enchant as much equipment as he could during this time. Jack enchanted the helmets and boots of everyone with Defense and Agility respectively. Afterwards Jack sneaked away, careful not to disrupt the ward drawings on the floor. Jack used this opportunity to poison himself with venom glands he had collected. He grinded his Indomitable Spirit special stat. Whenever his HP fell below two thirds, he returned inside the border and meditated to restore his HP. His Danger Sense subskill of Survival was quite useful and helped him avoid many encounters. In this manner, they proceeded to systematically slaughter the spiders and dispose of their egg clusters in the first level of the dungeon. Jack estimated that they had killed hundreds of those giant brown spiders. It was time for another break before proceeding deeper into the dungeon. Jack took this opportunity for his morning exercises and breakfast. As Jack logged in, Lt. Gail and the others were prepared to explore deeper. In the next level they encountered a new enemy. It was similar to the giant brown spiders, but there were a few differences. It was slightly smaller and was covered in green hair. They first encountered two of them in a group of four. The brown spider rushed at the guards while the green spider stayed back. Jack saw with his spirit senses that the green spiders were gathering mana near their mandibles. ¡®Shit. Are they mage spiders?¡¯ Jack thought as he fired off a couple of soul strikes at one of them. These green spiders, though they looked less sturdy than the brown ones, they were much more resistant to his magic. Each of his soul strike barely managed to shave of a fifth of its HP. ¡°Green spiders are ranged attackers.¡± Jack shouted just as one of the spiders shot out a green missile from their mouth. One of the swordsmen intercepted the green missile with his shield. A sizzling sound could be heard, and his shield lost quite some durability. ¡®It is fucking acid.¡¯ Jack thought as the hunters launched a volley towards the spider Jack had weakened. In contrast to his soul strikes, the hunter¡¯s arrows were much more effective. One volley finished off the green spider Jack had weakened. Jack then shot soul strikes at the remaining green spider, and the hunters finished it off. Meanwhile, the swordsmen were tanking the brown spiders, and the pikesmen had managed to reduce one of its HP by half. After the green spiders were dispatched, it was relatively easy to dispatch the brown spiders. The squad was now familiar on dealing with them. After this battle concluded, Lt. Gail addressed his men. ¡°Hunters and Jack, from now on focus on the green spiders. They seem to have a ranged acid attack. Vanguards, don¡¯t worry about your shield¡¯s durability, and block the acid projectiles. After every battle, jack will repair your shields.¡± On cue, Jack inspected and repaired the swordsmen¡¯s shields. While repairing, he was making small talk with one of the swordsmen. The swordsman thanked Jack for repairing his shield and assured him that they would continue to protect the acolyes and the ranged attackers intercepting the acid spits with their shields. While the guards were looting, Jack pondered on the green spider¡¯s ranged attack. While it pretty much looked like an acid spit, Jack had discerned with his spirit senses that it was some kind of magical attack. ¡®That fugly spider mixed some mana in its spit and spat it. Does that mean that I can channel mana besides my hands and feet?¡¯ Jack pondered. Suddenly it clicked. Jack wanted to try something new so he distanced himself from the soldiers and the spider corpses and faced away. He didn¡¯t require any meat at the moment, and he would get his share of the loot later anyway. Jack took a deep breath, while he infused fire mana into his lungs. He continued infusing fire mana into his lungs as he breathed out. A cone of fire shot out from his mouth and extended a few meters ahead of him. Lt. Gail was keeping an eye on Jack and was surprised to see him exhale a cone of fire. ¡®Just what kind of spells does Jack know? I have never seen a mage do that. It looks closer to a fire breathing monster¡¯s attack than a spell.¡¯ Jack meanwhile, was oblivious to the attention directed his way and practiced his fire breath a few times. The fire breath lasted around a second, and he could execute the whole attack in under 5 seconds. Jack resolved to practice this skill till he could execute it faster. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡®Fuck Yeah! An AoE spell! It¡¯s a lot slower than my soul strikes or mana bolts and the range isn¡¯t too large. But still a good spell to soften up charging enemies. I do need to cast it faster though. I wonder why Madam Curie told me to get Intermediate in Mana Control before she could teach me AoE? Meh, let me check the latest notification on what skill I learned.¡¯ Jack thought as he opened his notification log. He didn¡¯t check all his notifications in detail, and just checked the latest one. He had learned a skill called mana breath. Feeling excited, Jack summoned the skill information on mana breath.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana BreathBeginner100.00%
You have learned to channel mana through your breath. You breathe out a cone of mana, damaging everyone in the area of effect. You can infuse mana with various elements. Some elements may have additional effects. Currently, you can use the following elements with this skill: Force: Does half the damage, but has a high chance to cause knockdown. Void: 5% of the damage done reduces the target''s MP Fire: Causes additional Burning DoT depending on the target''s Vitality. The amount of time you can maintain the breath depends on your Vitality. Current level effects: 215% Magic Attack/s as elemental damage to all targets in AoE. 1 second is the maximum duration. 5m range with 90 degree cone. Costs 155 PP/s
Jack analyzed his new skill. IT was a close-mid range AoE spell which did a lot more damage than his beginner lv5 soul strikes! He was a bit surprised how Vitality governed the duration that the spell could be maintained. ¡®I can¡¯t use soul affinity with this skill though. I should try some new stuff for an AoE soul spell; it will probably not harm my allies once I get it. The physical element will do nearly no damage with the half damage and armor reduction from targets, but knockdown is good. I can knockdown, then roast them on the ground!¡¯ Jack speculated on the utility of his brand new skill as he joined the guards. During the following battles, Jack didn¡¯t get an opportunity to use his new spell as he would inflict quite a bit of friendly fire. He stuck to soul strikes during battle and repairing their gear after battles. This level was significantly larger and it almost two days ingame to clear it out. Jack timed his lunch and dinner in RL to synchronize with the resting of the NCPs. A little after dinner on Saturday in RL, they had finished exterminating the spiders and their egg clusters in the second level of the dungeon. Lt. Gail ordered everyone to take a short break and be in optimum condition before they went into the next level. In the next level they encountered another group of five spiders. Two were the brown melee ones, two were the green acid spitting variety and the last one was a new variety. It was larger than the brown ones and was blue in color. While the brown spiders rushed at the swordsmen, the green spiders shot their corrosive bolts at them. The blue spider meanwhile was in the rear and took a strange pose, lifting its foremost limbs above its head. The hunters and Jack quickly brought down one of the green spiders, while the swordsman and pikesman were engaging the brown ones. While the hunters dealt with the remaining blue spider, Jack noticed with his spirit senses that the large blue spider was channeling mana in its forelimbs. Jack¡¯s instincts warned him, and without wasting time, Jack retreated behind the hunters, and activated mana fists on his feet. He breathed in deeply infusing his breath with fire. Jack then jumped using force blasts from his feet. As if on cue, the blue spider released some sort of web which arced over the swordsmen and immobilized the priests and hunters disabling them. Jack released his fire breath while suspended in midair, hitting both the brown spiders, and barely avoiding friendly fire. Jack¡¯s fire breath finished off one of the brown spiders and took almost half of the other spider¡¯s HP. When Jack landed, he quickly equipped his sword and used force blade on it. Since the priests and hunters were disabled, they had to quickly finish this battle to avoid casualties. Jack then rushed towards the remaining green spider, leaving the swordsmen and pikesmen to deal with the brown one. As Jack expected, a single slice from his force blade enhanced sword took more than a quarter of the green spider¡¯s HP! It had lower physical defense and was weak in melee. Jack quickly jumped on it and deeply stabbed his sword in the green spider¡¯s head dealing a critical hit and leaving the green spider with barely 20% of its HP. Jack finished off the green spider with one last stab The swordsmen and pikesman had finished off the brown spider, and had encircled the large blue spider. The priests and hunters were still untangling themselves from the surprisingly resilient spider web. Jack fired a soul strike at the large blue spider and caused it to loose barely 15% of its HP. ¡®This creepy blue fuck sure is sturdy.¡¯ Jack thought as the guard¡¯s pounding had left it with around half of its total HP. The blue spider suddenly screeched and Jack noticed a pulse of mana spreading outward from it. All the guards engaging the spider became slower until they could barely move their weapons. When the mana pulse reached Jack, Jack felt as if his limbs were made of lead. ¡®Oh fuck. This blue bug specializes in disabling magic¡­and is quite sturdy too. It used sound to channel an AoE slow.¡¯ Jack thought as he struggled to aim his hand upwards to unleash a soul strike. Jack couldn¡¯t risk his earlier acrobatic fire breath as his movements were severely restricted. Moreover, he was more likely to hit the guards surrounding the blue spider. The blue spider took this opportunity and raised its foremost legs preparing for the entangling webs. ¡®Shit this is bad. There will be quite a bit of casualties and I will lose on rewards if I don¡¯t stop this bug. This bug channeled its disabling effect through its voice¡­ maybe I can do the same with Soul affinity!¡¯ An idea suddenly occurred to Jack. Jack then took a breath while infusing the breath with soul mana. He then screamed at the top of his lungs while simultaneously infusing his throat with soul mana. The scream disrupted the spider and it staggered. The scream also disrupted the heavy feeling he had in his limbs and he noticed that it was quite a bit easier to move. The guards also recovered partially and attacked the spider earnestly. The hunters had recovered from the entangling web and quickly helped the acolytes to do the same. The acolytes wasted no time in chanting prayers and healing the guardsman surrounding the blue spider. The hunters weren¡¯t firing arrows as there were no openings. Jack however, didn¡¯t have that restriction and quickly fired consecutive soul strikes overhead, which arced and hit the blue spider, avoiding friendly fire. Soon, with their combined efforts, they dispatched the blue spider. It was due to Jack¡¯s actions that they managed to avoid casualties. ¡®This traveler is full of surprises! He said he had only a couple of single target spells. Did he make these new spells on the spot? Nah. He probably didn¡¯t want to reveal all his skills. It is only natural.¡¯ Lt. Gail thought. Nevertheless, he now understood why Cpt. Zubin was so impressed with Jack. The blue spider had effectively disabled their ranged and healing support. Its screech had also disabled Lt. Gail and the rearguard! Lt. Gail was somehow surprised Jack could anticipate its actions. Since Jack didn¡¯t have enough time to warn the others, he removed himself from the entangling web and proceeded to quickly aid the rest of the guards. Lt. Gail was very thankful to Jack, as by the time they recovered from the spider¡¯s screech, they would have faced a few casualties. ¡°Very good Jack. You saved the lives of my men. I will be sure to inform Cpt. Zubin of your exemplary performance on the battlefield.¡± Lt. Gail said with a smile. ¡°I was just doing my part Lt. Gail.¡± Jack replied humbly. Lt. Gail nodded and he gave a new set of orders. ¡°Men, this should serve as a lesson. Never let your guard down! From now on the hunters will concentrate on disposing the green acid spitters. After dealing with them, focus on the blue disabling spider. Part of the vanguard will engage with the brown aggressive spiders and part will engage with the blue disabling spider. Jack focus on using your screaming spell when the blue spider raises its forelimbs. Rest of the time you can continue using your other spell and target the same monsters as the hunters. Now let us take a short rest and be in optimum condition before the next skirmish.¡± Jack repaired a couple of shields which had blocked the acid spits. He was thanked by many of the guards for possibly saving their lives. Jack just smiled and said, that it was the least he could do for his comrades in battle. When the guards began their looting, Jack harvested a few lumps of meat and the poison glands of the brown spiders. He didn¡¯t bother with the acid spitter as previously, he hadn¡¯t found any similar organs on them. After the blue spider was looted, Jack examined its corpse and found a larger poison gland similar to the ones in the brown spider. Jack carefully harvested it and reviewed his latest notifications. He had learnt the skill Soul Scream. Jack quickly summoned skill information on Soul Scream.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Soul ScreamBeginner100.00%
You scream in defiance and release a pulse of soul attuned mana. You recover from status effects faster, and have a chance to completely shrug off status effects. All hostiles in range take some damage and are disoriented and confused for a short time. Furthermore, allies hearing your scream of defiance recover from status effects quicker. This spell does not affect inanimate objects. Your chance to disorient and confuse hostiles increases with your willpower. The chance to recover from status effects increases with your Indomitable Spirit. You cannot use this spell while silenced. This spell does not affect targets unable to hear you (both hostile and friendly). However, you receive the status recovery effects even if you cannot hear your own scream. Current level effects: 51% Magic Attack as soul affinity damage to all hostiles in AoE. AoE is in a 5m radius surrounding the caster. Confuses and disorients all hostiles in AoE for 3 seconds. Costs 210 PP
Jack was extremely pleased with his new spell. ¡®Sure it does shit damage. But it can be quite powerful for crowd control! The status recovery effects are a superb bonus. Need to grind this skill ASAP. Even if Cpt. Zubin gives me shit rewards, Mana Breath and Soul Scream are pretty good spells to have.¡¯ Jack resolved as he continued the extermination of the giant arachnids. Chapter 016 (Proofread) Chapter 016 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Full Credits to Mecani for proofreading this chapter! Please rate him positively for his hard work. ------------------------------------------ Jack continued exterminating the spiders along with Lt. Gail and his squad. Jack kept an eye out for the disabling blue giant spider¡¯s skills, and disrupted them with his soul scream. Rest of the time, he targeted whatever the rangers were hitting. During breaks, Jack enchanted and repaired everyone¡¯s gear, and focused on looting the venom glands from the spiders for further grinding his Indomitable Spirit stat. There were a similar number of spiders in this level, as compared to the previous one. However, battles took longer and rests were more frequent. This was because the blue giant spider was extremely annoying to deal with, causing the acolytes to spend significantly more MP on healing. Jack had noticed that he could disrupt the blue spiders only 4-5 times reliably. After that, the spiders seem to be able to resist his soul scream to some degree. This made fights with multiple blue spiders disproportionately lengthier. Jack also didn¡¯t have any opportunities to use Force breath for knockdown as that spell caused friendly fire. A little after lunch on Sunday in real life, Jack had assisted in the extermination quest and almost cleaned out the third level of the dungeon. Jack had enchanted all the equipment of the squad, including their body armor. They appeared at a huge oval tunnel which was 6m in diameter. The end of the tunnel opened in a huge cavern with plenty of cocoons. Lt. Gail ordered a halt. Lt. Gail: ¡°All right men, good work clearing this lair till now. This looks like the final chamber and should have a boss monster. Hunters, when the battle starts, focus on eliminating as many cocoons as you can with your explosive arrows. Jack, can you enchant explosive arrows?¡± Jack: ¡°Not right now Lt. Gail, but I could probably replicate a weaker version of special arrows, if I have a few arrows of that kind to study. I may not be able to replicate an enchanting if it is too advanced.¡± Lt Gail: ¡°Hmm. Attempt it nonetheless. Hunters, supply Jack with a few enchanted arrows.¡± Jack was then supplied with a few kinds of enchanted arrows by the hunters. Jack tried absorbing enchant using system assist on the explosive arrows, but he failed and lost PP in the process. Jack decided to try absorbing that specific enchant of the other arrows, before returning to it. There were also freezing arrows, fire arrows and acid arrows. Jack used absorb Enchant on them a few times and succeeded in absorbing the runes. The freezing arrows were enchanted with a single ice rune, the fire arrows with a fire rune and the acid arrows were enchanted with a corrosive rune. Jack: ¡®Well a new rune, Corrosive. Now I have to get back to the explosive arrows.¡¯ Jack then used his spirit senses and Mana Control and tried to leech off mana from the arrow. Jack lost track of time, but finally he was able to successfully absorb the enchanting on the explosive arrow. It consisted of a two runes combined into a glyph, which comprised of fire rune and an explosive rune. Jack deduced that the explosive rune added an AoE on impact. The fire rune when combined with it, resulted in a fiery explosion on impact. Jack: ¡®I guess this explosive rune is ammunition exclusive. It could be used on the tip of a spear I suppose. Each poke would result in elemental AoE damage, but will erode the durability pretty fast. It doesn¡¯t seem practical for weapons with shorter reach. Although this can be very useful with cheap darts, turning them into mini grenades! Pity I can¡¯t make glyphs at my current level of enchanting. And I doubt this rune functions when not paired with an elemental rune into a glyph.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Lt. Gail, I can create the freezing, fire and acid arrows. I will be unable to enchant explosive arrows.¡± Lt. Gail: ¡°Thought as much. It took you almost an hour to study these arrows. Jack, create around 30 freezing arrows for each hunter. Hunters, after the egg cocoons have been destroyed, focus on using your freezing arrows to slow the boss, while rest of us deal with it.¡± Jack then got to work and enchanted 120 freezing arrows. He asked for a few minutes break to meditate as he wanted full PP before proceeding with the boss encounter. After a few minutes, Jack was ready and the squad proceeded to engage the boss. As they entered the cavern, a huge monster dropped. It resembled the spiders they had battled till now, but was far larger. It was taller than Jack with wicked looking fangs larger than Jack¡¯s sword. It was covered mostly in reddish brown fur, with a few streaks of green and blue arranged in circles near the center of its body. The hunters quickly equipped their explosive arrows and targeted the spider egg cocoons. Each explosive arrow disposed a few cluster of cocoons. The hunters were targeting the cocoon clusters further away so that their allies weren¡¯t caught in the AoE. The pikemen were using their crossbows to fire bolts at the boss spider. Each bolt barely did 1% damage to the boss. Jack broke off from the group and used his fire breath on nearby clusters of spider cocoons, obliterating them. His fire breath was far more effective at destroying multiple cocoons compared to a single explosive arrow. However, there were 4 hunters and they had the advantage of range and speed, while Jack was noticeably slower and had to target cocoons in close to mid-range. Hence, the hunters as a whole were destroying the cocoons faster than Jack. However, a single fire breath from Jack was still quite potent at disposing the cocoons and he wasn¡¯t limited by ammunition like the hunters. Jack¡¯s flashy fire-breath presumably irked the boss spider the most, as it spat a green bolt of acid towards Jack. It executed the acid spit a lot quicker than the green spiders. Jack was barely able to sidestep, dodging the acid projectile in the nick of time. He heard a sizzling hiss as the acid corroded the cavern wall. Jack: ¡®Oh fuck. The boss casts a lot faster than the other spiders. Have to be on the defensive while I dispose of these eggs. It will be a bitch to deal with them if they hatch during the boss fight.¡¯ Jack (shout): ¡°I will distract the boss and dispose of as many eggs as possible.¡± Jack then taunted the boss spider with a void bolt as he ran towards the next cluster of eggs. The peppering from the pikemen had caused the boss spider to lose around 5% of its HP. The void bolt was comparatively more effective, causing the boss monster to lose another 2% of its HP. This seemed to reinforce the notion that Jack was the biggest threat, and it spat three quick acid projectiles at Jack. Each projectile looked smaller and weaker than the previous acid spit, but Jack was in no mood to find out exactly how much of his HP the acid volley would deplete. Jack quickly rolled to the side, causing the volley of acid spit to hit the egg cluster he was standing in front of. Jack: ¡®Nice the boss can take care of its vile spawn itself.¡¯ Jack was then in a shooting match with the spider. Jack would bait the boss to damage its own eggs while dodging its acid projectiles. Jack would return fire with void bolts. In this manner, Jack and the pikemen managed to reduce the HP of the boss to 75%. The hunters were out of explosive arrows, and most of the cocoons were destroyed. After the boss lost a fourth of its HP, it shot an entangling web at Jack from its forelimbs. Jack targeted it with fire bolt and countered it successfully. The hunters then shot a volley of freezing arrows at the boss spider. The boss spider lost another 6% of HP and was visibly slowed. The boss spider then changed targets from Jack and spat acid at Lt. Gail and the rest. After the acid projectiles were blocked, the boss spider rushed towards the hunters. Despite being slowed, it had significant speed and covered around 15 meters in a couple of seconds. The swordsmen engaged the boss spider in melee, while the pikemen unequipped their crossbows and readied their spears. They supported the swordsmen and poked the boss spider with their spears. The boss spider was very resilient to melee attacks and their combined pounding caused it to lose only 7% of its HP, leaving it with around two thirds of its HP. Jack took this opportunity to use another fire breath and destroy a few egg sacs. As if on cue, the boss monster let out a screech and three spiders emerged from a cocoon. Two of them were brown, and one of them was green. They were smaller than their counterparts Jack had encountered till now. However, if they boss summoned more of them, it would quickly escalate the danger and difficulty of the battle. Jack shot the green spider with a couple of void bolts, and the green spider lost around half of its HP. The brown spiders then moved towards Jack, who prepared a fire breath as he rushed towards them. His fire breath dispatched the brown spiders and Jack equipped his sword and activated force blade on it. The green spider spat acid at Jack, who failed to dodge it. The attack caused Jack¡¯s leather armor to sizzle and he lost around 3% of his HP. Jack quickly dispatched the green spider and fired a couple of soul strikes at the boss. The boss lost 3% of its HP and was left with almost 55%. However, the acolytes were quite strained, as few of the guards had almost half their HP missing. The boss monster screeched again, this time a couple of cocoons near Jack hatched and a total of 7 spiders emerged. It had two green spitter spiders; one blue disabler spider and the rest were brown spiders. Jack readied a fire breath and caught all of them in its AoE. Most of the spiders were dead, and only the blue disabler spider had some HP left. Jack slashed it with his mana blade enhanced sword and quickly dispatched it. Jack: ¡®Last time all the eggs in one cocoon hatched. This screech caused two cocoons to hatch. I need to deal with rest of the cocoons ASAP, if the boss keeps following this trend.¡¯ Jack then found the nearest cluster of cocoons and unleashed a fire breath to dispose of them. Meanwhile, Lt Gail and the others had reduced the boss to half of its HP. The boss spider released a greenish mist around it. The swordsmen closest to it were poisoned, and they were forced to withdraw as the mist caused them to become poisoned. While the acolytes detoxified the swordsmen, the boss spider let out a ear-splitting screech, far louder that its previous screeches. Jack noticed that all of the remaining half dozen cocoons hatched and around 25 spiders rushed towards the boss spider. There were quite a few blue spiders in that mob. Jack let out a soul scream. The boss was unaffected, but the soul scream caused the spider spawns to stop their charge toward the boss. Jack took this opportunity and prepared a fire breath. Jack then unleashed it disposing most of the spiders. Three blue spiders were alive and they raised their forelegs preparing to shoot Jack with the entangling webs. Jack. ¡®I will be screwed if they manage to hit me with that. I am too close to dodge all of them, Need to disable them quick before finishing them off¡¯ Jack then prepared and unleashed a force breath, knocking them down and disrupting their cast. While the blue spiders were recovering from the knockdown, Jack prepared a fire breath and finished them off. The reprieve from the boss spider¡¯s attack had allowed the acolytes to fully restore the swordsmen HP and gulp a few mana potions to restore their MP. Jack then joined Lt. Gail and rest of the guards. He targeted the boss with soul strikes, and the hunters were using the freezing arrows to keep the boss constantly slowed. Lt Gail: ¡°Good work men. The boss only has half of its HP remaining and is out of minions. Vanguard charge and engage the boss in melee. The acolytes are out of mana potions however, so be on the defensive and retreat at the first sign of the poison mist. Hunters and Jack focus on the boss and chip its HP while the vanguard keeps it engaged.¡± Jack and the hunters targeted it with range attacks while the swordsmen were on the defensive. The pikemen were cautious too, poking the spider less frequently than before. After the boss was down to 40% HP, it started releasing the poison mist. Lt Gail shouted at them to retreat, and the vanguard did just that. Only two swordsmen were poisoned this time, before they could escape the mist. While the swordsmen retreated, Jack pushed ahead. He had an idea and wanted to test it. Jack stepped ahead of the vanguard and prepared a fire breath. He unleashed the fire breath at the boss spider and the surrounding poison mist. The poison mist instantly combusted and caused a small explosion. The whole attack managed to damage the boss for 6% HP! It was the highest so far. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Jack: ¡®Nice. The poison mist is flammable. That combined with fire breath really did a number on it. The boss may be immune to its poison¡­but sure it isn¡¯t immune to its poison gas exploding. I am starting to run low on PP though. Should target the future poison mists with a fire bolt.¡¯ Jack then quickly retreated behind the vanguard and continued firing soul strikes at the boss. The boss had a third of its HP left now, and Jack had used up almost half of his PP. One of the hunters exclaimed that they were out of the freezing arrows. Lt. Gail: ¡°Use regular arrows for now. Avoid using the acid arrows as the boss seems to have poison and acid attacks. Only use fire arrows when it uses the poison mist and the vanguard has retreated sufficiently.¡± Jack and the rangers continued attacking the boss from range, while the swordsmen and pikemen engaged it in melee. The boss seemed to be avoiding its poison mist spell, and focused more on melee and acid spits. The swordsmen had trouble blocking the acid projectiles at such short range. Each acid projectile caused a member of the vanguard to lose a fifth of its HP. The acolytes were prompt with their healing and restored their health after a couple of seconds. Soon, the boss was reduced to 20% of its HP. The boss released its acid mist and quickly jumped back. When the vanguard finished retreating, the hunters released a volley of fire arrows and caused a small explosion to occur. When the explosion cleared, the boss was not present. Around 10 meters back, there was a large cocoon on the floor. The hunters fired a volley at it. It did negligible damage; however the HP bar above the boss indicated that it was regenerating HP at the rate of approximately 1%/s. Jack: ¡®Shit. This boss is annoying. Need to stop it regenerating HP. Fire burns the spider silk cocoons and the entangling webs¡­ maybe it will burn this boss cocoon as well¡¯ Lt. Gail ordered the hunters to use their fire arrows. The hunter¡¯s fire arrows stopped the regeneration, but it wasn¡¯t able to destroy the cocoon. Jack prepared a fire breath and stepped ahead of the vanguard. Once the entire boss cocoon was in the AoE of his mana breath, Jack unleashed his fire breath. The cocoon was burnt away, and the boss countered with three quick spits of acid. Jack was able to dodge one of them. The rest hit him and caused his HP to drop to 70%. Seeing this, the vanguard quickly rushed ahead of Jack and engaged the boss. The acolytes cast their healing prayer on Jack, and he felt a warm pleasant feeling as his HP recovered. They continued attacking the boss, and steadily reduced its HP. Whenever the boss attempted to use its cocoon, Jack would use a fire breath on it. A couple of swordsmen would guard his flanks, and rush ahead of him to intercept the acid projectiles. In this manner, they finally managed to defeat the boss. A couple of pikemen stabbed its eyes just to be sure. Having confirmed the death of the boss monster everyone cheered, including the acolytes and Lt. Gail. When the fanfare died down, Lt. Gail had a big smile on his face. Lt. Gail: ¡°Looks like we finished this extermination without a single casualty! You played a large role in it Jack, I am sure Cpt. Zubin will be thankful.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank you Lt. Gail, I was just doing my best to not be a hindrance to your squad.¡± Lt. Gail: *snorts* ¡°No need to be so humble. Your timely actions prevented many situations from escalating and you know it. Now hunters, thoroughly search this alcove for any remaining spider eggs or anything suspicious. Few of my men will accompany you, just in case. The rest of you start butchering the boss. The alchemist¡¯s guild will probably pay quite a bit for every bit of its corpse!¡± Jack: ¡°Lt Gail, can I harvest its poison gland, some of its skin and one of its fangs?¡± Lt. Gail: ¡°Sure Jack. You can take the poison gland. I will however deduct some gold for the fang and carapace from your share proportionately, depending on what the alchemist¡¯s guild pays. Is that acceptable?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes Lt. Gail. Thank you.¡± The soldiers began dissecting the corpse carefully. After they were done, Jack selected the larger fang and stored it in his inventory. He figured that someone could craft a weapon from it. The spider carapace was quite tough, and Jack aimed to have some armor crafted from it. He also pocketed the poison gland, as he wanted to grind his indomitable spirit stat later. Jack: ¡®This is a good haul. I wonder what kind of weapons and armor I can get crafted from the boss materials. Sure hope it is good. And I bet the boss poison is more potent and will increase my Indomitable Spirit quite a bit!¡¯ Jack noticed that the hunters had returned and were reporting to Lt. Gail. Lt. Gail barked short orders. After the soldiers completed looting the boss spider, everyone followed the hunters. At the far end of the cavern, there was a small pedestal, with a circular depression on it. Jack: ¡®Oh boy. It looks like the hollow on the first tombstone. The circular hole seems larger than my coin though. I wonder where I can get the coin that fits here. Best ask Master Janus once I return.¡¯ Lt Gail tried tapping the depression a few times. When nothing happened, he closely examined the surrounding area. Finally Lt Gail gave up, and ordered everyone to get ready for the return journey. Jack took this opportunity to repair and re-enchant everyone¡¯s gear. They then made their way towards the entrance. On the way Jack struck up a conversation with one of the acolytes. Jack: ¡°Thanks for the timely heal back there guys. It really helped me.¡± Acolyte 1: ¡°Not a problem Jack. We were just praying to Isis. It is she whom you should thank.¡± Jack: ¡°Well, in any case, Isis has my sincerest gratitude. In any case all of you have fully regenerated mana right?¡± Acolyte 2: ¡°Yes, we are. Why do you have any need for our prayers?¡± Jack: ¡°Not right now. I planned to travel the way back with everyone. I can match the canter of a horse on foot, but my stamina depletes after around 40 minutes of running. Can you please bless me with your prayers to Isis to regenerate my Stamina and MP during the return journey?¡± Acolyte 3: ¡°Yes we have prayers to bless you with improved Stamina and MP regeneration. But why do you need MP regeneration while running?¡± Jack: *short pause* ¡°Remember that jump I made when we first encountered the giant blue spider?¡± Acolyte 4: ¡°Yes, that was quite impressive. If it weren¡¯t for your strange spells, a few guards could have lost their lives before we could recover from that web.¡± Jack: ¡°Well I have skills to augment my movements with mana. I am not strong or agile enough to jump that high without the aid of mana. Also I have one more request if it isn¡¯t too much trouble.¡± Acolyte 2: ¡°Please state your request. If it is within reason, we will pray to Isis and appeal to her divinity to fulfill their request.¡± Jack: ¡®What is with their prayer fetish? This is why religious people are so annoying.¡¯ Jack: ¡°I actually have to poison myself to train one of my survival skills. Please do not detoxify me and let me be poisoned. But please pray to Isis to heal me whenever my HP drops significantly.¡± Acolyte 3: *visibly cringes* ¡°Well seems like a painful way to train your poison resistance. Why not just keep spare antidotes, or better yet include an acolyte of Isis in your party.¡± Jack: ¡°Well antidotes are expensive, and I might not have them all the time. While partying with a priest of Isis is good. But I won¡¯t have one in my party always. I also plan to just go off the beaten road and explore solo. I like the feel of adventuring the unknown alone, but it is always best to be prepared. And poison is pretty common in the wild.¡± Acolyte 1: ¡°Yeah, that somehow makes sense. We can pray to Isis for it; however we may have problems managing our mana.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank Isis and her acolytes! I have a suggestion to manage your mana though.¡± Acolyte 2: ¡°By all means do share!¡± Jack: ¡°Well, you three are here with us, and there is another acolyte at the camp. That makes four of you. One of you can bless and heal me until you spend a third of your total MP. Then the next acolyte can heal and bless me till a third of his MP is depleted and so on. This way all four of you get a chance to train your divine spells, while always having plenty of MP in reserve for any unforeseen situation. If an emergency arises, I can be quickly detoxified by your prayers to Isis.¡± Acolyte 3: ¡°That sounds like a fine plan! It is the will of Isis that we aid you in your request. ALL PRAISE ISIS!¡± Everyone in Earshot (including Jack): ¡°Praise to Isis!¡± Jack: *smiling outwardly* ¡®No you dumb fucks; it is just simple reasoning which has nothing to do with Isis. Praying all the time may give you Faith, but it sure doesn¡¯t help you with even the simplest of tactics.¡¯ (A/N: By Isis I mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis and not the crazy fucks in the Middle East. Praise the Egyptian goddess all you want though.) Jack: ¡°That¡¯s great! I will begin my poison training now if it is all right?¡± Acolyte 1: ¡°Sure. Please feel free to begin. We will pray to Isis to heal, if your HP becomes too low. If you want a prayer for detoxification, just say so and we will appeal to Isis.¡± Jack was happy to hear this reply. He wanted to make the most of the time left with the acolytes. It was a golden opportunity to get free heals while grinding his Indomitable Spirit stat. Furthermore, he wasn¡¯t really doing anything else, so it was effective time management. Jack then took the boss spider¡¯s venom gland as it was the most potent. He then squirted a bit of its venom on his tongue. Immediately he became somewhat dizzy and his vision became blurry and he started losing 100 HP every 5 seconds. Jack: ¡®Is this how people who use spectacles see otherwise? Must be extremely shitty living RL like that.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Acolytes of Isis, I have one more request to ask of you.¡± Acolyte 2: ¡°Please tell so. Do you wish for a prayer of detoxification? Perhaps you would like a blessing to increase your poison resistance if this poison is too potent for you¡± Jack: ¡°No thank you. I don¡¯t wish for it now. The poison actually made my vision very blurry, and I am having some trouble walking. Perhaps one of you can guide me till I am used to it?¡± Acolyte 3: ¡°Of course traveler! Place a hand on my shoulder and follow my footsteps. Isis guides my way, and I will in turn guide you.¡± Jack: ¡°Thanks.¡± *pauses for a while* ¡°Umm, I still can¡¯t see clearly. If you can place my hand on your shoulder, I would be grateful.¡± The acolyte realizes his oversight and hastily places Jack¡¯s hand on his shoulder. Having a tether Jack manages to navigate his way forward with his dizziness and blurred vision. Whenever Jack¡¯s HP dropped below two thirds, one of the acolytes healed him. Jack slowly gained resistance to the boss spider¡¯s venom and increased his Indomitable Spirit. Jack had completely exhausted the boss spider¡¯s venom by the time they exited the spider lair. He had overcome the dizziness and blurred vision, but he was still taking a significant amount of DoT from the boss spider¡¯s venom. While the guards were packing up the camp, Jack waited for the last of the boss spider¡¯s venom to expire. He then tried squirting a bit of poison, from the poison glands of the regular spiders, on his tongue. He wasn¡¯t poisoned at all. Jack: ¡®Since I already developed tolerance to the boss spider¡¯s venom, a bit of the regular venom isn¡¯t affecting me. It looks like it is time for me to take a long swig of spider venom!¡¯ Jack then placed the narrow part of the gland, which had a valve, in his mouth and squeezed the bulging portion of the gland, gulping down the poison like beer. After he finished ingesting all of the poison, he felt a slight dizziness and started losing his HP. However, his vision was largely unaffected. By now everyone was ready to depart. Jack found the acolytes on their horses and went towards them. Lt. Gail gave an order and the guards arranged themselves in a practiced formation with the priests, hunters and Jack in the center. One of the acolytes muttered a couple of chants and blessed Jack with boosted regens. Jack then continued the journey towards Rotang City, all the while exploiting free heals and buffs to grind his Indomitable Spirit and Free Running. ----------------------------- A/N: I tried a new format for dialogues. Hopefully, this is clearer than my previous format for conversations. If not, please comment and I will write the next chapter onwards using the old system. I didn¡¯t want to create tables before Jack has finished this session of grinding. So you will have updated status and skills in the next chapter. ----------------------------- Chapter 017 (Proofread) Chapter 017 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. I am looking for Proofreaders! Please PM me if you are interested! If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Full credits to Mecani for Proofreading! Please give him positive ratings for his hard work! ------------------------------------------ On the return journey to Rotang City, Jack was quickly developing a tolerance to the spider venom. Initially he would be poisoned for a whole minute after drinking the contents of a single poison gland and would lose approximately 10% HP in total. But when Lt. Gail ordered for the first halt, Jack had finished half of the total venom glands he had. It was quite a feat considering that Jack had collected over 300 of them! With boosted regens from the acolyte¡¯s blessings and the reduced PP consumption from his free running skill, Jack was able to keep up on foot with rest of the guards. Jack used a bit of fire mana to quickly roast the empty venom glands and ate it. The other guards were disgusted with this behavior of Jack. But Jack simply didn¡¯t care; he wanted to grind his survival cooking as much as he could. He had noticed that if he ate the same kind of wild meat, his skill progress would plateau after a while. Survival Cooking gave a passive bonus to Jack¡¯s Vitality, so Jack took every opportunity to grind it as free stat boosts were always welcome. After Jack was done with his grisly meal, he noticed that he wasn¡¯t poisoned. Jack: ¡®Nice. So either the trace amounts of venom in the glands were insufficient to poison me, or maybe roasting them made them edible. Also, my thirst seems almost full, but I didn¡¯t drink any water. Holy shit! Is the spider venom actually quenching my thirst?¡¯ Jack let out a maniacal laugh. He was imagining the consequences of this. He browsed his notification log. Most of them indicated stat gains in Indomitable Spirit. He had also gained a few points in agility, sustenance, and occasionally, dexterity and vitality. He soon found a log indicating he had gained a new trait ¡®Iron Stomach¡¯. Jack summoned information on his newly acquired trait.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Iron StomachTrait----
Due to withstanding constant abuse and your high constitution, your digestive system has adapted to become more resilient. This trait allows you to gain nourishment from potentially toxic sources, restoring your satiety and thirst. However, this trait does not reduce the detrimental effects of unsafe foods and drinks consumed.
Jack was imagining the consequences of this trait. He could drink the blood, and eat the flesh of potentially any monster to quench his thirst and satiate his hunger, like some kind of nefarious demon! With a high enough indomitable spirit, he could eat poisoned food and still survive! Jack also deduced that he had gained some kind of poison resistance. This was because; he was taking significantly less poison DoT with every subsequent drink of spider venom. His rise in indomitable Spirit stat wasn¡¯t sufficient to account for the drastic reduction in poison DoT. Unknown to Jack, his eccentric behavior were causing him to slowly, but surely accumulate infamy. Lt. Gail: ¡®Training your skills diligently is good. But this traveler doesn¡¯t seem to be right in his head. He is keeping up with a horse¡¯s canter on foot while being poisoned voluntarily! I feel like vomiting every time I see him drinking from those poison glands as if it were a wine pouch!¡¯ Lt. Gail wasn¡¯t alone in his sentiments. Many of the guards were betting on how the poison tasted. Once the odds were set and bets were collected, one of them approached Jack. Swordsman: ¡°Hi there Jack. Enjoying your fine wine and dine?¡± Jack: *smiles* ¡°Not really. I am just training my survival skills.¡± Swordsman: *shrugs* ¡°Well you seem to be having fun in any case. You haven¡¯t had any rations from us have you?¡± Jack: ¡°Umm no. I have plenty of stuff to work with. I wouldn¡¯t want to unnecessarily deplete your rations, when there is an alternative available.¡± Swordsman: ¡°Well our rations comprise of hard biscuit and dried and salted rabbit meat. It doesn¡¯t taste bad as much as it is tasteless. How does spider meat and venom taste anyway?¡± Jack: ¡°Spider meat just tastes like shellfish. But it leaves a sour aftertaste and has a very pungent flavor.¡± Jack: *pondering* ¡°As for spider venom¡­ I never really paid attention. I was too busy concentrating to fight off the disabling effects and keeping up with all of you on horseback. Give me a moment.¡± To the guard¡¯s disgust, Jack retrieved yet another spider venom gland from his inventory and took a mouthful. Before swallowing, he swirled the venom in his mouth like some kind of wine connoisseur. Jack then quickly finished gulping rest of the venom. Since Jack wasn¡¯t receiving any poison DoT (Damage over Time), Jack quickly drank the contents of another poison gland. Once he confirmed that he was receiving poison DoT, Jack turned towards the guard noticing the expression of barely suppressed disgust. Jack: ¡®I bet I am losing some intimacy with the city guards due to my behavior, if this poor sob¡¯s expression is anything to judge by. I doubt it is enough to offset the gains made by competition of this quest, and grinding my stats and skills is more important in the long run anyway.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Well it is difficult to describe. The closest I can think of is like molasses, sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste. It does burn like a bitch when you swallow though.¡± Jack: *offers an unused spider venom gland to the guard* ¡°You can try it if you are curious. The acolytes will promptly detoxify and heal you anyway.¡± Swordsman: *visibly panicked* ¡°Err, no thanks. I have to get going now. Have a good day traveler.¡± Jack was amused at the reaction and stored the venom gland back in his inventory. He noticed that he was developing tolerance to this specific venom far too quickly. Now two whole venom glands caused him to lose just 8% of his HP over 50 seconds. Jack resolved to find more poisonous species and harvest their toxins to grind more effectively. Jack: ¡®Perhaps I could find someone selling poisons in the city. It is probably all hush-hush as I haven¡¯t noticed any for sale openly. There probably is a thriving black market for these sorts of goods though. If I had picked up alchemy instead of enchanting, I could probably distill more potent poisons myself. Oh well, what¡¯s done is done. No point on second guessing my decisions now.¡¯ While Jack was pondering on methods of acquiring new and unknown poisons and toxins, Lt Gail ordered to break camp. Jack readied himself, and waited near the acolytes. When they broke into a trot, Jack matched his pace with them and was soon blessed with boosted regens. When it was time for the second break, Jack had already exhausted his stockpile of spider venom glands. He however, kept the empty glands and ate them at every opportunity to grind his survival cooking. In this manner, they travelled a little over 7 hours to reach Rotang City. Jack accompanied Lt. Gail to Captain Zubin¡¯s office. Captain Zubin was updated by Lt. Gail on jack¡¯s contribution. Hearing Jack¡¯s exploits made Cpt. Zubin visibly impressed, especially during the first encounter with the blue spider and Jack¡¯s role in disposing of the critters during the boss fight. Cpt. Zubin also seemed pleased when Lt. Gail informed him that Jack had kept their gear in top condition, and had enchanted it to boot! Cpt. Zubin: ¡°I must say Jack. You have far exceeded my expectations, once again! Your contribution made it possible for us to avoid even a single casualty! That is indeed rare on these exterminations. Moreover, you also reduced the burden on our budget significantly by keeping all equipment in tip-top shape.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank you Captain Zubin. I was just doing my best. It was thanks to Lt. Gail¡¯s leadership and prompt decisions that the extermination went so well.¡± Jack: *smiling outwardly* ¡®Enough with the pleasantries baldy. Give my rewards. Give my Rewards. Give my Rewards!!¡¯ Lt Gail: *snorting* ¡°Jack is far too humble. He is a bit eccentric though. Captain, on our way back, he voluntarily poisoned himself¡­and refused detoxification from acolytes, just asking them to heal him. He also kept pace with us on foot¡­Impressive for his level.¡± Cpt. Zubin: *slightly alarmed* ¡°Is that true Jack?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes Captain, although I was only able to maintain my stamina, due to the blessings of the acolytes. Without their blessings, I would have run out of stamina in an hour.¡± Cpt. Zubin: ¡°Not that, Jack. I meant about the poison. Why would you voluntarily be poisoned and refuse detoxification?¡± Jack: ¡°Because it trains one of my skills? And after the first few gulps, it wasn¡¯t painful anyway.¡± *shrugs* Cpt. Zubin: *laughs* ¡°Ha ha. Strange spells, beginner melee skills, repair, enchanting with a masochistic flair! You seem to have lots of strange skills with you. Anyways you are primarily an arcane spellcaster correct?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes Captain.¡± Jack: ¡®Gimme my reward now please!¡¯ Cpt. Zubin: ¡°Hmm I had a nice set of chainmail in mind for your bonus, but you won¡¯t be able to use it. You seem to lack headgear, so I will give an item we recently acquired.¡± Jack: *smiling outwardly* ¡®No No No. The chainmail sound expensive. Your shitty bounties are very low. I would gladly accept a set of chainmail armor and sell it!¡¯ Cpt. Zubin called a private and whispered some instructions to him. The private¡¯s eyes almost popped out of his socket when he heard his superior¡¯s instructions and was staring at Jack with newfound respect. He left and returned in around 10 minutes. He placed a plain looking cap and a small chest on Cpt Zubin¡¯s desk. He was then excused, and left saluting his superiors. Cpt. Zubin handed Jack a plain looking cap. Cpt. Zubin: ¡°Now caps of this type are usually worn by male peasants. We raided a bandit hideout a few months back and this cap came into our possession. Although it is a peasant¡¯s cap, it is a very powerful magical item. None of us can use it and we prefer heavy headgear. We were about to auction it off, but you said you have the survival skill. Try it. If you can use it, you can keep it.¡± (A/N: The cap looks something like: this) Jack thanked Cpt. Zubin and used mana identify on it. It took almost 30 attempts with system assist, but he was finally able to identify it. Jack viewed the item information:
Survivor¡¯s Cap
Type:Cloth HeadgearDurability:75 / 75
Rarity:RareGrade:E
This is a kind of cap commonly worn by peasants. However, this cap seems to have powerful enchantments which are usually favored by skilled rangers. Restrictions: Have the Survival Skill Bonus on Equip: +500 Max HP You gain significantly more nourishment from food gathered and prepared by you.
Jack immediately equipped the cap. Jack: ¡°Thank you Cpt. Zubin, I meet the requirements to fully utilize it and this hat will boost my survivability a lot!¡± Cpt. Zubin: ¡°Yes, but be a bit careful. Some nobles might be prejudiced towards you if you wear ¡®peasant clothing¡¯ in their presence. Also, here are 25 gold coins for helping the extermination. I am authorized to give you a maximum of 15 gold coins for aiding the extermination. However, I included some of gold you saved with your repairing.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank you Cpt. Zubin. I am currently very poor, and this will help me a lot in the near future.¡± Jack quickly pocketed the gold and returned the leather pouch to Cpt. Zubin. Then he noticed that the Captain seemed to have an internal struggle, pondering something. Finally, Cpt. Zubin shrugged, and removed a key on a necklace tied around his neck. He unlocked the chest, removed a thin book from it, and locked it again, tucking the necklace back inside his armor. He then handed jack the book. Cpt Zubin: ¡°You have saved the lives of my men, and that means a lot to me. The book I handed to you is a rare tome on Leadership. It is a very valuable skill. With a higher leadership, you can command troops under you to fight more effectively.¡± Lt. Gail: ¡°Furthermore, if you impress some residents of Terra with your actions and have the leadership skill, they may become your followers, aiding you in your adventures. You care about the life of your comrades, and put yourself in danger for their sake. If anyone deserves this, it has to be you.¡± Jack: ¡®Another rare skill. Wow. Just wow. I had expected something good, but this is sweet. I also might get NPC flunkies in the future? Nice. It is definitely worth more than some chainmail armor.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Thank you Captain Zubin and Lt. Gail. I am at a loss of how to respond. This is beyond my wildest expectations.¡± Cpt Zubin: *laughs heartily* ¡°Now you know how I felt when you returned from ¡®investigating¡¯ the kidnappings. What are you waiting for? Use the skillbook.¡± Jack held the skillbook in his hands and mentally willed himself to use it. The skillbook disintegrated in front of their sights. Jack silently summoned the skill information and quickly glanced through it.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
LeadershipBeginner100.00%
You have learned the art of influencing people to aid and support you in the accomplishment of common goals. This skill provides a bonus to your subordinates (including party members) when you undertake a position of leadership (including party leader). The bonus depends on the size of troops and the level of this skill. Commanding too many troops with too little of this skill may incite mutiny. You can also have followers, from the residents of Terra if you impress them sufficiently. However, they are not your slaves or pets, and may have hidden agendas. Be careful while accepting them and treat them well, or they might abandon and sabotage you. Current level effects: You can have a maximum of 6 followers. (does not affect the number of troops you may command)
Cpt Zubin: ¡°There is still the matter of your share of loot from the extermination. Negotiations with the Alchemist¡¯s guild can get¡­involved. Return to me in a few days to collect your share.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank you Cpt. Zubin and Lt. Gail. If there are any more extermination scheduled and you would want me to accompany it, please send word to Instructor Theon. I will be around Rotang for quite some while. It was an honor to fight with the brave guards of Rotang City.¡± Jack: ¡®The leadership skill seems like a double edged sword. Only hard cap is the amount of followers I can have. Looks like I need to use my judgment while commanding troops and selecting followers. Can¡¯t treat them like mindless minions either.¡¯ Jack then left the Guard barracks and went to the Training Hall. He found instructor Theon and Master Janus chatting. He approached them, and waited at a distance waiting to be noticed. Soon enough Instructor Theon noticed him, and beckoned Jack to come closer. Instructor Theon: ¡°So what brings you here Jack? I see you got yourself a nifty headgear.¡± Jack: ¡°Greetings, Instructor Theon and Master Janus. I got this cap as a reward from Captain Zubin for helping in an extermination quest.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°Haha. I heard how you dealt with the kidnappings lad. That was impressive work. So did you develop some new tricks for combat?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes! I developed a couple of AoE spells! One is mana breath¡­which breathes out an elemental cone. Another is soul scream, which is more of a crowd control spell.¡± Instructor Theon: *amused and glances and Janus* ¡°Impressive. Very few can develop AoE spells with Mana Manipulation alone, without the aid of sigils or mantras.¡± Jack: ¡°Sigils? Mantras? What are those? I just imagined myself as a dragon and out came a fire breath. Soul scream was more of a desperate move in a bind¡­but it created a spell somehow.¡± Master Janus: ¡°You are growing well initiate. But don¡¯t worry about mantras and sigils now. They will come into the picture after you have mana manipulation at the Intermediate tier at least. Meanwhile try to experiment more and create new spells.¡± Jack: ¡°Of course master. Anyways, in the extermination quest with the city guards, we came across a stone pedestal. It had a similar depression like the tombstone I was sent to. However, the depression on it was larger, and the coin I have didn¡¯t fit in it.¡± Immediately, the relaxed mood shifted, and there was tension in the air. Master Janus and Instructor Theon exchanged a glance. Instructor Theon seemed to nod slightly, but Jack wasn¡¯t sure. Master Janus then inquired Jack about the location of the cave where he had encountered it. Jack conveyed the location of the cave to Master Janus. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Master Janus: ¡°It is too soon. But it must be a sign, I suppose. We do not have the key to that prison. However, I know who might have it. Far southeast of here, deep in the forests, there is a coven of druids. They are aware of our order and we are usually in contact. However, we have not been updated this year. Establish contact, and aid them in case they require it. Report your findings.¡±
Quest Information
NameContact the DruidsGrade???
Description Master Janus has tasked you to make contact with a coven of druids who are located deep in the forests, far to the southeast of Rotang City. They have friendly relations with Brahman Sangha. However, they haven¡¯t made contact this year, suggesting something is amiss. You are ordered to aid them, if they require it.
Duration / Time Limit???
Privileges You gain knowledge regarding the location of the druid coven.
Failure ??? You cannot abandon this quest.
Rewards ???
Jack: ¡®??? for duration and failure? That is a first. I also cannot abandon this quest it seems. That seems ominous. There is some big shit going on. Hopefully, the reward is equally big.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Yes master Janus. I have a few affairs to tie up, and then I will leave to meet the druids. I lack the knowledge to reach them however, and my map is rudimentary at best.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°Of course. Wait a minute. I will get a suitable map.¡± Instructor Theon then promptly returned with a map and spread it on the floor. Master Janus then pointed out their current location, the City of Rotang. He then instructed Jack how the reach the coven of the druids. It looked like he had to travel for almost a week through the wilderness to reach them. Instructor Theon: ¡°After you reach the clearing. You will see a small fountain with a mossy statue on it. Wear the stone coin you have around your neck and place your hand on the statue. Release some force attuned mana into it and say ¡®I am grateful to you Gaia, for shouldering my burden, but I am the captain of my fate and the master of my soul. I will never serve any deity, including you.¡¯ That should signal the druids of your affiliation and one of them will come to retrieve you.¡± Jack committed the details of the location and the password to memory. To be safe, he also made a copy in his NOTEPAD. He then checked his map, and was pleased to see that ¡®Mysterious Clearing¡¯ was updated on it. Jack then thanked Master Janus and Instructor Theon. He then went to the marketplace to look for Timon. He had little difficulty finding the chubby merchant. Jack: ¡°Hi there Timon! I am back and ready to get you that enchanting! Do you have a contract prepared?¡± Timon: ¡°Oh hi there Jack. Do you wish to sell loot, buy consumables or just broker the enchanting for me?¡± Jack: ¡°Just the enchanting for now. I need to buy a few things, but a contract won¡¯t be necessary for that.¡± Timon: ¡°OK. I will pay you 80 silvers for enchanting common Grade E body armor and all weapons excluding dagger. I will pay 65 silver coins for enchanting other pieces of armor and dagger. I have slightly reduced them from our agreed rates from the contract. You should have a notification detailing the terms of the contract. Just say ¡®I, Jack agree to enter this contract.¡¯¡± Jack: ¡°Hey why have you reduced from our agreed rates?¡± Timon: *looks sheepishly at Jack* ¡°Umm contracts cannot handle fractions of coppers. The exact 65% rate was going into fractions of coppers. This here is a nice closest amount of silvers.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm fair enough¡­ if you pay me the calculated spare change outside the contract. However, the enchanter is a bit short of time and will only enchant limited stuff, say for a total of 50 gold, for this batch of enchanting. Maybe he will enchant stuff for you later. Deal?¡± Timon: ¡°Fine you penny pincher. After you deliver me the enchanted goods, I will pay you the balance coppers. Now accept the contract already.¡± Jack browsed his notifications and found the contract window. He carefully studied the terms. He asked Timon to keep the +3 stat enchantments only for the items he was paying 80 silvers to be enchanted. The items he was going to be paying +65 silvers to enchant had a lesser potential for enchanting and hence Jack insisted that the minimum for those should be kept at +2. After Timon grudgingly made the modifications, Jack accepted the contract. As he was filling his inventory with the items to be enchanted, he was warned by Timon about the dangers of breaking a contract. If he ran away with his stuff, Timon could report him to the merchant¡¯s guild. The guild would send professional bounty hunters after him. He would be a known fugitive in most towns. If he was caught by the bounty hunters, he would be stripped of his possessions till he could pay the penalty, and be imprisoned for certain period of time. Jack assured him that he wasn¡¯t aiming to cheat him. Jack then overloaded his inventory with the items to be enchanted and he was slowed down to a crawl. He painstakingly made his way to the enchanter¡¯s guild and entered the Apprentice Workshop. Jack was exhausted, but he motivated himself that he could get stat boosts for his hard work. Jack then unloaded all the items to be enchanted in an empty corner and began his task. He quickly identified all of them using system assist. Since it was all Grade E common equipment, it took him a maximum of 5 attempts to identify one piece of equipment. Timon had kept his word, and according to the contract all of it was at full durability. Jack then started enchanting each item with the desired enchant with the aid of system assist. Even after he had enchanted the guard¡¯s equipment multiple times, it took Jack 2-3 attempts to get the desired +3 and +2 on the items. After every failed attempt, Jack used mana repair to fully restore its durability. It took Jack around a couple of hours for the rush job. Once Jack was done, he painstakingly made his way with an overloaded inventory to Timon¡¯s stall and dumped the enchanted equipment on the chubby merchant. The merchant was surprised at the speed at which Jack returned with the enchanted gear. After verifying his enchanted goods, he paid Jack 50 gold, 60 silver and 32 coppers. Jack thanked the merchant, and bought a few health potions and darts from him. He then left the merchant to enthusiastically hawk his wares as he went to the blacksmith¡¯s guild. He wanted to have a weapon forged from the spider fang. But the blacksmith¡¯s guild informed him that they couldn¡¯t deal with the material as it wasn¡¯t metal. Dejected, Jack went to the tailor¡¯s guild hoping for better luck with body armor. The tailor¡¯s guild said that they could create a set of reinforced leather armor and leather leggings with the spider carapace. However, since it was a difficult material to work with, only one of the senior tailors could work on it. Most of the senior tailors were busy with orders, and Jack had to leave the material with them for a month ingame! Jack instructed the tailor he was dealing with that he didn¡¯t want his new armor to restrict his movements. He was fine if defense was a bit low, but he absolutely did not want his armor to encumber him. He also told the tailor, that he might be late by a few months to collect it, as he was leaving Rotang City for a while. After he was assured by the tailor and his measurements were taken, Jack paid an advance of 10 gold. He would pay the remaining fee of 10 gold when he collected his body armor and leggings. Jack then went towards the Training Hall, intending to ask Instructor Theon, what to do with the spider fang he had in his inventory. He reviewed his status and invested his free stat points.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level50 (12.42%)Fame / Infamy110 / 20
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator
CONDITION
HP6546/(5846+700)HP/s7.8552/s
PP7525/7525PP/s63.6000/s
Spirit Energy0/120SE/s- 0.8% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst78% / 78%Weight Limit81/200
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv5)
BASIC STATS
Strength100Vitality183 + 10
Dexterity95Agility115
Intelligence250 + 10Willpower200+10
Free Stat Points0
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance85
Sustenance85Balance75
Flexibility75Concentration135+10
Wisdom130+10Indomitable Spirit95
Elemental Affinity
Physical20%Soul25%
Void19%Fire13%
Elemental Resistance
Physical4% + 5%Soul5%
Void3%Fire2% + 5%
Ice0% + 5%
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Iron Stomach (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 12.38%)
  • Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 02.86%)
Enchanting (Beginner Lv 7: 32.61%)
  • Bestow Enchant (Beginner Lv 8: 21.73%)
  • Absorb Enchant (Beginner Lv 6: 43.25%)
Free Running (Beginner lv 4: 02.83%)
Leadership (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 8: 82.48%)
  • Imbue Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 58.46%)
  • Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 4: 12.31%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 9: 82.13%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 9: 64.53%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 10.03%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 5: 12.13%)
Spirit Eater (Intermediate Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Sword Mastery (Beginner Lv 2: 56.23%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 7: 01.55%)
  • Opportunistic Striker (Trait)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv6:42.21%)
  • Poison Resistance (Beginner Lv 5: 34.12%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 8: 27.05%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 7: 06.13%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 71.18%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 19.87%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 17.02%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 12.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)
Mana Breath (Beginner Lv2: 23.65%)
Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv6: 23.65%)
Soul Scream (Beginner Lv3: 12.75%)
Soul Strike (Beginner Lv8: 46.23%)
Jack had made stat gains across the board. However, most of the gains were very small. The only exception was Indomitable Spirit, in which he had gained a whopping 60 points! Hunting with the guards had caused him to levelup five times. He had gained two level ups just from turning in the quest and he was now lv50! Jack decided to invest all of his stat points into intelligence and willpower, turning them into nice round figures of 250 and 200 (without equip bonuses). The Survivor¡¯s Cap he had acquired gave him a significant HP boost of +500, so Jack felt that he could invest his stat points into Intelligence for offense. He invested some in willpower, since many of his skills and the Indomitable Spirit stat received a bonus from Willpower Jack also noticed that his maximum capacity for Spirit Energy had increased to 120, and the decay rate had reduced to -0.8% current SE/s once he invested his stats in Willpower. He also noticed that he had gained two additional skills, for which he had missed the notification logs. They were Sword Mastery and Poison Resistance. Their names were self-explanatory; nevertheless Jack summoned the relevant skill information.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Sword MasteryBeginner256.23%
You have learned how to fight with swords. This skill increases your damage, attack speed and the potency of bleeding effects when using swords. Current level effects: +14% damage. +12% Attack Speed +1% to bleeding effects
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Poison ResistanceBeginner534.12%
Subskill of Survival Having received exposure to poisons and surviving, your body has developed natural resistance to it. This skill reduces the detrimental effects of poisons on you. Current level effects: Reduces poison DoT by 20. Reduces poison duration by 5 seconds. Reduces the magnitude of detrimental effect of poisons by 5%
Jack was extremely pleased with these skills. Sword mastery was what he expected, a variation of dagger/unarmed mastery. But the real kicker was poison mastery. The flat damage reduction of 20 and duration reduction of 5 seconds would be very useful at lower levels, whereas the 5% reduction in detrimental effects would scale to be quite powerful at high levels. While Jack was pondering his skill and stat gains, he received an ingame notification that it was time for dinner in RL. Jack planned to log in after dinner, but he had to return to his day job from tomorrow. Lamenting at the responsibilities of real life, Jack logged off. --------------------------- A/N: Since I didn¡¯t receive any objections, I am sticking with this style of writing conversations. It is easier for me and reduces the word count slightly. I will update the previous chapters with this if/when they are proofread. chaolindy7, I implemented your suggestion about the poison taste in this chapter. :D I had a bit of free time, so here is you chapter early. This is also longer than my usual length. But on the flip side, next weekend I might be a bit late for my release, or may not release at all. Weekly releases will continue after that, unless i have more/less free time. Does this count as a double release? --------------------------- Chapter 017.001 (Side Story #001) (Proofread) Chapter 017.001 (Side Story #001) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. Full Credits to Mecani for Proofreading! If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Can it make it to the top 50? Only with your help!! Warning: Contains gore and stuff. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------------ Jacob climbed out of his FuDi capsule and did a few stretches. He checked his refrigerator deciding what to have for dinner. There was some black bean soup leftover from lunch. Jacob chopped some garlic, ginger and onions. He then mixed it with lime juice, orange juice, sesame oil and freshly ground black pepper. He then marinated half a pound of squids in the mixture and went to take a shower. After his shower, he reheated the black bean soup and arranged the tortillas. He then quickly seared the squid and prepared squid tacos, garnishing it with onions leftover from the marinade. Jacob then savored his simple meal. It was rare for him to just eat dinner and not simultaneously browse the internet. Jacob: ¡®I watched you cook this so many times that I have this recipe burnt in my mind. But it simply doesn¡¯t compare to your cooking. I miss you mom. Dad always preferred the lamb shanks you made¡­but this will always be my favorite.¡¯ He was reliving the happier moments of his childhood while having his dinner alone. He didn¡¯t dwell on his past too much, but nevertheless he deeply missed his parents. Instead of returning to his FuDi capsule as quickly as possible, he decided to go for a walk. Jacob quickly dressed himself in a t-shirt and sweatpants. He left his apartment and walked aimlessly. Soon he reached a nearby convenience store which was open 24x7. He collected a six pack of beers, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter and some candy. He usually didn¡¯t smoke, or eat candy for that matter, but he felt like getting buzzed today. As he was about to approach the cashier, a disheveled dirty man barged in waving a gun. Jacob: ¡®Well Fuck me. One random act of violence coming right up.¡¯ Junkie: ¡°EVERYBODY DOWN ON THE GROUND.¡± Junkie: *waving his gun at the cashier* ¡°You. Give me all the cash you have RIGHT NOW!¡± The cashier looked like he was in a hurry to comply. While the few patrons of the grocery store were covering, Jacob thought that it was best to not get involved and wait it out. Jacob crouched behind a shelf and was hoping that the junkie would go away to get his next fix after robbing the store, and best case scenario no one would get hurt. He heard a gunshot, and heard a thud. He carefully peeked around the shelf he was hiding and saw a grisly scene. The junkie was lying on the floor, with a gunshot wound on his chest. Blood was pooling on the store. The cashier seemed to be in shock, still pointing the gun at the junkie¡¯s dead body. Jacob: ¡®This is just great. The Universe doesn¡¯t want me to smoke it seems. Well, fuck you universe! I decided to get smokes today, and I will have it!¡¯ The other patrons of the grocery store screamed and rushed out of the store, which seemed to bring the Hispanic cashier back to his wits. He shakily placed the gun in a drawer and Jacob noticed that he was sweating profusely. Jacob carefully approached the cashier and said. Jacob: ¡°You should report this to 911. Will save you lot of trouble later on.¡± Cashier: *in spanish* ¡°I¡­didn¡¯t mean to kill him. He was about to shoot me¡­I just defended myself.¡± Jacob: *in spanish* ¡°I know, amigo. I am no jura. Your papers are in order?¡± (A/N: amigo is Spanish term for a male friend, and jura is slang for cops used by people of Mexican descent in California. I am not proficient in Spanish, though these terms are fairly common.) Cashier: *in spanish* ¡°Yes¡­¡± Jacob: *in spanish* ¡°That gun you used, its legal?¡± Cashier: *in spanish* ¡°Yes, in owner¡¯s name.¡± Jacob: *in spanish* ¡°Good. Then give your phone, and bill the total these will you? I will call 911 in the meanwhile.¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The cashier shakily placed a cellphone, which was more in place at a museum, with what the latest smartphones were capable of. Jacob then placed his six-pack beer, pack of cigarettes and lighter on the counter. He didn¡¯t feel like eating candy after the scene he had just witnessed. The cashier seemed to take some comfort in his routine as he quickly billed Jacob. Jacob gave the man a 50$ bill and asked him to keep the change. He then quickly dialed 911 and reported the attempted robbery and shooting. Jacob then collected his purchase and left the premises before the cops arrived. He didn¡¯t want to involve himself as a witness and waste his time. The store had working CCTV feeds, and hopefully the recording system was in order. Jacob soon reached his apartment. He lit a cigarette and opened a can of beer, and started browsing the net on his computer. While he was aimlessly browsing the forums of Asunder Online, he decided to post in the IM group of his office friends. Jacob: So guys whats up. Anything interesting in RL? Adam: Nothing much really. So you aren¡¯t playing AO? Jacob: Nah, just chilling with a beer and a smoke. I will log in later though. Dion: Woah dude¡­ what happened? Jacob: What do you mean what happened? Adam: Well aren¡¯t you some kind of fitness freak? I know you drink an occasional beer, but I didn¡¯t know you smoke. Jacob: I smoke¡­ just not very often. Anyways where is Carlos? Dion: I think his sister is crashing over this weekend at his place. Adam: Jacob whats up in AO? RL as usual, sucks for me. Jacob: Completed the spider extermination I told you guys about. The boss sure was annoying to deal with. My single target spells barely did 2% damage to him. Fight was kind of easy though¡­ there were 19 other NCPs at the time. And three of them were priests! Dion: Well, I think I just made a big breakthrough. Apparently, blacksmithing increases my faith! Jacob: So you are a paladin of Vulcanus? Nice! Dion: How did you know that?? Adam: Yeah¡­ I thought you were some kind of monk? Jacob: Dion, you mentioned earlier that you got a spell to light melee weapons on fire, and that you get faith for blacksmithing. Vulcanus is the god of fire and forge. So it is obvious that he is your patron deity. Dion: So Adam, who is your patron deity, you know mine so¡­ Adam: Well, Minerva is my patron. So what about you Jacob? Jacob: I don¡¯t have a patron deity. Adam: I know that. I meant your class or new skills! Jacob: It is just a variation of monk, but with arcane magic instead of faith based spells. I finally got a couple of AoE spells and wanted to compare it with AoE spells that Carlos uses. Dion: You finally got AoE spells? Nice! I will get one soon, hopefully¡­ just need more Faith. Adam: You will probably get a buff or something. Don¡¯t paladins have trouble casting too many spells? Dion: Nah. My patron is probably the coolest deity for a paladin! The few spells I got are offensive¡­and my patron grants me affinity to metal. The MP penalty for casting his divine spells in metal armor actually reduces, the higher my metal affinity is! Adam: hey. No fair. You get to cast offensive spells AND have metal armor? OP! Jacob: Not really. He doesn¡¯t get heals like other paladins. A Paladin of Minerva is probably like a cockroach. Medium high armor and magic defense along with heals. Whereas Dion will probably be closer to an offensive oriented Knight with better equips due to his focus on blacksmithing. Adam: Do you actually know this stuff or are you just pulling it out of your ass? Jacob: You must have interacted with a few paladins of Minerva while grinding faith¡­ Am I wrong? Adam: Nope. You are right. It just seems kind of odd, that you know more about the pantheon in general than both of us, who are divine spellcasters. Jacobs: I spent the first four weeks ingame reading about gods and magic instead of killing cute innocent rabbits like you plebs. We will meet at work tomorrow anyways, and I need my fix of AO. Cya guys. Adam: Guess I will log in too. Bye. Dion: Well me too. Cya tomorrow guys. ----------------------------------- A/N: This is a lot shorter than my regular chapters, but this is a side story I originally wasn¡¯t going to upload, as I still feel that there is something lacking... but if readers like you enjoy it, I will continue with them. Side stories like this will be used to progress character development and some other stuff. Still, character development won¡¯t be too rapid. How did you like this side story? Is it lacking in some aspect? Should I continue with these interludes, or drop them? ---------------------------------- Chapter 018 (Proofread) Chapter 018 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Full Credits to Mecani for Proofreading! Warning: Contains crude language. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------------ Jack logged in and checked his in game clock, which indicated that it was 4pm in game. He quickly found Instructor Theon and showed him the boss spider¡¯s fang. Jack then inquired where he could get it forged. Instructor Theon: ¡°Why do you want a sword? I thought you favored your fists? They aren¡¯t cutting it anymore?¡± Jack: ¡°I should use the right tool for the right job. Having a sword equipped may also mislead foes into thinking I am a run of the mill melee guy. Also, a sword¡¯s reach and ability to cause bleeding DoT is just more useful in many situations.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°Your wish. But be careful though. Around halfway through intermediate, skill growth slows down a lot. Early on it may be fun to pick up a lot of skills, but you should decide to focus and have a clear plan on what you wish to advance first, and try to avoid having redundant skills doing the same thing.¡± Instructor Theon: *sternly* ¡°This is more so applicable in your case. Since your mastery over mana allows you to shape spells without cooldowns and largely switch elements with the same skill, it is better to avoid having multiple spells doing the same things. Whereas, a hermetic magician needs to keep redundant spells so that they can cycle them while the others are cooling down.¡± Jack: ¡°Yes Instructor Theon. My collection of spells is pretty diverse at the moment, and their utility barely overlaps. Although it seems that I need to be careful about weapons and other skills.¡± Instructor Theon: *having a thoughtful expression* ¡°Remember Initiate, our greatest strength can be our greatest weakness if we aren¡¯t careful. Having no skill growth penalties means we can learn and utilize a diverse amount of skills and progress with our own path to personal growth. But on the flipside, we don¡¯t automatically gain skills as our levels increase and we also don¡¯t receive any bonuses to skill growth for any skills.¡± Jack: *with a frown on his face* ¡®Hmm. Looks like Bhikku has its downsides. MP potions are very inefficient for me, and neither do I automatically get skills as I levelup. Learning and raising all skills is equally hard, with no bonuses or penalties to their growth. On the flipside, I can choose and tailor my skills to have a unique playstyle.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Other classes will have a growth path charted for them. A warrior probably gets bonus to learning melee skills and gets weapon special attacks while leveling up, but suffering massive penalties to learning magic and crafting skills.¡¯ Instructor Theon: *pauses* ¡°As for getting that crafted. It looks like an exotic material which most won¡¯t be able to handle. If you ever find exotic metals, dwarves are the way to go. For these kinds of bones and other monster parts for weapons, your best bet is to find a skilled elven craftsman, or perhaps a sufficiently advanced sculptor.¡± Jack: ¡®I think this is the longest conversation I had with him.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Thank you Instructor Theon. I will go to establish contact with the druids, now.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°Good Luck. And be on your guard Jack, the monsters on the way to the druids are far stronger the ones found in the nearby woods.¡± Jack: ¡®So I shouldn¡¯t keep too many redundant skills. Dagger Mastery is useful solely for the Assassination subskill. I know more about unarmed combat and its techniques both in RL and ingame than swords/daggers, so I should focus on raising that and keep the other weapons for situations where their auxiliary effect is more important than damage.¡¯ Jack: ¡®What Instructor Theon said about magic also makes sense. I should avoid having multiple spells doing the same thing. I already have a projectile magic mid-range attack, a homing ally friendly mid-range attack, a frontal cone AoE, a point blank ally friendly AoE debuff/status recovery spell and stuff like Mana Blade/Mana fists. This means I should be more creative with my future spells and not just recycle similar concepts.¡¯ Jack: ¡®And it looks like I won¡¯t get my boss material sword for a while now. Where the fuck, am I supposed to find a skilled elven craftsmen or an advanced sculptor? I hope that the weapon I get is worth all the trouble ¡¯ Resolving to focus on unarmed attacks and develop new innovative spells, Jack left the training center and refilled his water canteen to the brim in the fountain. Jack wanted to stock on some rabbit meat jerky, but the library wouldn¡¯t have meals for a few hours. Jack: ¡®I have recovered my 50 gold from Timon which that asshole head enchanter took from me. I currently have 1 piece of platinum and 4 gold pieces now. Not exactly rich for my level, but not a pauper either. Guess I should buy some provisions for my journey. I don¡¯t want to wait a few hours for some rabbit meat jerky from the library.¡¯ Jack then went to the market square and bought some provisions. He opted for cheap yet long lasting things like some rabbit jerky and pickled fish. He also bought a kind of flatbread which was very similar to tortillas, but made of barley instead of corn. He also made sure that he had enough health potions and darts. He then made his way towards the south exit and rechecked his MAP to confirm the direction he had to proceed. He estimated that the forests adjacent to the beginner fields would have low leveled monsters and would have tougher wildlife the farther away from the beginner fields and roads he went. While he was travelling for the extermination quest, Jack took straight paths through the woods, but he was relatively closer to the roads and just travelled in a straight line to avoid the twists and turns. Now, however, he would be travelling deeper into the woods, away from civilization and the dirt paths which served as roads ingame. He did some quick calculations by referring to the ingame clock and estimated that he could travel for roughly 30 hours before he had to wake up for his morning parkour circuit and office. Jack then strolled across the beginner fields, instead of running so as to avoid attention. He planned to run when he entered the woods until his PP was two thirds full, which he estimated would take around half an hour. As Jack leisurely strolled across the beginner fields, he was noticed by many players. A couple of players recognized him from the time he returned to the city with the guards after the arachnid extermination. One of them was geared like a warrior with chainmail armor and a two-handed claymore sheathed near his thigh. The warrior was around 6 feet tall, fair skinned with a helm covering most of his head. However, if one looked carefully, it could be seen that he had blue eyebrows and golden yellow eyes. His companion was shorter than him, but had a nice bust and ass. She had raven black hair and dark brown eyes but otherwise looked like a Barbie doll, clearly having spent hours on character creation. She was equipped in leather armor and had a longbow slung over her shoulders. She had a quiver strapped to her back and a couple of daggers sheathed near each hip, but the most notable feature about her was a hawk perched on her shoulder. Warrior Guy: ¡°Look at that, he isn¡¯t with the guards this time¡­ easy prey. Quickly set your pet on him and track him, I will PM the others to ambush him.¡± Archer Girl: ¡°He is not my pet! He is my companion and his name is Chester. That is no way to ask a favor from us!¡± The hawk shrieked at the warrior as if emphasizing on her point. The warrior looked extremely irritated at the pair ganging up on him, but relented. Warrior Guy: ¡°Fine. Can you please mark him and instruct Chester to follow him?¡± Archer Girl: *closes one of her eyes, raises her thumb and looks at Jack* ¡°MARK!¡± Archer Girl: *raises her forearm near her and Chester perches on it* ¡°Chester, TRACK! him¡± Chester launched himself from her forearm, and started stalking Jack. The archer girl then laid down on the grass, un-equipping her bow and quiver. She faced the warrior guy. Archer Girl: ¡°I will see him from Chester¡¯s point of view now, don¡¯t you dare cop a feel when I am out!¡± Warrior Guy: ¡°Why do you always act like I am some sort of sexual predator targeting you? I am not even into girls for Christ¡¯s sake!¡± Archer Girl: *sniggering* ¡°I know. But I like teasing you and seeing you all flustered, looking so cute! Anyways, you are my bodyguard, so don¡¯t allow others to cop a feel either. BIRD¡¯S EYE!¡± *falls unconscious* Warrior Guy: ¡®She is an evil girl. Now all I have to do is wait for her to return and then PM the others. Oh, I hope I figure out how to gain my class upgrade soon. Hers is so cool.¡¯ After a few minutes, the archer girl regains consciousness and frowns with barely suppressed rage. Archer Girl: ¡°That guy hurt my Chester! After a few minutes he somehow detected Chester and threw a dart at him! And it hurt Chester more than a cheap wooden dart should. The nerve of his! However he is running at a straight line towards the southeast. Quickly inform the others, I want to see him dead repeatedly for hurting my Chester!¡± *makes strangling motions with her hands and growls with a vicious expression on her face* Warrior Guy: ¡®Note to self. Don¡¯t hurt or offend Chester, EVER.¡¯ Warrior Guy: ¡°He noticed Chester? He must have some kind of detection skill then! If he continues south east he will soon reach the kobolds. I will PM the others to ambush him and be careful as he can somehow detect hostiles.¡± While Jack was running through the woods, he felt the hairs on his back tingling which he had come to recognize as a warning from Danger Sense. Jack stopped and looked back, but he couldn¡¯t see anyone. Jack: ¡®Shit. Does my stalker have some kind of stealth or invisibility? Need to catch the asshole who means me harm fast.¡± Jack then resumed running southeast, and soon he was warned by danger sense. This time instead of stopping, he quickly readied a dart. He then quickly ran at a thick tree ahead. Using his parkour skills he ran halfway up the tree trunk while imbuing the dart in his hands with force and jumped off, performing a quick backflip and shot the force imbibed dart while upside down before landing on his feet. Jack heard a screech, but his danger sense fell silent again. Jack: ¡®Oh boy that sounded like a bird. Is someone using his pet to track me? I better keep my PP topped up. There might be an ambush of players ahead. The wolves seem to instinctively avoid me here, as if they know I am too strong for them.¡¯ Jack then paused for a short while, replenishing his PP to full. He then jogged briskly instead of running. Jack adjusted his pace until the PP consumed by running was getting quickly regenerated so that he had an almost full PP bar at all times. After almost 20 minutes of jogging, Jack was alerted to hostile presences ahead by his danger sense. Using his spirit senses Jack could make out that there were five players hiding ahead, using the nearby flora to camouflage themselves. Judging by the intensity of the mana glow, two of them were casters of some sort. Jack slowed down and came to a standstill. He equipped his sword in his right hand and activated force blade. He also used mana fists on both his legs. Unlike earlier, with his high PP and PP/sec maintaining these sustainable skills wasn¡¯t enough to drain his PP as his PP regen was a lot higher than his MP regen in his Novice days! Jack: ¡°I know you guys are hiding ahead. Come out and fight like true men, instead of hiding like cowardly bitches!¡± Four of the hidden figures emerged while the last one, who seemed to be utilizing some sort of stealth slowly crawled through the bushes, aiming to circle behind Jack. Two of the figures who emerged seemed like typical warriors. They were equipped in chainmail armor. One of them had an axe and shield equipped, while the other one was equipped with a spiked mace and a shield. The pair of casters in contrast, lacked any form of armor. One of them had a simple staff and was dressed in robes of dark cyan. The other was equipped with a staff with a ruby on top and was dressed in khaki colored robes with a deep blue pointed hat on his head. Jack deduced that the caster in dark cyan robes was some sort of priest, while the pointy hat one looked like a hermetic mage complete with his jeweled staff as a magical focus. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Axe Warrior: ¡°You will pay us with experience and gold for calling us cowards!¡± Mace Warrior: ¡°Don¡¯t get riled up bro! He is outnumbered and all of us are above lv45! He has no chance at all. I hope he will drop some of the equipment he is wearing!¡± The player stealthily getting behind Jack had not escaped his notice. He assumed the player was a rogue/thief of some type who specialized in stealth kills. So the player probably had low defense and was squishy. He wanted to deal with the rogue before he dealt with the other players, so he waited for the rogue to come in range of his force blade enhanced sword, while he stalled for time. Jack: ¡°So four of you are PKers, ambushing innocent players and killing them for xp, gold and gear? Don¡¯t you guys have a chaotic mark or something?¡± Mace Warrior: ¡°Haha this game is awesome. We get no penalties for killing players without any witnesses other than some infamy! Isn¡¯t it awesome bro?¡± Axe Warrior: ¡°Hehe yeah. No freaking chaotic tag to make us criminals on sight. And we simply have our low infamy friends for interaction with the town NCPs for repairs and stuff!¡± Mage: *facepalming* ¡°Will you two idiots shut up about our operation and prepare yourselves for the fight?¡± Mage: *turning to the priest* ¡°Buff us before these two idiots reveal any more will you?¡± Priest: *nods and mutters a chant* ¡°BLESSING OF BATTLE!¡± All four of them glowed persistently in Jack¡¯s perspective with spirit senses. Meanwhile the rogue was in range behind him. Jack heard the beginnings of a whisper. Stealthed Rogue: *whisper* ¡°Assa---¡° Jack didn¡¯t give rogue chance to execute what he supposed was the assassinate skill, as he knew firsthand how deadly it was after using it on the goblins and bandits. He quickly crouched and stabbed his force blade enhanced sword into the player behind him. He heard a high pitched scream as he rolled sideways and equipped the dagger from his boots. He noticed that the sword was lodged in the female rogue¡¯s guts and her HP bar indicated that the single attack had taken two thirds of her HP! Jack then activated force blade on his dagger and lunged at the wounded rouge. He had noticed that the priest had begun his chant for some sort of spell, and he wanted to kill off the rouge incase the priest was preparing a healing spell. His dagger cut through her armor and was lodged in her shoulder. Jack took the opportunity to dislodge his sword from her guts. He then quickly activated force blade and slashed her throat with his sword finishing her. He then retrieved his dagger and sheathed it in his boots. While this seemed impressive, it was because rogues had light leather armor and spent their stat points in Agi and Dex for the bonuses to their class skills received from them. They also invested in strength so that their sneak attack skills were usually One Hit Kills. Hence they generally kept vitality to a minimum, only enough for equipping level appropriate leather armor. That combined with Jack¡¯s force blade enhanced critical hits, with his high magic attack, was sufficient to dispose a squishy rogue with low HP and Physical Defense in matter of seconds! Priest: *chant completes* ¡°ARMOR OF FAITH!¡± Mage: *gesturing with his free hand, a large orb of fire formed on top of his staff* ¡°FIERY ORB!¡± After sheathing his dagger in his boots, Jack quickly sidestepped and avoided the fiery sphere that came towards him. However it had a small AOE, and Jack failed to completely avoid it and lost 10% of his health. Jack: ¡®Fuck this AoE spell. 10% of HP for an AOE graze? Luckily this shit has a cooldown. Armor fo Faith looks like it boosted everyone¡¯s physical defense. Need to take out casters first.¡¯ The mage meanwhile was shocked. He had used Fiery Orb, which was a massive upgrade from a standard fireball and had a cooldown time of 30 seconds. The full spell was usually enough to reduce a lv40 rogue¡¯s HP by half! Not only did Jack manage to avoid the full brunt of the spell, the splash AoE damaged him for just 10%! Mage: ¡®How does this rogue have so much HP? I thought he was strength/ agility focused seeing how he dealt with the ambush and his equipment.¡¯ Mage: ¡°What are you idiots waiting for? Go intercept him before he comes in melee range!¡± Mage: *addressing the priest* ¡°Use all your buffs ASAP!¡± Jack wasn¡¯t going to let them do as they pleased. He rushed towards the casters with force blade enhanced sword in hand. The two warriors were in his path rushing ahead, while the mage and the priest began casting. Before he could collide with the warriors, Jack used force blasts from his feet to jump over them. He landed a short distance from the priest and managed to stab him with his sword reducing the priest¡¯s HP to 50% and causing the priest to scream, disrupting his casting. Jack: ¡®Damn that Armor of Faith¡­.increased the entire team¡¯s physical defense.¡¯ Mage: ¡°FIREBALL!¡± Jack reacted quickly upon hearing the mage shout out his spell name. He grabbed the screaming priest¡¯s arm and used him as a meat shield for the fireball, while preparing a fire breath. The impromptu meat shield priest lost another quarter of his HP, leaving him with a fourth. Jack then retrieved his sword from the priest, kicked the priest backwards and unleashed his fire breath. The priest was dead and the mage had barely a third of his HP left. Jack lunged at the mage and stabbed him in the throat finishing him off. He noticed that the two warriors had stopped in their tracks, a little distance away from him. Both Warriors simultaneously: ¡°RUSH ATTACK!¡± Jack: ¡®Why are all these idiots yelling out their skill before executing them? The only exception was the Rogue who whispered her skill name. Is it because they depend upon system assist to execute their skills?¡¯ Sensing danger, Jack quickly rolled sideways. He noticed that both warriors where he was standing. Rush Attack was a mobility skill of warriors, which allowed them to close distance with a target at mid-range. However, the warriors had called out their skills, and this made it easy for Jack to anticipate and avoid them. Jack readied another fire breath and while the warriors were confused where their target was. Jack jumped backwards and unleashed his fire breath hitting them from the sides. The warriors were a lot sturdier than the other PKer¡¯s and barely lost a third of their HP. Axe Warrior: ¡°To our left! Let¡¯s get him.¡± Mace Warrior: ¡°You got it bro. We have to avenge our comrades!¡± Jack was smirking while he evaded the clumsy warriors. As they were equipped in chainmail armor, they were slower than him and were consuming a lot more stamina for their movement. Whenever Jack got an opportunity, he used a soul strike on them while maintaining safe distance between them. Each soul strike damaged one of the warriors for around 15% of their HP. In this way Jack kited them, reducing the axe warrior¡¯s HP to a third. The axe warrior stopped chasing Jack and readied a health potion from his inventory. Jack: ¡®Oh, no you don¡¯t asshole! Take this!¡¯ Jack precisely fired a force bolt and the health potion shattered in his hands. He then quickly prepared a fire breath and stormed towards them. As soon as they were in his AoE, he unleashed his Fire breath, leaving the axe warrior with a sliver of HP and reducing the mace warrior¡¯s HP to around 35%. Jack finished off the axe warrior with a void bolt and taunted the mace warrior. Jack: ¡°Looks like everyone including your bro is dead. Come at me little piggy, I will kill you too.¡± Mace Warrior: ¡°You will pay for hurting my bro. RUSH ATTACK!¡± As soon as Jack heard the warrior exclaiming his skill, Jack rolled sideways and avoided the rush attack. However, the mace warrior slammed his weapon to the ground and yelled ¡°SHOCKWAVE!¡±. Jack couldn¡¯t completely dodge the AoE and lost 5% of his HP, still leaving him with around 85% HP. The shockwave skill also seemed to have a disabling effect, as Jack seemed to be disoriented. However, due Jack¡¯s balance, flexibility and indomitable spirit special stats, he was barely able to resist the knockdown. Jack quickly sidestepped, preparing a fire breath. He was just in time too as the mace warrior executed another skill ¡°BASH¡±. The warrior missed his target and his weapon hit the ground. There was a small crater where a few moments ago Jack was standing. Jack: ¡®Oh boy that is a deadly combo if executed successfully. Rush Attack closes distance with the target quickly; shockwave causes small AoE damage and knockdown. Then use bash to do boosted damage to the prone target. Any squishy caster hit with that combo is fucked. Hopefully these skills consume lot of stamina and/or have a cooldown.¡¯ The warrior was somewhat out of breath, indicating that he was running low on stamina. Running around in chainmail armor and executing his warrior skills back to back had depleted a large chunk of his stamina and made him temporarily vulnerable as Jack unleashed his fire breath and the warrior was left barely with 5% of his HP. Mace Warrior: ¡°That hurts you bastard!¡± Jack: ¡°Then let me relieve your pain.¡± Jack then quickly shot a void bolt at the last PKer killing him. He then noticed that as soon as the player was dead, his body seemed to be equipped in beginner clothes. However, there was a small pouch, a ring and a health potion next to his corpse. Jack collected the loot and identified the ring. It was unfortunately, a plain silver ring without any enchantment. Jack slipped it on his fingers as silver was a better material than copper/iron and he could probably enchant it more. Jack then found the rest of the corpses and looted them. He collected a total of 35 gold, 3 basic health potions, 2 basic mana potions, the plain silver ring, an iron helmet and a steel dagger, which was slightly better than his fine iron dagger. Jack stored the steel dagger in his boots and he felt his Danger Sense warning him again. Jack: ¡®Oh great looks like the peeping tom is spying on me again with his birdie. Annoying¡¯ Jack then prepared a void breath and casually walked towards the tall tree, on whose branches the hawk was hiding. Then he quickly used force blasts from his feet to make a high jump and released his void breath upwards. As he landed, he noticed the corpse of the hawk fell down near him. Jack: ¡®What is this¡­ some kind of big brown crow? Probably a hawk or falcon¡­ Oh well free meat for me.¡¯ Jack then stabbed the corpse of the hawk with his sword and channeled some fire mana to evenly roast it. He then waited for the meat to cool down and used his dagger to remove the skin and feathers from the corpse of the hawk. He then smelled the aroma from the cooked lump of meat. Jack: ¡®Smells delicious! One barbecued birdie coming right up!¡¯ Jack then took his time slowly savoring the taste of the hawk meat. It tasted like wild fowl, but with a stronger taste and gamey flavor. All in all, it was extremely delicious compared to the bitter monster meat he usually ate ingame. And it was far better than rabbit meat jerky. Jack finished his meal, let out a satisfied burp and checked his notifications. While Jack hadn¡¯t received any stat bonuses, or leveled up his skills, he had gained around 25% exp and some fame for killing the 5 PKer¡¯s. He had also gained some infamy, for killing a player¡¯s companion, but to Jack the minor gain infamy was worth the delicious meat. Meanwhile, near the beginner fields: Archer Girl: *suddenly gets up and sits down* ¡°That bastard!!¡± Warrior Guy: ¡°What happened?¡± Archer Girl: ¡°He single handedly killed all five of us who were ambushing him! He also killed my poor Chester with some kind of breath attack. I will kill him a hundred times, no a thousand times when I get my hands on him. My poor Chester, I already miss you.¡± *starts sobbing* Warrior Guy: ¡®So she doesn¡¯t care five us were wiped out singlehandedly and is crying for her bird? Crazy woman.¡¯ Warrior Guy: ¡°Now there, calm down. Chester will respawn in four ingame days, since he is your ranger companion.¡± Archer Girl: *looks furious* ¡°Calm down? CALM DOWN?! Maybe I should kill you and lock you out of the game for a full day in RL. That will help me to calm---¡± *pauses, looks miserable and groans in pain* Warrior Guy: ¡°What happened?¡± Archer Girl: ¡°I just got a notification that someone is eating Chester¡¯s corpse! It gave me some stat debuffs ¡­ and more importantly, Chester won¡¯t respawn for eight whole days ingame. When I find that bastard, I will have Chester eat him alive bit by bit, starting with his eyes!!¡± Warrior Guy: ¡®Note to self. Be nice to Chester. ALWAYS.¡¯ Chapter 019 (Proofread) Chapter 019 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full credits to Mecani for proofreading. [please give him positive ratings for his hard work ------------------------------------------ After dealing with the annoying PKers, Jack proceeded travelling southeast. He was careful to maintain his pace so that his PP regen countered the cost of moving and kept his PP almost full. This is because he didn¡¯t want to be caught by more ambushes, even if he wasn¡¯t travelling at his maximum possible speed. After around 15 minutes of jogging, Jack observed three humanoids. They were slightly taller than goblins and had green skin. However, that¡¯s where the similarities ended. They had a snout like dogs and their skin was scaly and hairless, almost reptilian in nature. A couple of them were wearing some sort of chainmail and had decent iron weapons. One of them wasn¡¯t armed, instead wore rough pelts as clothing had some sort of tattoos on his arms and face. Jack: ¡®My danger senses didn¡¯t tingle this time¡­ maybe they aren¡¯t hostile to me? It¡¯s probably worth a try, to communicate with them. The nearest fantasy creature that I can think of looking at them is kobolds. The one in animal pelts is probably some sort of caster¡¯ Jack: ¡°Hello There!¡± *Carefully approaches the kobolds* The three humanoids looked alarmed and became alert as if expecting confrontation. They went into a defensive posture and waited for Jack to attack. When they weren¡¯t attacked by Jack, they seemed confused. They communicated among themselves in a mixture of yelps, growls and hisses. Finally, after their internal debate, the tattooed Kobold approached Jack. Tattooed Kobold: ¡°You human, yess?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes. I am human.¡± Tattooed Kobold: ¡°Not kill uss? Humanss alwayss attack uss.¡± Jack: ¡°I attack only if you attack first.¡± Tattooed Kobold: *pauses*¡°Human help uss? Chief give rewardss.¡± Jack: ¡®So a quest for not being hostile to these kobolds? Nice. Rewards will probably be shit though¡­ looking at their equipment. But quest from these critters means probably killing something so can expect some xp and loot at the very least.¡¯ Jack: ¡°All right. I will help you. I am Jack.¡± Tattooed Kobold: *confused* ¡°You human or Jack?¡± Jack: ¡°I am human. But my name is Jack.¡± Tattooed Kobold: ¡°Name? What iss that?¡± Jack: ¡®Looks like they don¡¯t have concept of name.¡¯ Jack: ¡°If more than one human is there, other humans call me Jack.¡± Tattooed Kobold: ¡°Humanss are sstrange. Follow. I lead to Chief of our tribe.¡± Jack was then led by the kobolds. They were heading in the southwest direction. It was a detour for Jack, but he wasn¡¯t about to leave an opportunity for a hidden quest. After travelling for a few hours they reached a small hill, densely surrounded by trees and undergrowth. Tattooed Kobold: ¡°Human Jack, watch carefully. Follow uss clossely.¡± The tattooed kobold communicating with Jack then snapped a few limbs of a nearby bush. Jack carefully observed the order in which the tattooed kobold snapped the branches. The tattooed kobold then went down on all fours and crawled into the undergrowth and vanished. The other kobolds gestured at Jack to proceed. The branches were back in their original state. Jack: ¡®So looks like only the tattooed kobold can speak with humans. I guess I am supposed to copy him and crawl into kobold wonderland.¡¯ Jack then imitated the tattooed kobold and crawled into the underbrush after snapping the branches in order. After crawling in, it appeared that he was crawling in an underground tunnel which was shoulder high. After crawling past a few bends, the tunnel grew in height and width. He emerged in a small room like hollow. The tattooed kobold was waiting for him. Tattooed Kobold: ¡°Human Jack, follow.¡± Jack: ¡°Lead the way.¡± There were a few other tunnels in the cavern, tall enough for Jack to walk upright. The tattooed kobold went inside one of the tunnels and Jack followed. The tunnels were illuminated by some kind of magical fire torches placed along the walls. After navigating what felt like a maze of tunnels for 15-20 minutes, they finally arrived in a large cavern. In the center of the cavern was a large bonfire, about 8 feet tall. The bonfire¡¯s flames danced without any fuel. Jack¡¯s spirit senses clearly identified the flames as extremely potent magic. There were many kobolds in this chamber, quite a few of them tattooed. The tattooed kobold guiding Jack, lead him to the most intricately tattooed kobold. The particular kobold seemed weaker, somehow frailer than the rest. However, all of the other kobolds seemed to respect him. The kobold guiding Jack seemed to communicate with the Chief kobold in barks, growls and hisses. Jack: ¡®Guess he is the kobold Chief of this tribe. I can¡¯t really be sure which kobold is what gender; they all look largely the same except for the tattoos.¡¯ Chief Kobold: ¡°Sso you human Jack. Not attack uss? Help uss?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes if Chief rewards me.¡± Jack: ¡®I don¡¯t plan to do social service for you after all. Let us be clear on that.¡¯ Chief Kobold: ¡°Of coursse. If you help uss, we let you meet our father sspirit. He givess you rewards, if you are worthy.¡± Jack: ¡®Father Spirit? Looks like the kobold casters are shamans then, taking a position fo leadership in the tribe. Probably won¡¯t be wise attempting to eat their father spirit though. Hopefully, I am ¡°worthy¡± and can still squeeze out a spirit contract or something.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Of course Chief. Now what is my task?¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°Nearby Giant lizardss have begun breeding. They are hunting lot of nearby animalss. That meanss little food for uss. Human Jack, kill them all.¡± Jack: ¡°Sure Chief. But why not exterminate them yourselves?¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°We have tried. Lizardss have poisson deadly to our warriorss. Fire from our sshamanss issn¡¯t effective either.¡± Jack: ¡®Giant venomous fire resistant lizards. The quest keeps on giving.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Can some of your warriors or shamans help me at least?¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°No Human Jack. Many wounded, remaining needed for hunting. Now will you help uss?¡±
Quest Information
NamePest Control: Giant LizardsGradeE+
Description The Chief of a friendly kobold tribe has tasked you to clear the nearby giant lizards who are rapidly breeding and reducing the surrounding food supply. They lizards are venomous and resistant to fire, so the kobolds have difficulty clearing it. If you are successful, you will be able to meet the Father Spirit of this tribe.
Duration / Time LimitFour days.
Privileges You gain knowledge regarding the location of the giant lizard nest.
Failure You abandon the quest, or fail to complete it within the time limit. On failure, the friendly kobold tribe turns hostile towards you.
Rewards Meet the Father Spirit of the friendly kobold tribe. ???
Jack: ¡®E+, 4 days? Come to think of it my first quest was E+ too. I have roughly one in game day before my day job. Meh, I can probably call in sick on Monday if required.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Yes Chief. I will deal with the giant lizards. I need to know where they are, however.¡± Chief kobold: ¡°Of course.¡± *hisses and barks at the tattooed kobold who guided Jack* The tattooed kobold then explains to Jack the location of the giant lizard nest. It was a couple of hours to the west, in an underground cave system. The kobold carefully explained the landmarks on the way, and Jack memorized them. A new location ¡®Infested Caves¡¯ was updated in Jack¡¯s map. The tattooed lizard then guided Jack to the exit. He also instructed Jack to leave the lizard corpses undisturbed, as they planned to use it as food. He was also instructed to bring back as many lizard eggs as he could, and to destroy the rest. He was also shown where to find kobold sentries, when he returned, so that he could be guided into their dwelling. Jack: ¡®Interesting. The kobolds plan to rear the lizards as livestock? Or do they just want some quick reptile omelets? Either way, looks like I don¡¯t get to loot the lizards. Your Father Spirit better give me the good stuff, kobolds.¡¯ Jack then consulted the map, and started jogging briskly towards the infested caves. He was trying to cultivate a habit of pacing himself so that his PP was full most of the time. He didn¡¯t want to be caught pants down in an ambush with low PP. He planned to travel in this way, unless speed was absolutely necessary. After around an hour and half of jogging, Jack reached the entrance of the infested caves. The entrance looked like a wide pit surrounded by rocks and underbrush. He hadn¡¯t encountered any lizards nearby, but his MAP indicated that this was the entrance to the infested caves Jack carefully entered the dungeon. He readied a dart in his hand, just in case. The dungeon was dark and gloomy with most of the light coming from some sort of fluorescent moss. However, between that and his spirit senses, Jack had little difficulty navigating the dungeon. After a while, the tunnel he was travelling through widened to a cave. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He perceived a group of 3 lizards in the distance. They were almost waist high on all fours, and were around 6 feet long. They had dark greenish skin and wicked looking fangs and claws. Their yellow-orange eyes had vertical slits and were glowing in the dark. Jack wanted to test the difficulty of these lizards. He used a force imbued dart on one of the lizards. The giant lizard lost barely 4% HP, but that wasn¡¯t the main aim. The lizard got provoked by Jack¡¯s attack, and separated from its group and rushed towards him. He backtracked a bit till the lizard caught up with him and engaged him in melee. Jack punched the lizard without any form of magical enhancement, and the results were lackluster. The lizard seemed barely affected and lost just 2% HP. Jack: ¡®Well that was shit damage, if I say so myself.¡¯ Jack had little difficulty evading the lizard¡¯s simplistic slashes and bites, while he tested out the damage of his various attacks. Jack then used mana fists on his right hand and punched the lizard in its head. As his right fist made contact, he released a force blast in the lizard¡¯s head causing the lizard to be disoriented and lose around 12% HP. Jack followed up with a mana glove enhanced punch with his left fist to the lizard which caused his opponent to lose around 9% HP. Jack: ¡®A mana fist critical is more damaging, but mana gloves is more efficient considering the PP costs¡­ but still lackluster damage.¡¯ The lizard still had around 60 % HP left. It recovered from Jack¡¯s melee attacks and attempted to bite him, who quickly sidestepped and equipped his sword. Jack slashed the lizard with his sword, and it did around 2% damage, almost the same as his plain unarmed attack. Jack then quickly used force blade on his sword, while dodging another slash from the lizard. He retaliated with a slash from his force blade enhanced sword and did almost 15% damage to the lizard! Jack: ¡®So a plain sword slash is almost as useless as my plain unarmed attacks. But a regular mana blade attack seems to be more effective than a mana fist critical! These lizards probably have a high physical defense. Now it is time to try spells.¡¯ Jack dodged the lizard¡¯s attacks and created a bit of distance between them. He then fired a void bolt at the charging lizard. The void bolt was most effective among his various attacks and caused the lizard to lose a fourth of its HP, leaving it with only a third! Jack then prepared a void breath and unleashed it, finally killing the lizard. Jack: ¡®So these lizards have low magic defense ehh? Seems kind of unfair though that my basic bolt spell takes a quarter of its HP while a plain attack causes it to barely lose 2% HP. My physical attacks on most melee foes are useless without enhancements, it seems.¡¯ It was one of the reasons due to which reason that parties were formed. Monsters specializing in melee had generally high physical defense or were extremely agile. Most melee players, relying on system assist in battles found it tedious to fight high defense melee foes. Their damage output was governed purely by their stats. Things like chance to hit and chance of critical hits were determined by the system based on player and monster stats. Furthermore, their chances to dodge, block and parry attacks were also purely determined by their respective skill levels and stats, instead of their reaction time, battle sense and adaptability. These factors made it necessary for warriors to party with priests and mages, while they were relegated to a tanking role. Priests were necessary, as due to their reliance on system assist, the warriors expected a steady stream of incoming damage. Mages were necessary to deal damage to these high defense melee foes, as the warriors couldn¡¯t control their skills to be critical hits. While a bash did great damage for a warrior, there was no guarantee that a system assist aided bash would be a critical hit. A warrior could spend almost all his stamina spamming bash on a target, and even one wouldn¡¯t necessarily crit. Whereas, the next regular attack could critically hit¡­but do negligible damage nevertheless. Most priests in turn, had almost non-existent damage dealing capabilities but were very valuable to party due to their support role, even if their buffs and heals had cast times and cool downs. Mages on the other hand, were extremely squishy and needed to be protected by warriors as they had spells with significant cast time and obscene cool downs. Offense oriented priests played very similar to hermetic mages. Although Jack didn¡¯t know it, his methods of dealing damage were extremely versatile compared to other classes. On foes with high physical defense, he had spells targeting their magical defense. If there was a caster foe with high magical defense, Jack had skills like force blade, which allowed him to convert his magical attack into physical attacks targeting the foe¡¯s physical defense! Jack also had varied options while dealing magical damage. He had access to fire spells, which were the most damaging due to their burning DoT auxiliary effect. In case the enemy was resistant to fire, he had void and soul. The soul and void elements were quite rare and very few enemies had resistance to them. These factors combined with his high magical attack, for his level, meant that he had a variety of options while dealing damage to various foes. Jack wanted to check his defensive capabilities against the lizards next. He baited another lizard with a force imbued dart. He had noticed with the fight against the first lizard, that this variety of giant lizards had two primary attacks, a slash with the claws of their forelimbs and a bite with their jaws. Their claws seemed to be venomous as there was some kind of fluid coating it. Jack endured a slash attack on his thigh from the lizard. The lizard¡¯s claws were painful and stung like a wasp sting. The attack caused him to lose around 5% HP and he was poisoned. However, he barely received any detrimental effects or DoT form the poison. He had trained his indomitable spirit and poison resistance on venom from the giant spiders, who were much higher leveled foes with venom which was a lot more potent! Jack then whittled the lizard¡¯s HP with attacks from his force enhanced blade while dodging the lizard¡¯s slash attacks. He was waiting for the lizard to execute its bite attack, and soon the lizard bit his forearm. The lizard had powerful jaws and he lost around 10% of his HP. He quickly finished it off with a couple of void bolts before he went to deal with the lone lizard with void bolts from range. The lizard was dead in a matter of seconds before it could reach Jack. Jack: ¡®Ouch Ouch Ouch. Why the fuck did I have to check its offense firsthand like a retard? The bite hurts like a bitch. 50% of real life pain is still painful! Fortunately I don¡¯t have any fracture debuff, probably due to my significant vitality. I will simply nuke them with void bolts from range now, as I should have been doing from the start! Looks like the lizard¡¯s venom is kind of useless to me though¡­so might as well leave their corpses for the kobolds.¡¯ Having gauged the effectiveness of his attacks, Jack then proceeded to slaughter the lizards. They were usually in a group of three to five. He used both his arms to fire void bolts alternatively. On an average, he was able to cast 3 void bolts per second using both his hands to cast simultaneously. This meant that every second, he could destroy three forths of a giant lizard¡¯s HP if all his attacks hit a single lizard. Jack would shoot void bolts like a machine gun, whenever he spotted a group of lizards, in the few seconds that it took them to approach him, most of the lizards would have their HP reduced by half. As they approached him, he would prepare a void breath and unleash it, reducing most lizards to a critical state with less than 20% of HP. He would then utilize a soul scream, and while the lizards were disoriented, finish them off with void bolts or slashes from his force blade enhanced sword. Jack couldn¡¯t avoid all attacks, and occasionally a lizard would slash or bite him, causing him to lose 5%/10 % of HP respectively. It was quick work disposing the lizards with his rapid cast spells. However, the process was PP intensive, and Jack exhausted half his PP after dealing with five to six large groups of lizards. Dealing with each group took him hardly 10 seconds with this PP intensive manner of hunting. However every time his PP was depleted by half, he had to meditate around a minute to fully recover his PP and a bit of his HP. Whenever his HP depleted below half, Jack would be more cautious dealing with the lizards. He would use force imbued darts to lure them and finish them off one by one at range with his void bolts while backtracking and evading. He would hunt the lizards in this manner and take breaks for his PP until he had regenerated up to 2/3 rd of his HP. Jack: ¡®I may not have powerful spells like fiery orb that PKer used¡­but lack of cool downs and short cast times are fucking amazing.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Those retarded hermetic mages would need a shitty warrior to tank for them. Those shitty warriors will need more brain-dead priests to heal them. Whereas I can hunt solo if I am careful with my PP and the opponents are melee monsters.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Who gets all the xp and loot? I do! I do! Well the kobolds get the loot in this case. But whatever¡­¡¯ He was extremely pleased with the speed at which he was clearing the dungeon. It took him only four hours in game to clear all the lizards from the first level. He estimated that he had cleared roughly 50 groups of lizards, with an average group consisting of 5 melee giant lizards. He left most of the lizard corpses for the kobolds, but cooked a part of one lizard to fill his satiety. It was very though and Jack felt that he was chewing leather. It also tasted bitter and had caused an astringent like sensation when swallowing. While it wasn¡¯t something unexpected, it tasted absolutely horrible compared to the barbecued birdie he last ate. While he felt that the lizards were an easy opponent due to their reliance on melee attacks, they were around lv55, and thus provided him very good exp. This caused him to level up multiple times, from the first level alone. He was sure that he had cleared the full level, but still he hadn¡¯t encountered any lizard eggs. He was on his way deeper into the next level of the dungeon. Jack: ¡®Perhaps their breeding ground is in the next level? Hopefully I can finish this quest before I have to get up in RL. I hope there aren¡¯t any ranged attackers in the next level. Those ones are annoying to deal with.¡¯ ------------------------------------- A/N: I had little RL stuff to do this weekend, and my day-job didn¡¯t require any overtime either. That means I had an ungodly amount of free time. So, here is the next chapter early! I was initially aiming to have Jack clear the next level of this dungeon in this chapter itself, but this segment got longer than expected and I don¡¯t like writing a single chapter which is too long. On the flipside, I have a packed RL schedule the next week, so I probably won¡¯t post a chapter next weekend. I will try to if I find time, but no promises. ------------------------------------ Chapter 020 (Proofread) Chapter 020 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full credits to Mecani and CanadianBacon for proofreading. Please give them positive ratings for his hard work ------------------------------------------ Jack entered the next level of the Infested Caves. He was extremely confident after the cakewalk that had been the previous level. As he proceeded, he encountered a group of three giant lizards. Two of them were the green giant lizards he had encountered earlier. The third giant lizard Jack observed was different. It was slightly smaller than the other lizard and was dark blue, almost black in color. On its back it had zebra like stripe patterns of copper color. Though jack was confident of dispatching high defense melee foes without much trouble, the new variety of striped giant lizard made him somewhat cautious. He lured a giant lizard with a force imbued dart and waited for it to get into melee range. he then equipped his sword and enhanced it with force blade. With half a dozen sword slashes, he disposed it. He lured the second giant green lizard, and repeated the process. Now all that was left was the dark blue striped giant lizard. Jack fired a void bolt at the striped lizard. However, at the last moment, the striped lizard moved quickly and managed to avoid the brunt of the attack losing only 10% HP. The lizard was very agile and could dodge his spells, so Jack decided to use the homing Soul strikes on it. He fired a couple of soul strikes which caused the striped lizard to lose another two thirds of its HP, leaving it with barely a fourth. The striped lizard¡¯s stripes shimmered strangely, and its speed quickly increased and it slashed Jack twice with each claw. Jack was only able to dodge the first swipe, and lost 12% of HP! Jack tried to counter attack with his mana blade enhanced sword, but the striped lizard was still shimmering and it dodged Jack¡¯s attacks without any problems and quickly retreated. Jack fired a void bolt while simultaneously preparing a void breath. The lizard was goaded into charging, and he released the void breath. The lizard tried dodging sideways, but it was caught it in the AoE and it died. Jack: ¡®Fuck. Each slash is weaker than the green lizard¡¯s attack. A full combo will make me lose 16% HP. It can dodge my void bolts, so I am forced to use the more inefficient soul strikes. Furthermore, in melee range, its shimmering somehow substantially increases its speed, and it can fuck me up if I am careless.¡¯ Jack: ¡®I can¡¯t rely on void breaths to finish them off one by one. I was just lucky that it was caught in the AoE this time. If there is more than one in a group, I will be hard pressed to deal with them.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Despite the greater offensive potential of mana blade, I just can¡¯t react quickly enough with my sword skills when it shimmers. And my unarmed enhancements have far lower potential.¡¯ Jack was pondering on how to deal with this new striped lizard efficiently. He had a time limit in the quest to worry about. Furthermore, he didn¡¯t have many HP potions, and he couldn¡¯t be too wasteful with his PP expenditure per lizard. Jack: ¡®My technical expertise with swords simply does not compare with the natural flow my unarmed attacks have. And no fucking way am I relying on system assist. That will make me look like a retard shouting names¡­and I will miss more often as my dexterity isn¡¯t enough to hit this agile lizard anyway.¡¯ Jack: ¡®There is still roughly 18 hours in game before my day job calls me on Monday. I should develop some spells to counter fast foes. Looks like I will be ¡°sick¡±.¡¯ He then retreated to the first level and started thinking about new spells. He wanted some kind of unarmed enhancement, which would make it competitive with mana blade. Jack: ¡®Why does mana blade add more than 100% Magic Attack even at beginner lv1? Whereas mana fists gave around 30% bonus, and mana gloves gave around 50% bonus at the same levels? There must be some logic behind this shit. It is time to meditate on it for a bit, and I need to regenerate my HP anyways.¡¯ Jack then entered a meditative trance and pondered on the difference in bonus damage of his three mana enhancement skills. Mana Fists had the least amount of damage, unless the used mana blasts were critical hits. When he ¡®hardened¡¯ the mana coating on his fists to form mana gloves, he lost the ability to fire mana blasts but in turn gained a significant damage boost with his unarmed strikes. Mana blade, on the other hand, had higher PP sustain costs, but had the biggest bonus to his attack out of these three skills. Mana blade, in essence was very similar to mana gloves but it had sharp edges and tip. Jack: ¡®My regular unarmed attacks do blunt damage, so do mana fists and mana gloves, whereas Mana blade can do slashing damage with its edges, or piercing damage with the tips.¡¯ Jack: ¡®These lizards also have quite good offensive power with their unarmed claw attacks. Claws! That¡¯s the answer!¡¯ He then returned from his meditative trance, and channeled force mana in his right hand. He shaped the force mana to end in sharp points at his fingertips. To his spirit senses, it looked like his fingers were ending in claws. He then repeated the process multiple times, until he could generate force claws almost instantaneously. He swiped at the cave wall, and was delighted to see scratches on it. Jack: ¡®Nice! Now I can use these claws to slash and stab foes with my unarmed attacks. Now I should practice a bit so that I can switch very quickly between this force claws and force gloves. That will allow me to have blunt, slashing and piercing damage with my unarmed attacks on demand!¡¯ Jack was very familiar with mana gloves and it wasn¡¯t long before he could swap force gloves and force claws on demand. Jack then browsed his notifications, which indicated that he had learned a new subskill of Unarmed Mastery, Mana Claws! Jack then summoned the skill information on Mana Claws.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Mana ClawsBeginner105.25%
Subskill of Unarmed Mastery You have learned to effectively integrate magic with your unarmed fighting. You can from claws out of mana, greatly boosting your unarmed damage. You can currently use the following elements: Force: You do not take feedback damage when performing unarmed attacks. Soul: Can cause the target to Panic on a critical hit, depending on the Target''s WIllpower. Bonus damage does not apply to inanimate objects. Void: 5% of damage done reduces the target''s MP Fire: Does additional Burning DoT on a critical hit, depending on the target''s Vitality. Reduces Max PP by 80 for each hand enhanced with mana. (160 MP for both hands) Costs 4 PP/second to maintain for each hand enhanced with mana. (8MP/s for both hands) Current level effects: +82% of Magic Attack added to unarmed attack.
Jack: ¡®So looks like I was right. It is still not good as mana blade, although my familiarity and higher level of unarmed mastery should help to bridge the gap.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Now I need to develop some skill to slow them while they shimmer in melee range. I wish I had Gravity affinity¡­ would make them a lot simpler to deal with.¡¯ This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Jack again entered a meditative trance and pondered on a way to slow the striped lizards. He had force, soul, void and fire affinities to work with. Since he couldn¡¯t ponder a way to directly shape a spell to slow a fast moving target, he pondered the laws of physics applicable in real life. Asunder Online added mana and gave everything a fantasy twist, but the underlying principles of physics were still effective in game, at least to a degree. Jack was well versed with Thermodynamics. Kinetic Energy (or Force in game) and Thermal Energy (or Fire in game) were essentially two aspects of a single form of energy. Thermal Energy was essentially kinetic energy, but on a microscopic level instead of macroscopic level. A baseball launched by a pitcher followed an easily predicted trajectory by Newton¡¯s laws of motion. (A/N: Grossly oversimplifying here as there are frictional forces, air resistance etc. which do contribute significantly). Whereas when microscopic bodies, like the molecules of a gas or fluid vibrated, to predict the motion of each molecule was impractical, and engineers are more interested in the effects on an overall scale. This may not be intuitive, as many associate heat (or thermal energy) with fire, but kinetic energy, can produce heat. The simplest example of this is when people rub their palms vigorously, the skin on their palms get slightly hotter! Thermodynamics is a branch of physics, which mainly deals with heat and temperature and its relationship with energy and work. Thermodynamics introduces the concept of Entropy. Entropy is essentially the measure of a number of ways a system may arrange itself. The hotter a system, the higher entropy it has, as it can arrange itself in larger number of ways. For example, compare water with ice. Both are systems of H20. Ice is a solid which arranges the molecules of H20 in an orderly crystalline state. Water, on the other hand is a fluid, and slight disturbances can cause the H20 molecules in water to move in relation to each other. (A/N: Again grossly oversimplifying here as there are many applications of thermodynamics, and entropy is a complicated and powerful concept in physics and engineering to say the least.). While Jack was pondering the relationship between kinetic energy, thermal energy and entropy; an idea occurred to him. He could perceive the mana in his surroundings. He could theoretically absorb the force and fire mana from his surroundings. Anything entering this field near him should be slowed down. He then exited his meditative trance, and concentrated on the mana in his surroundings. Usually, he would channel mana from his body (of a certain element) to the surroundings to shape spell effects. He attempted the reverse. He imagined sucking in the mana from his surroundings and channeling it to the fire and force mana clusters in his body. Initially, Jack wasn¡¯t successful. But after hours of trial and error, he could maintain a stable rate at which he was absorbing the surrounding mana into his fire and force physical mana centers. The air around him was stagnant and noticeably chilly, while Jack himself felt invigorated and energetic! Jack: ¡®Looks like this aura is stabilized. This should result in a new spell. I wonder what skill the AI named it? Let me see the notification log.¡¯
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Entropic LeechBeginner100.00%
Your control over Mana and your deep understanding about the nature of force and heat allows you to absorb similarly attuned mana from your surroundings. This allows you to slow nearby enemies while simultaneously replenishing your PP. This spell is more effective on foes having a higher fire affinity, while being less effective on foes having a higher ice affinity. The closer your foes, the more severe the effects of this spell are. However, maintaining this shaped spell is taxing, and it reduces your total magical attack by 5% when this spell is sustained. Current level effects: Reduces maximum PP by 500 when spell is sustained Slows everyone in an AoE of 3m around the caster. Recovers 6 PP every 5 seconds for everyone slowed. PP recovered and magnitude of slow effect is further modified by the target''s fire/ice affinity and proximity to the caster.
Jack: ¡®Fuck Yeah! Not only do I get a slow AoE spell, I also get some PP regen! Well the -500 max PP and -5% to magic attack is less than ideal, but this spell synergizes nicely with unarmed attacks. The closer the foe is, the slower it is, and the more I can hit it! Haha you striped lizards better watch out!¡¯ He had long since recovered his HP, and had developed two new spells to boot, of which Entropic Leech had pretty unique effects! Jack then re-entered the second level of the infested caves and proceeded to test his new spells. Soon, he encountered another group of four lizards in the distance. Three of them were the giant green ones, and one of them was the striped one. Jack activated Entropic Leech and fired void bolts from both his arms at the lizards. Each of his void bolts hit the clumsy giant green lizards for around 25% HP. While they were charging at him, he prepared a void breath and unleashed it, catching all the lizards, except the striped one in its AoE. The void breath caused the giant lizards to lose a third of their Hp leaving most of them with less than half HP. As the lizards entered the AoE of his Entropic Leech spell, he let out a soul scream, disrupting the striped lizard from its shimmering spell. While the lizards were disoriented and slowed, he activated force claws and attacked the giant green lizards. His force claws were slightly more effective than a critical force blast, with each slash damaging the green lizards for around 12% HP! Jack: ¡®Nice, I get almost as much damage as a force blade, but my attacks are faster and more natural. I am no swordsman, that¡¯s for sure.¡¯ Jack had finished two of the green lizards in quick succession by the time his soul scream wore off. The striped lizard shimmered, and rushed at him while the green lizard attempted to bite him. Jack dodged the green lizard without much difficulty. The striped lizard was noticeably slowed by his Entropic leech as it approached him shimmering. Jack quickly sidestepped out of the way and finished the sluggish green lizard with three swipes of his force claws enhanced arms. The shimmering striped lizard was now engaging Jack alone. However, its speed was manageable, even in its shimmering state, with the effects of his entropic leech spell. Even though he had just learned this spell, the lizards had decent fire affinity and fire resistance, thus making them more vulnerable to Entropic Leech! He nimbly dodged another attack from the striped lizard and countered with a swipe of his hand. The striped lizard was noticeably less resilient than its green counterpart and it lost almost 20% HP for every mana claw enhanced unarmed attack! In a short time jack disposed of the striped lizard and deactivated his mana claws. Jack: ¡®Hehe. A bit of slow, shows these striped lizards who is the boss. This means that I won¡¯t need to pump too many stat points into agility if I level up my Entropic Leech! I should keep it on all the time while I am in this dungeon.¡¯ Jack: ¡®it will probably be a waste turning it off, and regenerating 500PP just to lose it again on activating this. My offense potential is slightly lowered due to the -5% magic attack, but that is more than acceptable!¡¯ Jack: ¡®Now I guess I should slaughter more of these lizards and find some of their eggs. I wonder how a hard boiled lizard egg tastes. It probably won¡¯t be as awesome as that big brown crow¡­ I will find out soon enough anyway.¡¯ Resolving to use this combo of Entropic leech and Force Claws, and try out newer disgusting monster dishes, Jack proceeded deeper in the second level of the infested caves. -------------------------------------- A/N: I will probably be able to squeeze out another chapter the coming weekend, unless some RL stuff comes up. And how did you penguins like Entropic Leech? Mana claw was suggested to me in a PM, and I found a way to integrate it into the story! Hope you penguins enjoyed this chapter! Please do rate and provide feedback! --------------------------------------- Chapter 021 (Proofread) Chapter 021 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full credits to Mecani for proofreading. Please give him positive ratings for his hard work ------------------------------------------ Jack continued decimating the giant lizards in the second level of the Infested Caves. He lured them with void bolts and followed it up with a void breath. If the lizards survived and were in melee range, he would rely on entropic leech and soul scream to slow/disorient them, while dispatching them with force claw enhanced unarmed attacks. It took longer to deal with each group of giant lizard. However, Jack had to spend less PP as he partially relied on melee attacks and his Entropic Leech slightly boosted his PP regeneration. Furthermore, with Entropic Leech active, dodging the clumsy green lizards was a joke. Jack only lost some HP when each group had two or more of the shimmering striped lizards. There were around thirty to forty groups of giant lizards with each group having three to seven giant lizards. Despite the overall lower number of foes, it took him almost 10 hours to clean the second level of the dungeon. However, Jack still hadn¡¯t found any lizard eggs. The shimmering stripped lizards, despite having lower defense and HP than the green lizards, were higher leveled foes, around lv60! This resulted in the infested caves being superb for grinding levels for Jack; given his skill set was suited to disabling and countering the melee lizards. On the flipside, he gained barely any loot from the dungeon. Jack: ¡®Where the fuck, are the lizard eggs stored? Although I shouldn¡¯t complain¡­this is some pretty awesome exp. Since this is a quest related dungeon named ¡®Infested Caves¡¯ at that, I doubt the monsters will respawn like other dungeons do.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Ahead is the entrance to the third level I think. I still have a few hours in game before I have to call in sick.¡¯ Jack proceeded down the entrance to the next level of the infested caves. Instead of arriving in a large tunnel which interconnected a series of caves, Jack arrived in a single large cave. There were around thirty clusters of eggs strewn about. Each egg was around 4 to 6 feet high and 2 to 3 feet wide, and each cluster had around three to seven eggs. In the distance, there was a massive reptilian lizard curled around something. It was copper in color and was sheathed in an aura of purple ethereal flames. Jack estimated that it was around 20 feet long from head to tail and almost as high as him, while it was curled on the cave floor! It was staring at Jack, not making a move at all. Jack: ¡®Oh boy, Is that a boss? Those fucking kobolds want me to steal and smash eggs while mommy lizard is watching? Nope Nope Nope.¡¯ Jack: ¡®It seems cautious, maybe it won¡¯t attack until I attack its eggs? Its reptilian eyes seem extremely intelligent. I will try talking to it¡­ worst case scenario I am dead. I definitely won¡¯t be able to deal with it if it wants to kill me anyways.¡¯ Jack heavily depended on his Danger Sense skill to scout out hostilities. Though it wasn¡¯t precise¡­it gave him a rough idea of the threat level he was about to face. Right now his danger sense was indicating him to be extremely cautious, and run away if the giant fire lizard attacks. Unknown to Jack, when other players depended on system assist, they would see notification boxes pop up over monsters/NCPs who could be killed without gain in infamy. These notification boxes showed the exact level, HP and the type of monster/NCP. Since Jack didn¡¯t depend on system assist, he didn¡¯t know the exact level, HP or type of monster and at best could roughly estimate how much % damage his attack would do after it was successful. The Danger Sense that he had developed in game acted as a replacement for the notification boxes which other system assisted players could view. Danger Sense had one major advantage over system assist for notification boxes, apart from the minor HP boost. This was that, while notification boxes showed what could be killed without infamy gain, his Danger Sense subskill of survival would give him a rough estimate of the relative power and level of hostility of creatures he encountered or was about to encounter. This was the reason why Jack considered alternative non-violent approach with the kobolds, when his danger sense indicated that they weren¡¯t automatically hostile towards him. Other players would see a notification box with the level, HP and monster type (kobold warrior/kobold shaman for example) and were conditioned to treat them as nothing but mindless monsters to grind for xp and loot, thus potentially losing out on quests and various other rewards. Jack cautiously approached the massive flaming lizard, standing a healthy 10 feet away from the flaming lizard. The humongous lizard was still staring at him, probably waiting for the foolish traveler to attack it. Despite the distance, Jack was literally sweating due to the heat radiated from the lizard. He dared not activate Entropic leech to cool off the surrounding air, as the boss lizard might take it for an offensive move and kill him; locking him out for 24 RL hours, thus automatically failing the pest control quest. Jack: ¡°Umm, hello? Can you talk? I really don¡¯t want to die, so please don¡¯t attack me.¡± Giant Flaming Lizard: *telepathically* ¡®Yes I can ¡°talk¡±. Do you take me for some dumb beast? Most humans I encountered are simply too dumb for their own good and attacked me in groups. Obviously, I killed them for annoying me. It is good that you know your place, traveler.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Yeah, umm poor them. Those idiots certainly deserved it if they dared to think that they could possibly be a threat to you. Anyway you are talking in my head¡­that¡¯s like so cool. Can you read minds and stuff?¡± *enthusiastic* Giant Flaming Lizard: *telepathically* ¡®Not unless you give me permission. If I try to force it, you will be dead before I can read beyond your surface thoughts. Why are you here anyway? You clearly killed a lot of my weakest whelps on the way here.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Umm sorry about that. I didn¡¯t know they were children of such a mighty creature as you. They were quite weak, honestly. Your weakest whelps were hunting too much of the surrounding wildlife, and a nearby tribe of kobolds were going hungry.¡± Giant Flaming Lizard: *telepathically* ¡®Ah, so my weakest whelps were strong enough to disrupt the local balance here in this plane? You have my apologies for that. Looks like in this batch, no one worthy of my inheritance will be born once again. And don¡¯t refer to me as mighty creature; you may call me ¡°Lady Salamander¡±. You are unworthy to know my common name and it is a privilege for someone as weak as you to be even conversing with me.¡¯ *pleased at Jack¡¯s flattery* Jack: *bowing* ¡°Of course lady salamander. Please do excuse me for my ignorance. And what do you mean by this plane?¡± Jack: ¡®I best not piss her off. One snort and her flames will be enough to disintegrate me.¡¯ Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®So someone with enough wisdom not to attack me, is actually unaware of the planes of existence? No matter, you will know in time, if fate wills it. Now I am a bit bored, and I can remain here for a maximum of three days. Why not keep me company, traveler? I will give you something worthwhile for it. Now explain in detail the exact situation, which resulted in our meeting.¡¯ Jack: ¡®That somehow sounds more of an order than a request¡­ Best listen to her, might get something useful and I plan to skip work on Monday anyways. Ah so that¡¯s why the quest had a time limit of four days, the boss mommy is leaving.¡¯ He then explains his encounter with the kobolds, the meeting with their chief /head shaman. He then explained their request about clearing the lizards and bringing some of their eggs and the promise of their reward of meeting their father spirit. The kobolds were having trouble with the poison and fire resistance of the giant lizards. He also explained how he hoped for a powerful spirit contract to boost his arsenal of spells. Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Dismiss all thoughts about giving my eggs to those filthy creatures. So you aren¡¯t a shaman, yet seek to contract with a spirit? What are you exactly?¡¯ Jack: ¡°Of course, Lady Salamander. I am just a humble Bhikku.¡± Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Haha, an initiate of the Brahman Sangha? This is interesting. Standards have fallen far it seems, for a pathetic worm like you to be inducted in the order. What exactly do you hope to gain from a spirit contract? Being a bhikku means you can shape your own spells freely without constraints of other commonly utilized spell casting systems. And considering that you made it far enough to meet me with such a low level of power, you must have some nifty spells yourself.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Oh, so she knows about Brahman Sangha? It looks like this sect is quite well known among the upper echelons of power in Asunder Online¡¯ You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Jack: ¡°While that is true, I want some sort of summoning spell¡­and perhaps a short range teleportation spell. I honestly cannot fathom how to go about developing them.¡± Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Haha good judgment. They are the most complex branches of spellcasting, for most races who cannot shape mana instinctively. How about you show me your spells? You won¡¯t be able to hurt me even if you try. Don¡¯t hit any of my eggs.¡¯ Jack then proceeded to demonstrate his spells, starting from his unarmed/melee enhancement spells, to his spiral mana bolt, soul strike, mana breath and soul scream. Jack: ¡°And Lady Salamander, this is my newest spell, and the one I am most proud of. I call it ¡®Entropic Leech¡¯. It creates a small aura around me, which slows down everyone except me, and helps me regenerate my Prana! It is more effective on beings with a higher fire affinity, and less effective on beings with a higher ice affinity.¡± *activates Entropic leech* Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Impressive insight traveler to have already unlocked your Prana at your pathetic level of power and mental discipline. Looks like the Brahman Sangha inducted you mainly for your potential, and not for your accomplishments. That Entropic Leech spell also means you must have mana control and not just mana manipulation. You are worthy enough for me to remember your name. State it.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Oops, I need to be careful with my words¡­but looks like it was favorable in this case anyway. Might as well keep Entropic Leech on, though it seems to make barely any difference with the heat she is radiating.¡¯ Jack: ¡°I am known as Jack, Lady Salamander. If it is not too much to presume, I have a request.¡± Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Speak up Jack.¡¯ Jack: ¡°If most of your whelps are weak, can I fight with them once they hatch? It will help me improve my strength.¡± Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Hmm, alright as long as all their scales aren¡¯t similar in color to mine. Although don¡¯t you dare to harm any unhatched eggs. Every few hours roughly one cluster should hatch.¡¯ Jack: ¡°I am grateful for this privilege Lady Salamander. In a few hours though, I have to leave to my world to tend some affairs, I seek permission to leave for a while. I will however return after that.¡± Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Of course Jack. Ahh one cluster just hatched. All of them are pathetically weak. Fight with them and amuse me. Don¡¯t use spells which might harm the other eggs accidentally. I will be¡­displeased.¡¯ Jack: ¡®So that means I can use unarmed enhancements, Soul strike, Soul scream and Entropic Leech. Well I should be able to handle them with those anyway. What an alien mindset she has. She is willing to cull a lot of her weakest children just for some amusement, but that just means more xp for me! She is very protective of her unhatched eggs though, and I certainly do not want to see her ¡°displeased¡±.¡¯ A group of five giant lizards approached him. Three of them were green, and two of them were the shimmering copper stripped ones. However, they were a lot smaller than the lizards he had encountered till now; each one was at max four feet long. Jack activated Entropic Leech and Force Claws and dispatched them without any trouble in under a minute. Jack continued chatting with Lady Salamander about his journey in Asunder Online and his situation in Real Life. He was extremely careful so as to not reveal any of his spirit eater abilities. Occasionally a cluster of lizards hatched, and Lady Salamander would restrict him from using certain spells while fighting them, turning it into some sort of game. She never forbade him from using Entropic Leech though. Soon it was time for his morning parkour circuit, but he decided to skip it today as he was supposed to be sick. It wouldn¡¯t be good if someone from work accidentally spotted him and reported to his boss. He used the in game phone linking feature for the first time, and texted his parkour group that he wasn¡¯t feeling well and wouldn¡¯t be joining them today, and continued his interaction with Lady Salamander. After a couple of hours in game, Jack exited the dungeon and climbed a nearby tree, before logging out. He called in sick. It wasn¡¯t too much trouble convincing his boss, as he rarely took any sick days. Before logging back in, Jacob decided to freshen up and he took a shower. He was also feeling too lazy to cook a proper meal, so he just made a sandwich of store bought corned beef and scrambled eggs, garnished with BBQ sauce. Jacob logged into Asunder Online, and continued entertaining Lady Salamander, periodically fighting groups of juvenile giant lizards with her restriction of spells. Once, she forbade him to use entropic leech and Jack lost almost two thirds of his HP dealing with that particular group of 6 juvenile giant lizards. This seemed to amuse her to no end. Fortunately, she didn¡¯t restrict him from using Entropic leech again. None of the lizards yet had the full copper coloring of Lady Salamander. Jack exited the dungeon, to log out only for lunch, dinner and his ablutions; logging back into Asunder Online in FuDi mode after dinner. After almost two and a half days in game, only a single cluster of eggs was left, and it was almost time for Lady Salamander to depart. Jack used up almost all of his stock of rabbit meat jerky to fill his satiety. He dared not eat the lizard corpses in front of lady Salamander. Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®It was interesting knowing you Jack. The time when you were half dead because I forbade you to use Entropic Leech was interesting. You were running around like an insect using your soul strikes to potshot the whelps. That was the most amusing thing I witnessed in the last decade. Train that spell well. It seems to have enormous potential. Naturally though at its current level, I can disrupt it with barely a thought.¡¯ Jack: *bowing* ¡°I am glad to be of service, Lady Salamander.¡± Jack: ¡®These past three days in game, I was completely in her power and her personal bitch. There is no shame in being a bitch to someone as mighty as her. And it is just a monster NCP and no one from RL will know anyways. I do hope I never get into a relationship with someone who can treat me like that though.¡¯ *consoles himself mentally* Jack: ¡®Also why it, that most of the quests I take part in doesn¡¯t involve just simply killing stuff and looting them? The only exception was the spider extermination with the guards¡¯ Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Since you were interesting enough, I will give you a parting gift and a few words of advice before I depart this plane. Go to the last cluster of eggs and carefully place all of them near me.¡¯ Jack obeyed her and went towards the last cluster of eggs. He carefully placed them in his inventory and deposited them near Lady Salamander¡¯s maw and retreated backwards, as the ambient temperature was too high for comfort, even with his Entropic Leech activated. He observed with his spirit senses that she breathed out a bit of mana. The mana reacted differently with each egg, to Jack¡¯s spirit senses, though he wasn¡¯t able to decipher its significance. She observed the eggs for a while and touched one of them with her gigantic claws. For an instant, the ethereal purple flames coating her covered the egg, transforming it into the size of a small pebble. The egg looked completely morphed, and now looked like a polished pebble of translucent jade, with a fiery red spark barely visible in its center. Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Take the egg which I transformed, and listen carefully. Do not reveal my presence to anyone, including the kobolds or your masters in the Brahman Sangha. When the kobolds allow you to meet their father spirit refuse any concoction, if they offer you one. It will only muddle your mind, and you will need your wits about you when bargaining with spirits.¡¯ Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Instead, hold this gem I granted you in your hands and enter the portal. It should protect you from the ravages of wherever you are transported for a while, as long as it is an elemental plane associated with fire. I wish you best of luck with your spirit contract. Now leave, I need to prepare to depart this plane and I do not wish any witnesses.¡¯ Jack: *stores the egg-gem in his inventory and bows humbly* ¡°Of course Lady Salamander. I am extremely grateful for your gift and I will strive to be worthy of it.¡± Lady Salamander: *telepathically* ¡®Leave. Now.¡¯ He jumped at the last mental communication, and ran away at full speed till he exited the entire dungeon, not caring for his PP at all. Only when he had exited the Infested Caves, did he dare to rest to regenerate his PP. Jack: ¡®Oh boy, she didn¡¯t seem pleased at the last bit of flattery. But I got my reward, hope it is useful while meeting the father spirit. Guess I should go to meet one of the kobold sentries and complete this quest.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Pretty ironic, that the quest was titled ¡°Pest Control¡±. Lady Salamander viewed me nothing more than a ¡°pest¡± and ¡°controlled¡± me like her personal bitch for three days. I survived only because I didn¡¯t attack her, or her eggs and she found me amusing. The overlord AI sure likes it¡¯s inside jokes. On the bright side, I am level 60 now, almost lv 61! I will invest my stats after meeting with the fire spirit, depending on the type of spells I get. With the addition of entropic leech and force claws to my spell arsenal, I should be able to handle any monster on the way.¡¯ ---------------------------------------- A/N: So here is another Chapter! Last Chapter, my grammar was a bit lacking due to having to explain briefly the entropy/thermodynamic stuff, and it was bit of a rush job. Hopefully, this chapter has better grammar and is overall higher in quality. Tables and stuff comes after Jack deals with the father spirit. ---------------------------------------- Chapter 022 (Proofread) Chapter 022 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+). Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full credits to Mecani for Proofreading this chapter! Please give him positive ratings for his hard work! ------------------------------------------ It took Jack a few hours to reach the hill where the friendly kobold tribe resided. He soon found a kobold sentry, who lead him into kobold wonderland, and guided him to the Chief¡¯s chamber with the large fuel-less bonfire. Kobold Chief: ¡°Welcome Human Jack. Did you kill the lizardss?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes Chief. I killed all the lizards I found in the Infested caves.¡± Kobold Chief: ¡°What about the eggss?¡± Jack: *sighing* ¡°Unfortunately chief I couldn¡¯t save a single egg. The last level had the boss mommy lizard who kept all the eggs near her. She kept on hatching her eggs during the battle.¡± Jack: ¡°I had to retreat to the previous level multiple times after killing newly hatched lizards. I am lucky to not have died. All lizards are dead however.¡± Jack: *shameful expression* ¡°I may have missed three-four eggs which were unhatched during the boss battle. But you must understand, the battle was terrifying for me and I was almost dead multiple times. Your warriors and shamans can handle the cleanup; I am not going near that place for a long time.¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°That iss acceptable, Human Jack. Wait, while we make preparations.¡± Jack then waited for almost an hour, as the kobold shamans barked and hissed among themselves preparing to send Jack to their father spirit. Soon the preparations were done. There were two kobold shamans with what looked like rough leather drums. Near the fuel-less bonfire, there was a pelt of bear skin on the floor. The drum wielding shamans were standing beside it. One of the kobold shamans instructed Jack to sit on the bear skin pelt. The Kobold Chief approached Jack with a clay cup in its hand. The liquid was swirling in the cup in hypnotic patterns. It was of brownish-red color, very similar to that of dried blood. Kobold Chief: ¡°Drink thiss. It will aid you in your journey to meet the Father Sspirit.¡± Jack: ¡®So Lady Salamander cautioned me against drinking stuff. Since I have her egg-gem gift, might as well trust her all the way. Seeing how much she valued her unhatched eggs, I doubt she would use up one of just to fuck with me. Not that she requires tricks to fuck with me anyway.¡¯ Jack: ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary Chief. I wish to make the journey on my own terms, instead of relying on your concoctions.¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°You ssure human jack? I cannot guarantee your safety, if you don¡¯t drink thiss.¡± Jack: ¡°If I die, then so be it. My decision is final.¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°Sso be it, we will respect your wishess. The sshamans on the sside will begin playing the tune of our sspirit father. Focuss your mind on it, and once in rhythm you must walk through the bonfire.¡± Jack: ¡®So I should meditate on the drum beats? Ok¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡°How do I know when I will be ready¡­and how long will it take?¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°You just will. As for how long, that depends on you. It could be anywhere up to ten hours. Are you ready?¡± Jack: *grasps the egg gem in his left hand and sits cross-legged on the pelt* ¡°I am ready Chief.¡± The chief Kobold barks an order, and immediately the drum wielding shamans start playing the drums, while Jack starts meditating. The kobold shamans were playing a steady rhythm with the drums. However, Jack could sense that the drum on his left was slightly out of phase with the drum on his right. While meditating, he could slowly felt the drums beating in sync and he felt a strange energy in his mana centers. It was as if all his mana centers were slowly vibrating with the rhythm of the drums. After a while, he felt that all his mana centers were bursting with energy. During his meditative trance, he felt an almost irresistible urge to move. It was as if Jack¡¯s body was on autopilot. His head slowly started swaying back and forth as he gradually stood up. Still swaying back and forth with the rhythm of the drums, he walked forward with his eyes closed still meditating. He approached the fuel-less bonfire and instead of stifling heat he felt earlier, Jack felt as if he was approaching the warm embrace of a lover. As Jack stepped through the spirit portal without harm, the Kobold Chief and most of the shamans were shocked, to say the least. It had taken Jack only 45 minutes in the meditative trance to resonate with the beats of the spirit drums. Chief Kobold: ¡®That human Jack iss terrifying and amazing! Even for me, the mosst accomplished shaman of our tribe, it takes almosst half an hour to commune with Father Sspirit¡­ and that too with the aid of the sspirit elixir. For someone visiting Father Sspirit without the aid of the sspirit elixir under five hourss iss nothing short of a miracle¡¯ Jack felt the rhythmic vibration from his mana centers slowly dampen as he opened his eyes. Before his trance, he was sitting cross-legged in the kobold dwelling. But now, he was standing on what looked like a field of fire! But there was something strange. As far as he could see, orange-red flames dominated the entire landscape. However, three meters around him, there were no colors visible! It was as if he was leeching the fiery energy from his surrounds into him. Jack also felt ecstatic and invigorated, like he usually felt after eating a soul!¡¯ Jack: ¡®Could it be that subconsciously, my Spirit Eater abilities are leaching spirit energy from the surroundings? And what is Lady Salamander¡¯s egg-gem doing?¡¯ Jack focused his attention on the gem in his hands. It was throbbing in sync with his heartbeat. With each throb, a grayish omnidirectional pulse was radiating from the gem. As the pulse radiated outward from the monochromatic field around him, Jack could make out that it was the same violet fire which coated Lady Salamander¡¯s body. Jack: ¡®So looks like I have two layers of defense. One is my spirit eater abilities passively leaching spirit energy around me, the other is the egg-gem radiating Lady Salamander¡¯s power, pushing the orange flames outwards.¡¯ Jack: ¡®This gem seems to have a massive internal store of mana, and is slowly radiating it. I wonder what will happen if I channel fire mana through it?¡¯ Jack: ¡®So I guess I am in some elemental plane of fire? Where exactly am I supposed to go now? Meh might as well pick up a direction and start walking.¡¯ Jack started walking through the plains of fire. After a few minutes of aimless wandering, suddenly countless fire spirits materialized around him! They were of various shapes, the border of their forms constantly shifting and morphing like flames. Many of them looked nothing more than animated blobs of fire, while some resembled flaming humanoid figures. But the majority of them were in the shapes of beasts. Jack was completely surrounded. However, he noticed that all of them were out of reach of the violet fire Lady Salamander¡¯s egg-gem was radiating. He felt as if all the spirits were furious at him. One of the blobs of fire couldn¡¯t restrain itself and it rushed at him. As soon as it was in reach of the pulse of violet flames, it retreated and Jack could hear a mental scream of agony. After the mental cry of agony subsided, he heard a voice in his head which sounded like crackling flames. He wasn¡¯t able to determine which spirit was addressing him. Fire Spirit: *telepathically* ¡®Leave this plane, abomination! You are not welcome here.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Abomination? I just came to meet your ruler.¡± Fire Spirit: *telepathically* ¡®You are a Spirit Eater. Don¡¯t pretend otherwise. Abominations such as you would come here only to feed on the lifeblood of our plane.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Yes I am a Spirit Eater, but I do not wish to feed on this plane. I was gifted this gem see? It was guaranteed to grant me safe passage. You know that I am very weak and am only surviving because of this gem. Take me to your ruler, and let him decide my fate.¡± Fire Spirit: *telepathically* ¡®Nonsense! An abomination such as you is not fit to walk here, much less meet the eldest of us! Your protection cannot last forever. When it expires, we will rip your soul to shreds.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Oh boy. Looks like I am in a pinch.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Is this how you treat envoys? You give me no choice then.¡± Jack then channeled fire mana into the egg-gem. The gem acted like a catalyst, and there was an explosive pulse of violet flames radiating from him. Even in the monochromatic field near him, purple ripples were visible, as they expanded outwards. This pushed the spirits a few meters back, and filled his head with multiple screams of agony. Soon, the spirits approached him and he was about to augment the gem¡¯s capabilities with his own mana again. Before he could do so, a rift around 5 meters in radius appeared above him, and all of the spirits stopped in their tracks. A huge hand made of ethereal orange flames appeared and enclosed Jack, forming a fist. The flaming hand was unaffected by the violet pulses from Lady Salamander¡¯s egg-gem. Furthermore, the radiance of the flames was dazzling. Even the monochromatic leeching field around him was unable to dim the color of the flames in the slightest. Jack: ¡®Well fuck me. Looks like one of the big boys noticed me. What the fuck is going to happen to me now?¡¯ The hand of flame dematerialized and Jack was transported to another location. He observed his surroundings and noticed that both the monochromatic field and the pulse of violet flames were contained. His body seemed to be coated in a layer of ethereal fire. But he didn¡¯t feel hot in the slightest. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. He was in what appeared to be a throne room. Around half a dozen meters ahead of him, there was a humanoid figure completely made of light orange fire sitting on a throne of flames. The figure radiated an obscene amount of power, and Jack held no delusion of his chances. He carefully approached the powerful fire spirit, until suddenly, lips formed on what appeared to be the spirit¡¯s face, and it spoke in an ancient voice radiating authority. Hearing this voice, Jack could not help but kneel and bow. He felt that just that the mere pressure of the voice would cause him to faint. Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Welcome to my domain Spirit Eater. You caused quite a ruckus there. I trust that you will behave here, unless you want me to be annoyed. That would be very unfavorable for you. What brings you here then, Spirit Eater?¡± Jack: ¡°I was hoping for a spirit contract?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: *laughs* ¡°A spirit contract, with me? What makes you think I would entertain such a notion, and from you nonetheless?¡± Jack: ¡®And the bargaining begins¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡°Well many reasons. You are powerful enough to just burn away my soul from this plane¡­whatever that is.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°While that is true, maybe I just want to toy with you?¡± Jack: ¡°Well I am a traveler, so you can¡¯t kill or trap me permanently, so isn¡¯t it for the best we have some sort of agreement?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°True, but like you eat spirits, I could eat away all your spiritual growth and reduce your level, to the day you were born in Terra, to deal with you.¡± Jack: ¡°But that would be a one-time deal. I could easily level up again and wreak havoc on the spirits present on Terra just to satiate my grudge. Besides, if we reach an agreement, you could restrict my spirit eating activities in exchange for a drop of your power.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Or I could rip out the abomination your soul is harboring and send you on your way.¡± Jack: ¡®I don¡¯t think it is joking. It is seriously considering that.¡¯ Jack: ¡°But wouldn¡¯t that consume more of your power than just granting me a bit of it, and leashing this ¡®abomination¡¯ in me?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°True. But abominations like you aren¡¯t held in favor by spirits like us for obvious reasons.¡± Jack: *displays the egg-gem to the Spirit* ¡°This gem is very significant, I wager. And I bet that it is the only reason you didn¡¯t rip away the abomination in me and send me on my way. Let us cut the foreplay, and get right to it, shall we?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: *laughing* ¡°Making demands from me? If circumstances were slightly different, I wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to punish you thoroughly. However you speak the truth, and your position permits some insolence. I sense a certain dethatched dispassion from you, willing to do what it takes. You are willing to get the job done, despite costs which others would balk at. This makes you a potentially valuable piece to have. How about I state my terms?¡± Jack: ¡®Potentially valuable piece? Looks like I am but a mere pawn in the game of chess it wants to play using me¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡°Of course, mighty spirit.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Well then. The most important aspect of our pact is that you will allow me to chain the abomination festering in you. You cannot feed on elemental spirits, unless they are infected by The Blight.¡± Jack: ¡°The Blight? What is that supposed to be?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°If you are fortunate, you will remain ignorant of it for a long while.¡± Jack: ¡®The Blight? That sounds ominous. I don¡¯t think I will get a straight answer, so might as well move on.¡¯ Jack: ¡°What exactly do you mean by elemental spirits?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Thorough aren¡¯t you? By elemental spirits, I mean any spirit strongly attuned to the elements of fire, ice, water, wind, earth and lightning.¡± Jack: ¡°Souls of mortals and the undead are exempt from this restriction, no matter what element they are attuned to. Also if any elemental spirit is hostile, I should be able to use my full arsenal against them, including my Spirit Eater abilities.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Yes, mortal soul entities and undead constructs are exempt from this restriction. And I will mark you, so that no elemental spirit with even a hint of sanity will dare to attack you first.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm, that is reasonable. But, you should have an exception for elemental spirits who are willing to be devoured by me.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Why do you think any spirit would agree to be devoured and cease existing?¡± Jack: *smiles* ¡°Sometimes, existence itself can be the biggest burden one shoulders.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Simple, but profound words. Fine, I agree. My next term is that if you travel to planes other than the principal material plane, which is what you refer to as Terra, and encounter spirits of affinities other than the ones agreed upon; you will not feed on them unless they are hostile or are infected by The Blight.¡± Jack: ¡°Agreed. Naturally, those who wish to be devoured by me are exempt.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Done. My next term is that, you will not feed upon spirits in service to Gaia unless they are corrupted by The Blight. This is not negotiable, no matter the spirit¡¯s hostility or its wishes.¡± Jack: ¡°Yes, I agree.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°My next term is that in future, I may occasionally call upon you to render certain services. These will be within your abilities, or at least in the realm of possibility, and you cannot refuse these requests.¡± Jack: ¡°How often do you mean occasionally?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Only if the need is great. I doubt it will be more than once in few years though, in the worst case scenario.¡± Jack: ¡°That sounds vague, but I accept.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°You must place the gem of darkfire you possess in my care.¡± Jack: ¡®I expected as much. But why exactly does it covet this gem?¡¯ Jack: ¡°What exactly is the significance of this ¡®gem of darkfire¡¯ to you?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°That gem of darkfire, can be traded for favors from a certain influential faction of The Infernal Plane by beings such as me. After you seal the pact with me, it will be useless to you as you will be freely able to travel elemental planes without its protection.¡± Jack: ¡°Infernal plane? What do you mean by that?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°The Infernal plane is another plane of existence. However, it is one of the few planes which exist close to both the material planes and the spirit plane. Sort of a bridge between the material and spirit world, if you will¡± Jack: ¡®I think I am starting to understand. Material planes are constructed mainly of matter, and spirit planes are constructed mainly of consciousness. Terra is the Principal Material Plane, the main focus of existence if you will. And this plane is one of the spirit planes. Also this gem is some kind of currency? I should make it non-transferable then.¡¯ Jack: ¡°You can only use the gem to barter favor directly from that certain influential faction of the infernal plane. You cannot trade this gem for favor with other factions, or for favors on their behalf. You must also not use this favor against me.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Hmm, you drive a hard bargain. But you truly are impressive enough to possess it, so I will agree. And I have one last term. You will allow me to read through your memories.¡± Jack: ¡®Wait what¡­it wants to mind-fuck me?¡¯ Jack: ¡°Why?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°It is essential for a spirit pact. Only by knowing you, can I shape spells compatible with you.¡± Jack: ¡°Agreed. But you will restrict yourself to my memories of Terra and her associated planes, and not my own home world. And for all this, what do I get in return?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Fine. In return for these terms, I will grant you a bit of my power. You may imagine a single powerful spell, or multiple weak spells. And I will shape them you. The exact nature of spells depends on you and your imagination. However, all spells thus shaped must be attuned to my affinities.¡± Jack: ¡°What are your affinities?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Mainly they are soul and fire. A pact with me will also allow you to use the special affinity Soulfire instinctively in your other spells.¡± Jack: ¡°What exactly do you mean by Soulfire?¡¯ Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Soulfire is both fire and soul affinity acting in harmony. It only damages hostile targets, but makes their souls burn with flames.¡± Jack; ¡®That sounds somewhat OP. Ally friendly with the damage potential of fire? Nice!¡¯ Jack: ¡°You are obviously gaining far more than me in this pact, and I have one final term.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°And that is?¡± Jack: ¡°In the future, certain residents of Terra may become my followers. I wish for you to consider them for spirit pacts or impart them a couple of gifts. I will be your pawn, but I too may need powerful pawns of my own. A little boost from you will benefit both of us greatly.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Hmm, that is quite open-ended. I will consider other residents of Terra that you bring, but whether I agree to a pact or gift with them is solely my discretion. Be sure to bring interesting and worthy followers, or as a penalty I will strip a few levels worth of experience from you. But if I form pacts or bestow your followers with my power, I will grant you additional gifts.¡± Jack: ¡°Exactly how much is ¡®a few levels¡¯?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Let it be, 10% of your level at the time of introduction. Now do we have a pact?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes mighty spirit. I want a summoning spell. So what should I do now?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Enter meditation, and imagine all aspects of your summoning spell. I will read your surface thoughts during it. Once the concept of your summoning spell is crystalized, you may move on to the next spell you desire. However, the more spells you wish for, the lesser is each spell¡¯s power as I will only gift you a fixed amount of my power. After this stage, you grant me permission to read your memories on Terra, and the pact between us is finalized. Now meditate on your desired spells, and inform me once you are ready to seal the pact.¡± Jack: ¡®This is it. The bargaining is done. I should be utmost focused on what kind of summoning spell I want now and meditate on it.¡¯ ------------------------------------ A/N: Well, I had some free time. So here you go, another chapter! This chapter is by far, the most conversation heavy chapter I have written. But this is an important crossroads of the plot, so I wrote the detailed conversation instead of just summarizing long conversations like I did, for example with Lady Salamander. ---------------------------------- Chapter 023 (Proofread) Chapter 023 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+). Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full thanks to Mecani for proofreading this chapter! ------------------------------------------ After the tiresome bargaining with the powerful fire spirit, Jack entered a meditative trance pondering on what kind of summon he wanted. It would have affinity to fire and soul, according to what the fire spirit had said. He wondered for a while on what form he wanted his summon to take. Finally, he decided to start with something familiar, and modify it from there. One of the most iconic anime of his childhood was Pok¨¦mon. He didn¡¯t care about the thousands of new Pok¨¦mon, which were released over time, but he had a special place in his heart for the original 150 Pok¨¦mon. The most iconic fire Pok¨¦mon was Charmander, and its evolutions Charmeleon and Charizard. Jack started with Charmander, but modified it. He gave it a slimmer belly and longer limbs. He also covered its body in thick scales, and removed the flame on its tail. He also gave it claws and teeth from the giant lizards he had fought. The end result was a four feet tall reptilian with powerful, if small, claws and fangs, its entire body was covered with though looking scales and it had muscular yet supple limbs. He then imagined the kind of attacks it could do. He modeled an enhancement for its claw attacks, based on his Mana Claws skill, the difference being that instead of a choice of elements, he restricted it to just fire, forming the enhancement Fiery Claws. He also modeled a breath attack for his summon based on his mana breath, but limited it to the special affinity soulfire, thus forming Soulfire Breath. Jack also imagined his pet using soulfire to enhance its movement and attack speed. He named this physical enhancement as Blazing Swiftness. He concluded this form of his summon with a powerful, physical only attack with its tail, which he named Tail-whip. Jack then moved on to imagine the next form of his summon. He increased the size of his summon to seven feet, and gave it harder scales and more muscles. This form of his summon would inherit all the attacks of the Charmander form. He added Soul Strike and Soul Scream to its spell arsenal. The final form of his summon was modeled on Charizard, but it was very similar to the enhancements of its previous form and was around eleven feet tall. He imagined his summon to be strong enough to fly while he was perched in the gap between its shoulder and neck. For the additional attack, he imagined a powerful wing buffet, which would blast everyone near to it with soulfire damage and the resulting winds would cause everyone to be knocked back. He then imagined the summon growing along with him. Its level would be equal to his level, and its stats would depend on his. As the summon skill tiered up, the different forms would be available. He named his summon as ¡®Charlie¡¯, since it was very easy to associate Charlie with the Charmander Pok¨¦mon and its evolutions. Jack wanted a single summon spell, to have multiple options, as the fire spirit had warned him about multiple spells reducing each individual spell¡¯s power. So he designed the spell the best he could, borrowing the concept of his summon from Pok¨¦mon. He hoped that he had designed a powerful, yet flexible summon. Jack then exited his meditative trance and addressed the OP fire spirit. Jack: ¡°You got that? I wish for the summon to grow with me in power.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Yes, your imagination was very sharp and good work modeling its attacks! I have enough mental imagery to shape your summoning spell. It will have a long cool down due to its power. Though I must say, you seem extremely fond of this ¡®Pok¨¦mon¡¯.¡± Jack: *laughs* ¡°Yes. Some very good childhood memories are associated with it.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Now it is time for me to delve in your mind and seal our pact. It might be painful, and you may pass out. For best results, I recommend you stay lucid. Also, due to the nature of your summoning spell, there might be certain side effects which I cannot fully predict. So shall we seal the deal?¡± Jack: ¡®Why do I get the feeling that the side effects will come to bite me in the ass? Too late to back out now anyway.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Yes.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°Good then come near me. Steel yourself.¡± Jack obeyed the OP fire spirit, and kneeled down in front of its throne. The OP fire spirit placed one of its hands on his head. The spirit began delving into his mind. Jack felt an uncomfortable, but manageable pain in his head, as the spirit seemingly reviewed all his memories in Asunder Online. Occasionally he saw hyper speed flashbacks of certain incidents. He could also feel a link to a formidable psyche, whose foreign nature completely escaped him. It was just glimpses of the surface thoughts of the fire spirit. It seemed amused at how Jack had gained his Spirit Eater abilities from the Tortured Soul in the catacombs and his promotion to Bhikku. It also paid particular attention to his next act of spirit eating on the wannabe lich. It also paid particular attention to his domination by Lady Salamander, and Jack thought that he actually heard a chuckle. Soon, the dull pain receded from his head as the OP fire spirit prepared to bestow a portion of its powers to him. The spirit placed one of his flaming fingers just below his left eye, on his face. Jack suddenly felt as if lava was flowing from the flaming finger. The lava was agonizing and Jack screamed on the top of his lungs, but he was unable to move away. The lava spread through his entire body, and he struggled to retain his consciousness. He desperately wanted to retreat to the depths of his mind and blackout, but grasped onto consciousness with all his might. The lava seemed to react especially violently with all his mana clusters, as it morphed him from within. After what seemed like hours, but in reality was closer to a few minutes, Jack was ready to give up. Gratefully, the burning lava receded in pain, and Jack slowly came to his senses. He noticed that the fire spirit¡¯s lips formed a smile. It looked quite creepy as it addressed him: Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°So Jack, I congratulate you on clinging to your consciousness. It was a praiseworthy act indeed.¡± Jack: ¡°What was that? It felt as if magma was merging with my body and soul.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°That was just a drop of my power. The more powerful spirit you attempt to contract with, the more violent the reaction. Hence most shamans start with weak spirits¡­and slowly move up the chain.¡± Jack: ¡°If that was the amount of pain and torment I had to experience to willingly receive a bit of your power¡­ I shudder to imagine what would happen if someone attempted to devour you fully. A mortal soul is like a drop compared to your vast ocean.¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: *laughs* ¡°Devouring me, that too attempted by a pathetically weak spirit eater like you? Perhaps if a deity attempted to devour me, when I was weak and outside my domain, there would be a possibility of success.¡± Jack: ¡°So I guess that concludes our business. May I know your name mighty spirit?¡± Powerful Fire Spirit: ¡°True Names of beings like us hold immense power, Jack. Never casually attempt to inquire for one. However, you have endured the ordeal of our spirit pact so you may know my common name. You have successfully completed a pact with Irfit, the master of fire spirits!¡± Irfit: *flicks one of its hands and a portal appears besides Jack* ¡°Do not casually reveal this piece of information, Jack. You may now leave my domain. In future if you wish to visit me, or bring one of your followers, just coat both of your bodies with soulfire and enter a fire attuned planar portal like the one you used this time.¡± Jack: *bowing* ¡°Thank you for listening to my request Irfit. I will now depart.¡± Jack then shakily stood up and painfully made his way towards the portal. He was feeling so drained that each step felt like a struggle. He entered the portal, and appeared near the fuel less bonfire, in the kobold chief¡¯s chambers. The kobolds stared at him in astonishment as he barely managed to sit nearby. Chief Kobold: *approaches Jack* ¡°Human Jack¡­ you have been touched by a sspirit far greater than our father sspirit. Now rest.¡± Jack nodded weakly as he lay down on the bear skin pelt, and for the first time slept ingame. While he was sleeping; the kobold shamans were applying a variety of salves on his skin. The Chief Kobold was dripping a viscous greenish fluid down his throat. They were treating him reverently, and with utmost respect, glancing at the ethereal tattoo on his left cheek which was visible only to the shamans. Chief Kobolds: ¡°This human Jack iss full of surprises. Shamanss and spiritss seeing the mark on his face will treat him with utmost resspect. And thiss was his firsst pact too!¡± After sleeping for hours in game, Jack woke up. He checked the in game time, and he still had a few hours before he had to wake up for his parkour circuit on Tuesday morning. He glanced around and noticed that many of the kobold shamans were bowing to him. The Kobold Chief approached Jack and addressed him. Chief Kobold: ¡°Sso you were worthy after all! We do not have any more rewards for you, other than our utmost resspect and gratitude.¡± Jack: ¡®Somehow¡­I feel extremely refreshed¡­did the kobolds take care of me while I was sleeping? I do have a weird bitter taste in my mouth¡­and my skin feels kind of sticky.¡¯ Jack: ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary Chief. I am grateful for your care. Do you perhaps have any food with you? I am feeling very hungry!¡± Chief Kobold: ¡°Of coursse Jack! Try some roasted lizard! Very Tassty!¡± The kobold barked at a nearby warrior, who immediately retrieved a big haunch of roasted lizard meat. While it tasted like shit, he was grateful for it as he felt unexpectedly ravenous in game. After he finished his meal, he made arrangements with the Chief Kobold to visit their home for access to the fire planar portal, who readily agreed to his request. Jack then thanked the Chief Kobold and reviewed his notifications. He had gained a new title ¡°Irfit¡¯s Vassal¡±. He had also gained a new skill ¡°Spirit Pact: Irfit (Unique)¡± and a sub skill ¡°Summon Charlie¡±. Furthermore, due to enduring the spirit pact, he had gained a +15 bonus to his endurance and willpower. The increase in willpower itself was worth three levels of stats, with another +15 increase in one of his special stats! Jack then summoned the relevant notification windows.
Title name:Irfit''s Vassal
Description:You have been marked by Irfit as its vassal. Most spirits wouldn¡¯t dare to take any preemptive hostile action towards you. When dealing with non-hostile Shaman/Druid NCPs, you are treated as having an additional +500/ +100 fame. This title cannot be unequipped.
Jack: ¡®+500 fame with shamans? So that¡¯s why these kobolds are treating me so well. The +100 fame with the druids won¡¯t hurt either. Now let me to see the info on my new skills!¡¯
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Spirit Pact: Irfit (Unique)Trait------
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.You have negotiated with Irfit, and brokered a pact with it. Being one of the most powerful elemental spirits, this pact has altered you significantly. You gain the following benefits: +10% to your Fire resistance. Freezing status effects on you last only for half of the duration they would otherwise last. +20% to your fire affinity. +10% to your Soul affinity You can use the special element soulfire, in most spells which use the fire element. You gain access to powerful exclusive spells, which are sub skills of this trait. Spell casting feels natural, almost instinctive, to you and you and thus you improve the skill Mana Control (but not its sub skills) at double the speed. However, the magnitude of changes have unexpected side effects to your spell casting abilities. In addition to your negotiated restrictions, you gain the following disadvantages: Spell casting feels natural, almost instinctive, to you and you cannot take the aid of runic spell casting systems, including hermetic formulas and sigils. Your capacity for the Enchanting is stunted and you cannot progress beyond Intermediate Lv9 (99.99%). Any water affinity spells you use will cost 150% PP and be only 75% effective.
Jack: ¡®What? The benefits are nice¡­ but the disadvantages are like a kick to my balls. The time which I spent grinding Enchanting is a waste? IT looks like I can advance Enchanting only as far as I could if I were a novice. And it looks like Irfit is a unique spirit. Does this unique thing have any relationship to the rarity of items?¡¯ Jack: ¡®And what the fuck does it mean I can¡¯t learn to use sigils and hermetic formulas? I don¡¯t give a shit about hermetic formulas¡­ but didn¡¯t Instructor Theon say that sigils and mantras would come into play after I reached Intermediate tier in Mana Control?¡¯ Jack: ¡®Looks like I am stuck with my ¡°natural spell casting¡±. I should have figured there will be some major backlash for a pact with such a powerful spirit. Fortunately¡­ the penalties with water spells don¡¯t affect me now. I hope Summon Charlie is worth it.¡¯
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Summon CharlieBeginner100.00%
Irfit has created a being named Charlie who levels up along with you and resides with it in its domain. Every once in a while, you can summon Charlie to aid you. You may be unable to summon Charlie in certain locations. Currently, you can summon Charlie in his child form, with the following stats and skills: Charlie has Intelligence and Willpower equal to 101% of your intelligence. Charlie has Str, Agi, Vit and Dex equal to 101% of your willpower. Charlie inherits 50% of all your special stats. Charlie knows the skills Fiery Claws, Soulfire Breath, Blazing Swiftness and Tail-whip. You can summon Charlie, once every hour (Cooldown starts when you summon Charlie). If Charlie dies in battle, you cannot summon it for 24 hours ingame. You can prematurely dismiss Charlie, to have a portion of the PP cost refunded. This does not however affect the spell''s cool down. Current level effects: Costs 350 PP to summon child form of Charlie for 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Charlie knows all its skills at beginner lv1.
Jack: ¡®Well Charlie seems strong to say the least. I could use him as a distraction to escape sticky situations at the cost of him being unavailable for a day in game.¡¯ Jack¡¯s frustration at the penalties of the spirit pact were somewhat mitigated as he reviewed the spell Summon Charlie. He decided to meet Charlie, when he next visited Irfit in its domain. He then bought up his status screen. After completing the kobold¡¯s quest and the spirit pact, Jack was lv61! He decided to invest most of his stat points in Intelligence, while he rounded his Dexterity to a nice 100.
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level61 (86.17%)Fame / Infamy135/ 22
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator, Irfit¡¯s Vassal
CONDITION
HP6766/(6066+700)HP/s8.1192/s
PP8440/8440PP/s70.1520/s
Spirit Energy0/120SE/s- 0.8% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst83% / 83%Weight Limit81/200
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv5)
BASIC STATS
Strength100Vitality183 + 10
Dexterity100Agility115
Intelligence300 + 10Willpower215 + 10
Free Stat Points0
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance100
Sustenance85Balance75
Flexibility75Concentration135+10
Wisdom130+10Indomitable Spirit95
Elemental Affinity
Physical20%Soul35%
Void25%Fire35%
Elemental Resistance
Physical4% + 5%Soul7%
Void5%Fire17% + 5%
Ice0% + 5%
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Iron Stomach (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 12.38%)
  • Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 02.86%)
Enchanting (Beginner Lv 7: 32.61%)
  • Bestow Enchant (Beginner Lv 8: 21.73%)
  • Absorb Enchant (Beginner Lv 6: 43.25%)
Free Running (Beginner lv 4: 12.83%)
Leadership (Beginner Lv 1: 00.00%)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 9: 12.35%)
  • Imbue Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 78.46%)
  • Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 4: 22.31%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 9: 82.13%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 9: 64.53%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 6: 12.03%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 5: 15.13%)
Shackled Spirit Eater (Intermediate Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Sword Mastery (Beginner Lv 2: 76.23%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 7: 11.55%)
  • Opportunistic Striker (Trait)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv6:62.21%)
  • Poison Resistance (Beginner Lv 5: 34.12%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 8: 32.05%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 7: 16.13%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 73.18%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 22.87%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 21.02%)
  • Mana Claws (Beginner Lv 2: 14.62%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 12.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)
Entropic Leech (Beginner Lv2: 25.65%)
Mana Breath (Beginner Lv4: 45.65%)
Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv8: 13.65%)
Soul Scream (Beginner Lv4: 14.75%)
Soul Strike (Beginner Lv9: 12.23%)
Spirit Pact: Irfit (Unique) (Trait)
  • Summon Charlie (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
One of the main things he noticed that the spirit pact had modified his ¡®Spirit Eater¡¯ skill to ¡®Shackled Spirit Eater¡¯. He noticed that despite leveling up at a very rapid pace and fighting higher leveled foes, he hadn¡¯t gained a single stat point increase. Essentially, stat points were becoming more and more valuable as he leveled up. The only stat boost he had gained was for remaining conscious while Irfit sealed the spirit pact. He elected to invest almost all his stat points into Intelligence because Entropic leech was extremely useful and it made melee fights a lot easier. He still had to be cautious to dodge spell casters and ranged attackers, but he felt that for his level he had a reasonably high amount of HP. Furthermore, he now had Summon Charlie spell, which was could fill both defensive and offensive roles. Jack resolved to keep his Intelligence: Willpower: Vitality ratio as 3:2:2. This meant that for 300 Intelligence, he should have around 200 Willpower and 200 Vitality. After he finished reviewing and investing his stat points, he thanked the kobolds, said his farewells and left their residence. He checked his map and set a direct course for the Mysterious Clearing. He decided to cover as much ground as possible, before he had to leave for his morning parkour circuit. The detour with the kobolds had taken quite a bit of time, and he didn¡¯t want to delay his meeting with the druids any more than required. Chapter 024 (Rewrite) (Proofread) Chapter 024 (Rewrite) (Proofread) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link I have added the next section to this chapter, as the rewrite reduced its length. There is some additional content near the end...and it is quite lengthy! Full Thanks to Mecani for Proofreading this Chapter! ------------------------------------------ ~~~~Rewrite Edit starts~~~~~ Jacob completed an agonizing Monday at work. He was feeling very frustrated at having to interrupt his playtime of Asunder Online with his boring day job. He browsed through the notifications on his phone as he waited for the lift to take him to the parking level. As he exited the lift, he received a call which made him pause in his tracks. Jacob: ¡®Oh shit. I completely forgot about Valeria. I haven¡¯t called her for more than three weeks, since I started playing Asunder Online. I am getting addicted to that stuff. Thanks for ruining my social life VDI! Valeria is sure to be extremely butthurt. Best not provoke her.¡¯ Thinking about how to appease Valeria, he made his way near the security guard. After flashing his ID, instead of proceeding to his car, he received Valeria¡¯s call on his cellphone. (A/N: The following conversation takes place in Spanish.) Jacob: ¡°Hi mami! So how is¡ª¡± (A/N: mami: common Spanish slang, similar to babe in English¡­ indicating a sexually desirable young female.) Valeria: ¡°So what was up with you asshole. You didn¡¯t even call me for a month! Are you cheating on me?¡± Jacob: ¡°It isn¡¯t like that babe! I was just too obsessed with Asunder Online. It¡¯s the first Virtual Reality game, it¡¯s quite something.¡± Valeria: ¡°A game? A GAME?? What are you¡­some kind of immature man-child? You didn¡¯t call me in almost a month because you were too busy with a childish GAME?¡± Jacob: ¡°You should try it mami, it is hard to explain unless you experience it firsthand.¡± Valeria: ¡°Well have fun with your game, asshole. We are done.¡± Jacob: ¡°Wait babe. How about a proper date? Give me a chance to explain about Asunder On--¡± *Valeria cancels the call* Jacob: ¡®She seemed jealous I was spending so much time with Asunder Online. I didn¡¯t even get an opportunity to explain.¡¯ The Hispanic security guard was looking apologetically at him and muttered something along the lines of unreasonable women. Jacob just smiled and drove home from work. He took a quick shower, and was browsing the Asunder Online forums, while pondering his sudden breakup. Jacob: ¡®I will miss the sex, that¡¯s for sure. If she was missing me, why didn¡¯t she give me a booty call eh? I would have been glad to service her. We have been together almost a year. I thought we were beyond the dating ritual bullshit.¡¯ Jacob: ¡®But No. She called me just to throw a hissy fit and dump me. I bet she is expecting me to repeatedly call her and beg her forgiveness. That is not going to happen! I have my pride as a man too!¡¯ Jacob: ¡®All the airs about gender equality, but when it comes to dating they still expect traditional treatment eh. The man must approach the woman; the man must call first¡­bah. Women are more trouble than they are worth. Oh well, what is done is done. I will call her next week once, if she is reasonable then, good. Else it just means more time for Asunder Online.¡¯ ~~~~Rewrite Edit ends~~~~~ Resolving to work out the recent developments in his relationship by killing some mobs in Asunder Online, Jacob prepared a quick dinner. He saut¨¦ed some shrimps with carrots and peas in a buttered pan. He then prepared a sandwich with it and added some cheese. After having his dinner, Jacob stripped to his underwear, and waited to log into Asunder Online using FuDi mode as he fell asleep. He regained consciousness in Asunder Online. He was somewhere in the wilderness, perched up a tree. He consulted his map. The mysterious clearing of the druids would require quite a bit of traveling. He noticed that his map didn¡¯t give many details about the terrain, beyond that it was in the wilderness. He sighed, climbed down the trees and proceeded to travel towards the mysterious clearing. Jack: ¡®If one thing sucks about this game¡­it is all the fucking traveling. Couldn¡¯t the AI have compressed the landscape a bit? Really shitty decision there Overlord AI, you hear me?¡¯ As he travelled through the wilderness, most of the low-leveled predators like wolves and bears were avoiding him. He was getting itchy trigger fingers and was looking for something to kill, but didn¡¯t want to chase after the fleeing wildlife. After a couple of hours of jogging, his danger sense alerted him to a hostile encounter ahead. Jack slowed down and cautiously scouted ahead. He saw a trio of humanoids patrolling. They were around seven feet tall, muscular but lightly armored in animal pelts. Instead of hair, they had light brown shaggy fur, with dark spots on the exposed parts of their body. However, their most notable feature was their canine heads. It resembled that of a hyena, and their red eyes looked absolutely sinister! Jack: ¡®Gnolls? They look strong, but I probably should be able to handle them. Two of them look like hard hitting melee warriors with their big two handed axes. The last one is an archer, with its longbow. I should get close as possible and take out the archer ASAP, before I deal with the remaining two Gnoll warriors.¡¯ He then activated entropic leech, force claws on both his hands and mana fists on both his legs. As he stealthily approached them, the direction of the wind suddenly changed, and the gnolls sniffed the air in his direction. Jack: ¡®Looks like the walking doggies sniffed me. Oh well might as well start nuking them now.¡¯ He then fired a couple of soul strikes in quick succession at the gnoll archer and prepared a fire breath as he rushed at them. Each soul strike damaged the gnoll archer for around 18% HP. The gnoll archer fired an arrow towards him. He was able to predict its trajectory accurately and dodged preemptively as the two gnoll warriors engaged him in melee. The warriors were surprisingly agile. Even in the AoE of entropic leech, he had difficulty keeping up with them. They swung their axes at him, and he dodged one cleanly but the other great-axe grazed him damaging him for around 5% HP. Jack then unleashed the fire breath he had prepared. All the three gnolls were caught in its AoE. The warrior gnolls lost around 30% HP each, whereas the gnoll archer was damaged for almost 40% HP, leaving it with barely a third of its HP remaining. While the burning DoT took effect and the gnolls were distracted, he took this opportunity to evade the warriors and rolled into melee range of the gnoll archer. He then used his force claw enhanced right hand to stab at the gnoll archer¡¯s crotch. It howled in pain and lost almost 20% HP, leaving it with around 15% HP. He then got on his feet, and took advantage of the gnoll in pain to stab at its neck with his other hand. The archer gnoll¡¯s throat ruptured and it fell dead, bleeding from its crotch and throat. The warrior gnolls had recovered and one of them managed to land a clean hit on Jack¡¯s shoulder. Jack lost a whopping 15% HP, leaving him with around 80%. He staggered and rolled sideways, successfully avoiding another smash of a great axe. Jack: ¡®These doggies should be pretty high leveled. They are quite agile, even in the AoE of entropic leech and hit quite hard! They seem to have obscene HP too. Fortunately their magic defense is low and my breath hits them for around a third of their HP.¡¯ He then unleashed a soul scream, which combined with his entropic leech gave him a few seconds to create some distance. He fired a couple of soul strikes at one of the gnolls and prepared a fire breath. As the gnolls recovered and charged at him, he released his prepared fire breath and lunged at the gnoll with lower HP. His breath attack, combined with his earlier soul strikes left the gnoll with barely 5% of HP. A single slash from his force claw enhanced hand ended its life. The last remaining gnoll swung its axe at him, and grazed him for another 5% HP, leaving him with around three fourths of his HP. He engaged the last gnoll in melee and activated mana gloves in his left hand. As the gnoll swung it¡¯s two handed axe at him, he used his left hand to parry it and fired a force blast. The axe¡¯s trajectory had changed and the gnoll was rendered vulnerable. He took this opportunity to smash his knees into the gnoll¡¯s crotch, damaging it for almost 10% HP and it howled in pain, dropping its weapon and crouching. Jack was in grappling range of the unarmed gnoll, and could smell its foul breath. He used his force claw enhanced forefinger and middle fingers to stab the gnoll¡¯s eyes. His fingers sunk almost to his knuckle and the gnoll lost near a quarter of its HP, leaving it with a third. The blinded gnoll recovered and bit his arm, causing him to lose another 10% of HP. Jack gritted his teeth, endured the pain, and used his free arm to stab the gnoll¡¯s exposed throat with force claws. The gnoll let go of his arm and had barely 15% HP left. He then backtracked and fired a void bolt, finally killing it. He then collected their weapons and armor. They were sturdy, but of poor craftsmanship. The group of gnolls in total had given him around 10% exp. However, the battle with the gnolls had been intense and he had around 65% HP left. Jack: ¡®These gnolls provided me a lot more exp than those lizards. However, these are a lot tougher even with entropic leech and my HP loss isn¡¯t sustainable for multiple battles with them. I will nuke the next gnoll group from range, and avoid melee. I guess I will need Charlie¡¯s help to deal with larger groups of gnolls. But the cool-down¡­ he might be unavailable when I REALLY need him.¡¯ He then hacked off a forearm of the gnoll archer and roasted it, using his sword as a skewer. The constant jogging had depleted quite a bit of his satiety and he intended to recover it before moving on. After the skin was charred and the meat cooked, he took a bite from it. Jack: ¡®This tastes something between pork and goat meat. It is quite a bit tougher and smells like matted fur though. Not bad, not bad at all! I might as well roast a few gnoll limbs for the road.¡¯ After he finished his grisly meal, he collected a couple of arms and roasted it before storing them in his inventory. He then shoddily buried the corpses, so as to not attract more of its kin and other wild animals, after looting their fangs and claws. He climbed up a nearby tree. He sat on one of the sturdier branches. He meditated for around five minutes to recover his lost HP and PP before proceeding further into the wilderness. As he travelled, he encountered larger gnoll groups with increasing frequency. Having witnessed the melee prowess of the gnolls firsthand, he refrained from engaging in melee. He relied on his ranged spells to damage them. He used force blasts in conjunction with his parkour skills to evade the gnolls and keep himself at a distance, often overhead from the gnolls in the forest canopy. The dense distribution of trees actually hindered the gnoll¡¯s mobility, while aiding his evasive maneuvers and providing him cover from their archers. Fortunately, he hadn¡¯t encountered any gnoll caster yet. Using these ranged tactics, he was able to deal with the gnolls in relative safety without having to summon Charlie, with the tradeoff being that the battles were more PP intensive and took a lot longer. ~~~~Additional part after rewrite starts~~~~~ After a few hours of travelling, with intermittent killing of groups of gnolls, he encountered an exceptionally large group of gnolls. There were around ten of them. Most were warriors with two handed weapons, but three of them were archers and one of them looked like a caster wielding a staff with a crude gem on top. Jack: ¡®I think that¡¯s the first gnoll caster. Is it a healer/buffer or a nuker? Either way if the group catches me I am screwed. I could avoid them¡­ but might as well use Charlie. I will never level up his skill, if I am always afraid of his cooldown.¡¯ He then stealthily circled the group of gnolls. He got as close as he dared to the caster. Then he mentally imagined Charlie materializing a couple of meters from the caster and using his Soulfire Breath. Charlie wasn¡¯t summoned and nothing happened. Jack: ¡®Oh great. How the fuck should I summon Charlie now? I don¡¯t want to shout out the skill name like those system-assist reliant idiots and alert all the fucking gnolls about my position. I modeled Charlie on a Pokemon. Meh might as well try it.¡¯ Jack then concentrated intensely on the mental image of the child form of Charlie. As he did so he tried to simultaneously channel soul and fire mana. Channeling one element for a new spell was difficult enough, so he expected his first attempt to channel soulfire in failure. However, to his surprise the soul and fire mana combined easily, as if he had repeated the process a hundred times. He channeled the soulfire mana into his right hand and formed it into the shape of a ball, a few inches in diameter. It looked like a translucent light orange cricket ball. He then threw the soulfire ball in an overhead arc, aiming for it to land a couple of meters from the gnoll caster. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. (A/N: Cricket is a sport played by Britain and some of its former colonies. A cricket ball looks like this ) Jack: ¡®Child Charlie! I choose you! Use soulfire breath and fuck up that caster!!¡¯ As the soulfire ball landed near the gnoll caster, Jack felt a mild wave of dizziness. The soulfire ball flashed in his spirit senses and Charlie materialized. He opened with a soulfire breath. Visually it was like a fire breath, but the flames were of a lighter shade and transparent, almost translucent. The surprise attack caught the gnoll caster, a gnoll archer and a couple of gnoll warriors. The warriors lost around 20% HP each, the archer lost slightly more while the caster gnoll lost a little over a fourth of its HP. Jack: *visualizing Charlie stabbing the gnoll caster in its throat* ¡®Good work Charlie! Now quickly activate Fiery Claws, Blazing Swiftness and focus on the caster! I will join you shortly¡¯ There seemed to be a telepathic link between Jack and his summon, as Charlie executed his mental instructions and he felt a wave of emotion from Charlie. His summon seemed pleased at his praise and redoubled his efforts. Charlie was coated in a shimmering translucent orange field and his claws were on fire. Charlie performed a short jump and stabbed the gnoll caster in its throat, interrupting its spell-casting and damaging almost a third of its HP! The gnoll caster had around 40% HP left and Jack prepared a mana breath, tapping into his soul and fire affinities. And like his earlier act of summoning Charlie, he could instinctively balance the amount of soul and fire mana without any difficulties. The warrior gnolls nearest to Charlie were readying for an attack, while the archer gnoll was retreating. He unleashed a soulfire breath, catching the gnoll caster, retreating gnoll archer, around three gnoll warriors and Charlie in its AoE and activated Entropic Leech. His soulfire breath was more potent than Charlie¡¯s and it finished off the caster, but Charlie was unaffected. The warrior gnolls and the archer gnoll lost around a third of their HP. The archer gnoll barely had a third of its HP left, a couple of warrior gnolls had around 50% HP left. These were the enemies Charlie had hit with his sneak breath attack. The other warrior gnoll Jack had managed to hit had around 70% HP left. As they were about to get swarmed, Jack utilized a soul scream and retreated preparing another soulfire breath. Jack: ¡®Retreat Charlie, retreat! Use another soulfire breath and target the doggies I am targeting.¡¯ He then unleashed another soulfire breath, taking care to aim it at the gnoll archers and mentally imagined them roasting. His summon seemed to get the idea and aimed his soulfire breath so that its AoE overlapped with his. The combined breath reduced the two gnoll archers from full health to around 45% and finished off the previously weakened archer! A couple of gnoll warriors were also caught in the crossfire and their health was reduced to around 40% and 70%. Jack:¡¯you are faster than me Charlie. Rely on your speed, blazing swiftness and fiery claws for hit and run tactics.¡¯ He mentally instructed his summon as he fired off soul strikes at one of the remaining archers, retreating with the aid of force blast enhanced jumps. Each of his soul strikes damaged the gnoll archer for a little less than 20% HP, reducing its HP to under a tenth. Meanwhile Charlie was harassing the gnoll warriors with slashes from his fiery claw and using his tail whip to trip them. Though his summon had lower magic damage potential than him, his physical attributes more than made up for it. That combined with his blazing swiftness, enabled him to dodge most of the two handed attacks of the gnoll warriors. His summon was grazed multiple times however, and had lost around 10% of his HP. While Charlie was dealing with a trio of Gnoll warriors, three other gnoll warriors charged at him howling in rage. Two of them were at full health and the last one was a little under 40% HP. He used a force blast enhanced jump to reach an overhanging tree branch. As he swung like a monkey from branch to branch, he prepared a soulfire breath and unleashed it at the pursuing warriors as he performed a backflip to face them. Two of the pursuing warriors had their HP reduced to around 70% and the last one was almost dead, with barely 7% HP left. As he was falling, he aimed a void bolt at the gnoll warrior in critical condition, finishing it off. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed three additional bars on the left-center of his field of view. The topmost bar was red in color and was down to 60%. It was the HP/MP/STA bars of his summon. Jack: ¡®Looks like Charlie is in trouble. I need to aid him. Charlie, focus on evasion, I am coming!!¡¯ He mentally instructed his summon to focus on evasion and ran towards him, unleashing a soul scream to disorient the pursuing gnoll warriors. His summon had managed to dispose of a gnoll archer and warrior. His summon was currently engaged in melee with two gnoll warriors while the last remaining archer was taking potshots at his pet. He fired a couple of soul strikes in quick succession, willing them to home in on the gnoll archer. The gnoll archer lost a little more than third of its HP, still left with around 10% HP. The couple of gnoll warriors pursuing Jack had almost caught up to him. He jumped to a nearby tree branch, narrowly dodging a running overhead chop from one of them them, as he did an impressive pullup and balanced his weight on it. He fired a void bolt at the gnoll archer finishing it off. He then prepared a fire breath and jumped at the warriors engaged in melee with his summon. He released his fire breath catching Charlie and both the gnoll warriors in its AoE. He used force blasts to slow his fall, and landed on all fours, rolling with the impact. One of the gnoll warriors engaged with Charlie had its HP reduced to a little less than a fifth, while the other had around 40% HP left. To Jack¡¯s surprise, Charlie had regenerated around 13% of HP! Jack: ¡®That was a fire breath, not a soulfire breath! And it healed you! Finish the weakened warrior Charlie!¡¯ He the lunged from his crouching position towards the gnoll warrior with higher HP as Charlie slashed the other gnoll warrior a couple of times and finished it. He was able to stab the other gnoll warrior in its neck with his mana claw enhanced hand, causing it to lose almost 20 % HP. Preoccupied with the safety of Charlie, he had failed to notice that the two warrior gnolls pursuing him had caught up to him. He received two, almost simultaneous, two handed blows, one in each thigh. This combination attack caused him to scream in pain and fall down, losing almost half of his HP! Hearing his verbal and mental scream, Charlie rushed towards him. Through his pain jack noticed that something was different about him. The translucent orange field around Charlie, which indicated that Blazing swiftness was active, had changed. It had compressed, and the field was dark red. The scales of his summon had shifted from their usual glittering copper color to a deep vermilion. His whole body seemed to be dimming the nearby light. The eyes of his summon were entirely black, and he was unable to distinguish the whites and the pupils. Charlie was constantly losing HP, as if he were under a DoT poison effect. However, he seemed a lost faster and stronger. With one casual swipe of his claws, he finished off the gnoll warrior Jack was attacking, taking almost 20% HP in one slash! He then jumped over Jack and headbutted one of the gnoll warriors who had attacked him. Jack turned on his back and saw that his summon was disregarding his defense, and seemed to be berserk! He was biting and slashing one of the gnoll warriors, reducing its HP rapidly. However, the other gnoll warrior had managed to land two clean hits with his two handed axe, and his summon disregarded any attempts to dodge. In the short time that took Jack to prepare a fire breath, Charlie¡¯s HP had reduced to half, and he had finished off one of the gnoll warriors, and leapt like a wild beast on the other gnoll warrior. His summon received an overhead slash head on losing around 10% HP, and wrapped its tail around the gnoll warriors arm. Using the momentum of the gnoll¡¯s slash and his wrapped tail as a support, Charlie swung his body like a pendulum and embedded all four of his claws on the gnoll¡¯s body. His summon was upside down and bit the gnoll warrior¡¯s crotch, while simultaneously stabbing the gnoll¡¯s body with all four of his limbs alternatively. The gnoll warrior was howling in pain and was desperately trying to dislodge Charlie. However, its massive two handed weapon was acting as a deterrent and the best it could manage was weak stabs with its hilt. Charlie¡¯s berserk attack had reduced the last remaining gnoll warrior to around 10% HP, and he himself had around a third of his HP left. Jack released his fire breath, finishing off the last gnoll warrior and healing Charlie to around 45% HP. However, Charlie seemed to be lost in his rampage, and he continued mutilating the gnoll¡¯s corpse, splattering gore everywhere and steadily losing his HP. Jack: *mentally reinforces his command* ¡°Charlie, calm down. All enemies are dead.¡± Hearing his master¡¯s voice and mental command, Charlie slowly reduced his assault on the gnoll corpse. The dark red layer of fire surrounding him slowly dimmed. His scales returned to its usual copper color and his eyes returned to his usual electric green, with the whites distinguishable once again. Charlie seemed tired, and he approached Jack. Jack: ¡°You got angry when the doggies hurt me?¡± Jack heard a low hiss, as his summon conveyed an affirmative via their mental bond. Jack was touched, and hugged his summon. He was pleased at the attachment his summon had with him, but at the same time was worried for his summon. Another minute of its rampage, and Charlie would have depleted his entire HP, unless Jack used fire attacks to heal him. He praised Charlie, but also instructed him not to enter a rampage unless absolutely necessary. Charlie understood his intentions struggled to convey something. Still being in child form, their telepathic link wasn¡¯t too well developed. He consoled his summon, and told him not to worry. Jack: ¡°You are hurt badly aren¡¯t you Charlie? I need to heal you up. Now open your mouth.¡± Charlie obediently opened his mouth. He rubbed Charlie¡¯s neck with one hand affectionately, while he shot a fire bolt in his mouth with his other hand. Each fire bolt from him healed his summon for around 8% HP. Charlie seemed content eating his firebolts, and conveyed his gratitude through their telepathic link. After Charlie was fully healed, it turned and licked the most severe wounds on Jack¡¯s left thigh. He was touched at the behavior of his summon. While Charlie¡¯s licking wasn¡¯t helping him to regenerate the lost HP, it did dull the pain somewhat. And his summon seemed happy, so jack let it continue as he browsed his notifications. Jack: ¡®Ohh so Charlie learned a new skill ¡°Berserk Spirit¡±? Summon Charlie spell seems to have leveled up a couple of times. Is it because Charlie learned a new skill? Hmm Charlie also unlocked a new special stat ¡°Brutality¡±. Wonder what its effects are, other than the gory massacre of course.¡± Jack: ¡°Hey Charlie, you want to eat something? I dunno whether you like meat or no¡­but try this.¡± Jack withdrew a roasted gnoll arm from his inventory. His summon was looking at it curiously. As he held the arm in his right hand and channeled fire mana to reheat it, Charlie approached his left arm. He started licking the flames and completely ignored the gnoll arm kebab. Jack: ¡°So you like eating fire? Well makes sense since you are a fire spirit originally. Wait let me peel the fur and skin of this gnoll arm then I will feed you more fire mana!¡± Jack then stripped off the burnt skin and fur of the gnoll arm. He chomped on it like a chicken drumstick, while he constantly channeled fire mana from his left hand, which his summon lapped up. Soon it was time for Charlie to leave, and Jack felt sadness at having to part with his summon, which Charlie reciprocated. Jack: ¡°Don¡¯t worry Charlie; I will call you for more fighting soon! We will burn all our foes!¡± As his summon shimmered away, he began looting the gnolls. He collected their weapons along with a few gold coins the gnoll caster had. He decided to dump the crude animal pelt armor the gnolls were using as his inventory would have been overloaded, and they weren¡¯t worth much. He then extracted their fangs and claws and buried their bodies. However, he was reeking of gnoll gore. He went a little distance and created slurry of mud and water from his canteen. After having a drink of water to quench his thirst, he stored his canteen in his inventory. He also stored his sword and dagger in his inventory. He then rolled around on the mud. He took a mud bath to wash away the gore and mask his scent. It may seem disgusting, but many animals in nature took mud baths to keep cool and keep away parasites. Once he deemed himself ready, he noticed that he still had around a third of HP to recover. He meditated on a tree for a few minutes and then proceeded traveling towards the mysterious clearing of the druids. (A/N: About the mud baths, I am not bullshitting. Although Jack preferred to be coated in mud rather than the gnoll gore Charlie had covered him with in his rampage. It also provided a bonus to his stealth tactics when foes depend on scent. ) ---------------------------------- A/N: So in the rewrite, Valeria gets butthurt and dumps our MC. Our MC inturn gets butthurt, and refuses to beg back into the arrangement they had which most guys would usually do. Since the chapter length was reduced after cutting the unnecessary drama, I added the next segment focusing on Charlie and the length of this chapter approached my absolute maximum of 5k words. I will remove the old draft of chapter 24 and the Announcement/ Reader Interactivity thread, when I post the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed the rewrite of this chapter. --------------------------------- Chapter 025 (Proofread) Chapter 025 (Proofread) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Thanks to Mecani for Proofreading this chapter. ------------------------------------------ Jack spent the workweek travelling towards the Mysterious Clearing on the druids. He regularly encountered gnoll groups on his way. He used his ranged hit and run tactics to dispatch them whenever Charlie was on cooldown. He summoned Charlie as frequently as possible. This had two main reasons. He actually enjoyed hunting with Charlie, and it also helped him build up the Summon Charlie spell. He also tried luring individual gnolls with force imbued darts, but the gnolls seemed to behave like a pack. If he provoked one, the full group attacked him. He had noticed that, the tougher the battles, the more experience his Summon Charlie spell gained. Only twice more did he encounter gnolls roaming in groups larger than five of them. On both occasions, he waited covered head to toe in mud for Charlie¡¯s cooldown to refresh before dealing with them. He was becoming better at dealing with the gnolls, and his teamwork with Charlie was improving too. His summon didn¡¯t go berserk any more. The gnolls were challenging foes to say the least. They had a pack mentality, and coordinated among themselves much better than the other monsters he had encountered so far in Asunder Online. Since the gnolls were around lv80, Jack gained very good experience from them. He had leveled up quite a few times by killing around a hundred gnolls in total. The gnolls however, where an unsuitable mob for leveling up. This was because, even though they provided Jack with great xp, the experience they would provide a party in their late 70s to early 80s (level wise) would be quite low. Also due to the damage dealing potential of the gnolls, most usual parties would require a significant bit of downtime after every battle, unless they heavily relied on expensive consumables. Furthermore, monsters in a dungeon were of generally a higher density, as compared to the surface areas like forests. (A/N: By surface areas, I mean non-dungeons. The MMO term for this is plains, but it might be confusing with planes. By planes I mean other dimensions - as explained in the Chapters dealing with the spirit pact.) He decided to refrain from investing his stat points as he could dispatch the gnolls with some careful planning and taking advantage of the terrain to avoid a bulk of their melee damage. Looting the heavy two-handed weapons of the gnolls was quickly filling up his inventory and he was forced to abandon a lot of them. He did grind his Mana Identify on the gnoll equipment before he abandoned it. As he was progressing closer and closer to the territory of the druids, he wasn¡¯t coming across any hostile encounters. Even though his Danger Sense wasn¡¯t alerting him to hostile presences, he felt that he was being watched. The wildlife seemed to be tracking him, albeit from a distance. He noticed that various animals, including wolves and birds of prey were always around him. They however were always stayed a safe distance from him. He summoned Charlie once, and voiced his concerns to him. His summon however, seemed unconcerned and he felt that his summon was lazy and relaxed through their telepathic bond. Jack: ¡®Perhaps the druid coven is tracking me through the animals of the woods? Well Charlie seems unconcerned, so I might as well get on with it. He is connected to Irfit after all, so he knows more than he can tell me.¡¯ Sometime after breakfast on Saturday, Jack arrived at the mysterious clearing. The aura around the place was serene, as if it was soothing all his worries and fatigue. In the center of the clearing there was a roughly circular stone pool. The pool was filled with crystal clear water. In the center of the pool, there was a statue. It consisted of a slender featureless woman, who was holding a globe to her bosom. There was a serpentine figure coiled around the globe. The whole statue and the stone pool were covered in a blue-green moss. For a while, Jack admired the serenity and beauty of the almost surreal scene. Soon, a mental nudge shook him to his senses. Jack: ¡®Oh Right. Why the fuck am I daydreaming? I am supposed to call the druids now. I recall the procedure, but let me see my NOTEPAD, just in case.¡¯ He reviewed the NOTEPAD regarding the instructions he had to follow. He then withdrew the stone coin given by Master Janus. He unequipped his Dryad¡¯s Silver Amulet of Life, and weaved in the necklace through the hole in the stone coin. After adding the stone coin to his necklace, he equipped it and placed his hand on the basketball sized stone globe of the statue and released some force mana in it. The statue and the fountain blazed like a beacon to Jack¡¯s Spirit Senses. Jack: ¡°I am grateful to you Gaia, for shouldering my burden, but I am the captain of my fate and the master of my soul. I will never serve any deity, including you.¡± After saying the keywords, the radiance of the statue dimmed until it dissipated after fifteen minutes. He was getting a tad impatient as no druid had approached him. Jack: ¡®I guess it will take some time for them to approach me. This place seems to be secluded and the environment seems very conducive to meditating. I might as well grind my meditation till someone comes to pick me up.¡¯ Jack then removed the stone coin from his necklace and stored it in his inventory. He took a cross legged lotus posture pose near the statue and cleared his thoughts, preparing to meditate. After entering meditation, he experienced a profound calmness and inner peace. He was lost in his altered state of consciousness for a couple of hours until he felt sleepy. He exited his meditative status and frowned. Never before during meditation had he felt sleepy. Furthermore, he was becoming drowsier as each second passed. Jack: ¡®Oh great. Did the druids drug me? What is this sparkling in the air¡­ sleeping spores? It will take a lot more of that to send me to dreamland.¡¯ Jack resisted the urge to sleep with all his willpower. After what seemed like hours of struggling, but actually was closer to a few minutes, he could resist the urge to sleep. His danger senses wasn¡¯t tingling, so the druids probably had no hostile intentions. Still he didn¡¯t want to admit defeat so easily. Jack: *shouts* ¡°Sleeping Spores. Really? I come in peace, follow the necessary protocols and yet you druids try to make me fall asleep? Well it will take more than that to knock me out.¡± The druids seem to take that as a challenge, because soon golden spores materialized all around him, and Jack felt constricted, claustrophobic and he was slowly but surely losing consciousness. He struggled and raged with all his willpower, to fight off the debilitating effects of this new variety of spores. After a while he could flex his muscles reasonably well and could cling to consciousness without much difficulty. Jack: *shouts* ¡°Now you resort to poisoning me? Just come out and let¡¯s discuss this face to face. Or I will simply meditate here and waste both our time. I doubt you want to kill me, or you would have done so already.¡± Jack waited a few minutes alert for response, but receiving none he started meditation. Soon after meditating, he was assaulted by more spores. These spores were different. They made his thoughts run wild, making it impossible for him to meditate. He felt a sudden urge to laugh and dance hysterically, but it took all his concentration and willpower to remain barely lucid. Suddenly he heard a harsh whisper from behind. Harsh Male Whisper: ¡°My my, you are a stubborn one. No matter. We can easily deal will the likes of you.¡± Before Jack could turn and face the person who was whispering, someone poked a spot in between his neck and jaw and he instantly lost consciousness. When Jack regained consciousness, he was lying down on the grass in another location. He sat and took in the surroundings. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating. He seemed to be in a small village inside the forest. There were many huge trees. He couldn¡¯t make out how tall they were, and he estimated the smallest of them to have a diameter of almost 5 meters! From the base of the nearest tree, he could see what looked like a ladder. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. However, it was as if the ladder had grown from the tree. It was a little after dusk in game, but he didn¡¯t have any problems with lighting. This was because; many of the trees had some sort of lime green lichen growing on their bark. The green lichen bathed the whole area with a gentle light. He shifted his attention to the trees themselves. In the canopy overhead, he could make out what looked like paths formed out of interlocking branches thicker than him! Near the tree trunks, where these paths ended, there was what seemed like dwellings¡­ which had grown out of the tree themselves. He then shifted his focus to the denizens of this secluded village. He could see a variety of animals all around him. But they were different, than their counterparts he had encountered till now. He saw wolves almost as large as horses, bears over 10 feet tall, and various other large beasts like foxes, stags, leopards etc. One of the wolves looked him in the eye, and he felt deep intelligence from the gaze. It was as if the wolf could gaze into his soul with just a glance. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a tree move. It was comparatively smaller, being ¡®just¡¯ eleven feet tall, and twice as thick as Jack¡¯s width. The tree turned and he saw that it had something resembling a face on it! It looked as if someone had carved a couple of eye sockets on its trunk, and the sockets gleamed blood red in the gentle light. The tree suddenly yawned, and a jagged crack below its eye opened wide, and its eyes turned the color of its bark. Jack: ¡®Is that a treant? Well looks like the treant is sleepy¡­ This village is truly breathtaking! I feel an underlying harmony in here.¡¯ Harsh Male Voice: ¡°So you woke up? Let us meet the elders.¡± Jack: *gets up and turns around to face the source of the voice* ¡°You!! You are the one who drugged and kidnapped me! That was very rude, by the way.¡± Hooded figure dressed in animal furs: ¡°And your resistance was amusing! Now let us meet with the elders, shall we?¡± Jack: ¡°Was that necessary? And what is your name?¡± Hooded figure dressed in animal furs: ¡°Outsiders cannot know the location of our coven, under any circumstance. It was mere ¡®protocol¡¯ to disable you before transporting you here so don¡¯t take it personally. I thought you would know better than to ask my name. For your stay here, you may refer to me as ¡®Guide¡¯.¡± Jack: ¡®So the druids are iffy about their names like spirits eh? Or is he just messing with me? I might as well get on with it. No point in being pissed at him for drugging and kidnapping me this time. At least he didn¡¯t rape me or anything¡­I hope.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Well then Guide, please lead the way.¡± The hooded figure ¡®Guide¡¯ nodded, and beckoned Jack to follow him. He led him through the massive trees for a few minutes until he witnessed a strange scene. The earlier tranquility of the village was lost, and before him he witnessed huge eighteen feet tall treants. They were arranged in a circle and were facing inward. Inside the circle of treants, there seemed to be a layer of ash on the ground. The treants also somehow seemed¡­sick with the ash covering their barks and their leaves weren¡¯t as lustrous. In the center was something that looked like a grey statue of a slender male. Its face had an expression of agony and it looked as if he was screaming at the sky. His face was quite handsome and had a gem with a dull green-brown glow embedded in its forehead. From the gem on his forehead, the same dull green-brown lines were pulsing across the statue. The green ¨Cbrown lines appeared to have covered the top third of the statue. His ears were slightly pointed, but not quite enough for an elf. Jack assumed that it was probably the statue of a half elf. Outside the circle of treants, there were three figures sitting cross-legged on the grass. Jack noticed that the grass seemed brown, almost dead, instead of the lush green he had noticed earlier in the village. The central figure was again a statue of a beautiful elven woman who seemed to be meditating. Beside her, sat two elven women, each of them was holding one of the statue¡¯s arms. As Jack approached closer and closer, he felt uneasiness, an almost restless and violent urge which seemed out of place. This was in sharp comparison to the tranquil feeling he had experienced when he woke up. As he and Guide approached, the elven druid on the left opened her eyes and said. Elven Druid: ¡°Greeting Bhikku. What brings you here?¡± Jack: *takes out the stone coin from his inventory* ¡°I was inducted into the Brahman Sangha when I cleared the dungeon this coin lead to. Sometime later, I encountered a pedestal with a similar but larger depression. My master seemed to think that you druids would have the ¡®key¡¯ to that prison. He was also worried as to why you druids hadn¡¯t contacted us this year, and ordered me to render aid in any way possible.¡± Elven Druid: ¡°We indeed have the part of the key you are seeking. But as you can see, we are¡­ occupied at the moment. We cannot discuss the matter of the key until this situation is resolved.¡± Jack: *storing the coin back in his inventory* ¡®figures¡­ need to help them before I get my ¡°key¡±.¡¯ Jack: ¡°What exactly is happening here? I can no longer sense the tranquil harmony of your village. Instead I feel agitated here, almost violent. And that statue looks to be in a lot of pain.¡± Elven Druid: *sad smile on her face* ¡°That Bhikku, is just the shadow of The Blight in action. Already three of our guardians have fallen trying to snuff it out. That ¡®statue¡¯ you see, is actually one of our guardians fighting a seed of The Blight.¡± Jack: ¡®The Blight? Irfit said I could eat spirits infected by The Blight without any penalties. And it looks like they are having trouble containing the blight. I may get some powerups eating some infected spirits, and my quest did order me to aid the druids.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Is there any way I can aid your coven in fighting the blight? This oppressive feeling that it is radiating, unhinges my very soul. And my master did instruct me to aid you.¡± Elven Druid: *frowns* ¡°While we appreciate the offer, we will deal with it in time. It was our folly that unleashed it, so we have the responsibility to contain it¡± Jack: ¡°And how long will that take? Weeks? Months? Years? And how many guardians will you sacrifice?¡± Elven Druid: ¡°Oh so you feel you are more qualified to fight The Blight? Even the youngest of our guardians have years of discipline and resolve that will outclass you. Do you even know what The Blight is? What is the source of your arrogance? If your soul is wavers even for a moment¡­ The blight will devour you.¡± Jack: *smirking* ¡°After being inducted into the order, It took me around half an hour to reach a level of enlightenment which usually takes others months, perhaps years of meditation. Your guide was also quite rude, and had to drug me with three different spores and poke my neck before he could render me unconscious.¡± Jack pauses as he notices the expression of the Elven Druid change slightly. The druid seemed to be debating internally, whether to allow him to fight The Blight or not. She was on the fence, and he decided to apply a little push to influence her. Jack: ¡°Also, I am sure you can make out that I am Irfit¡¯s vassal. I have a spirit pact with it, and it obliges me to fight The Blight wherever I encounter it. I am sure the servants of Gaia are aware, but I wouldn¡¯t be granted this pact, if it didn¡¯t see merit in me.¡± Jack: *observing the subtle changes in the druid¡¯s fa?ade* ¡°Your guardians may be more disciplined, but cloistered here, there perspective is limited. Perhaps, it needs a fresh outlook to fight this seed of The Blight. And trust me; I have a weapon to fight the Blight, which even Irfit acknowledges. It is a double-edged sword however, and I do not wish to unleash it unless absolutely necessary.¡± Jack was of course referring to his spirit eater abilities. Irfit had hinted that given enough power, a spirit eater could even devour its soul. The seed of blight was already quite weakened by the sacrifice of the druid guardians. He felt confident, that with the aid of the current guardian, he could devour its corruption. Jack¡¯s persuasive statements seemed to have convinced the elven druid, and she relented. Elven Druid: ¡°If you wish so Bhikku. However, The Blight tempts all it corrupts with its sickly seduction of power. If you give into it, we will sacrifice ourselves to incinerate the corruption before it takes root in your soul. That will strip you of almost all the power you have accumulated till now. Do you still agree?¡± Jack: ¡®So if I fail the quest, massive nerf to my levels and skills? Well the penalty for failure was ¡®???¡¯. I can¡¯t expect it to be a light slap on the wrist now can I? Hopefully the rewards are equally good. They say: nothing ventured, nothing gained. And I plan to gain shitloads, so risking shitloads is a given¡­¡¯ Jack: *smiling* ¡°That just means I have to succeed don¡¯t I? So how do we begin?¡± ----------------------------- A/N: Double Chapter. From now on I may post multiple chapters on some weekends, but may skip a weekend every month or so. So probably expect a skipped weekend this month. ----------------------------- Chapter 026 (Proofread) Chapter 026 (Proofread) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Thanks to Mecani for proofreading this chapter. ------------------------------------------ Jack had convinced the Elder Elven Druid, to let him aid in the fight against the seed of The Blight, but not out of the goodness of his heart to help the druids. He just wanted what the ¡®???¡¯ rewards would be. Also he figured, fighting The Blight would give him some favor with Irfit and he was definitely hoping for a few more powerful spells as he was still somewhat miffed about the restrictions of his Spirit Pact. After convincing the Elder Druid, Guide started instructing him to prepare him for the forthcoming ¡®journey¡¯, as he referred to it. It started with a crash course on meditation, of all things. Basically as Guide explained to him, there were two main modes of meditation. One of them was to empty the conscious mind of all thoughts, with the goal being to become ¡®the void¡¯. The second mode was to attune one¡¯s spirit with the greater consciousness of the world, with the goal being to be in harmony with ¡®the one¡¯. As Guide explained it, meditating to become ¡®the void¡¯ and to harmonize with ¡®the one¡¯ had some qualitative difference in the experience itself, even if the end result was largely similar. While becoming ¡®the void¡¯, one would focus on the inner self and master one¡¯s subconscious. This granted the practitioner immense clarity of thought and focus, with the inner self being the basis of it. In comparison, to harmonize with ¡®the one¡¯ the practitioner would use his consciousness as a mirror for the unchanging reality of the cosmos. This usually generated a feeling of bliss and clarity in the practitioner. While to many, the experiences may not seem different at all, the altered state of consciousness achieved followed divergent paths. With hours of practice, Jack slowly realized that his usual mode of meditation was to become ¡®the void¡¯. However in the sphere of influence of the druids, he was leaning towards harmonizing with ¡®the one¡¯. With his realization, Guide then instructed him to root himself in one mode of meditation. He explained that to those with high Willpower, becoming ¡®the void¡¯ was more natural. In comparison, harmonizing with ¡®the one¡¯ was preferred by those with a high faith. However, a certain level of mental discipline was essential to master meditation, regardless of the approach used. Jack decided to stick with his original style of becoming ¡®the void¡¯ to progress his meditation, although the tranquil influence of the druids made harmonizing with ¡®the one¡¯ very seductive. He rationalized that he wouldn¡¯t always be in such a tranquil and harmonious environment to practice meditation. He lacked the Faith stat, so perhaps the game was hinting him to focus on a meditation style more conducive to his inner self. Having decided on the path to master meditation, he was then instructed by Guide to maintain his method of meditation regardless of the environment. Guide had him drink a special concoction, which tasted like sweetened lime juice to Jack. This allowed Guide to judge which path of meditation Jack was practicing. Whenever Guide was engaged, or otherwise asleep, a few other druids would tutor him. All of them insisted that Jack refer to them as ¡®Guide¡¯. In his mind, Jack differentiated them as ¡®Guide1¡¯, ¡®Guide2¡¯ and ¡®Guide3¡¯ depending on their build and voice, as all of them were covered and hooded. It was difficult for him to even estimate their race. During his consolidation of the foundations of meditation he had to log out twice, for lunch and dinner in RL. After a lonely dinner on Saturday night, Jacob logged into Asunder Online using FuDi mode. Guide2 found him shortly after, then gave him another concoction to drink, and instructed him to continue refining his meditation mode. After several hours of meditating in different locations Guide1, the person who had drugged and kidnapped him initially, was satisfied with his progress and informed him that he would be ready to proceed further. Jack: ¡°This meditation tutoring has indeed been quite helpful. I had plateaued around halfway through Intermediate, and progress in the skill was extremely slow. While I appreciate the help with my skill growth, what exactly was the purpose of this exercise?¡± Guide1: ¡°This exercise is essential for your mental discipline to resist the corruption of The Blight. If your foundations are vague, The Blight will have an easy time invading your psyche with its insidious ways. Anyway, let us proceed.¡± Jack: ¡®These druids talk about The Blight as if it were a living organism. No point in worrying about it, I just have to eat the infected spirits/souls and get those juicy ¡®???¡¯ rewards.¡¯ Guide1 lead him towards the elders, with the circle of treants and the half-elf Guardian combating the blight. He noticed that the dull brown-green lines had progressed a bit further along the guardian¡¯s body. He was provided another concoction by Guide1. After drinking the bitter slurry liquid, he was instructed to sit cross-legged near the elders, getting ready to meditate. Jack: ¡°So I am ready, what should I do now?¡± Guide1: ¡°Gently take hold one hand of each of the un-petrified elders, forming a closed loop. After that, you should start meditating as you practiced. Soon your spirit will be guided and the elders will explain to you how to proceed.¡± Jack: ¡®That kind of sounds vague. Like the time when the kobold shamans instructed me to meet their father spirit. Oh well, might as get on with it.¡¯ He then followed the instructions, and started meditation. It was somehow, a lot easier to focus and enter his meditative state of mind. After almost an hour of meditation, he heard an ethereal voice. Ethereal Voice: ¡°Open your eyes Bhikku. We will now instruct you on how to proceed.¡± He opened his eyes and it was as if he was transported to another plane. His surroundings were similar, but there were prominent differences. He was in the clearing with the elders, but the guardian in the center of the treants was no longer petrified. He seemed to have his eyes closed and was facing skyward. The dull brown-green lines of the seed of blight seemed to move and shimmer like tentacles on his body. The treants surrounding the guardian seemed to supply him with green streams of energy. Jack focused his gaze nearby, and he saw two of the druid elders standing. The druid elder in the center seemed to be meditating, but she was no longer a statue. The owner of the ethereal voice was the elven druid elder who had previously addressed him. Jack could see green streams of energy moving from them towards the druid elder meditating in the center. Jack: ¡°So where exactly am I? And how should I proceed?¡± Elven Druid: ¡°That is a not a very easy thing to answer.¡± *waves her arm around* ¡°This here is a pocket plane, if you will. It is the outer container for the seed of The Blight, being sustained by many of our coven. That is the reason we couldn¡¯t spare any to contact your order.¡± Jack: ¡°Outer container? You mean there is another pocket plane, inside this pocket plane?¡± Elven Druid: ¡°Yes. How else are we supposed to contain the blight? The Guardian in the inner pocket plane fights The Blight. He slowly erodes the strength of the blight by burning his very soul. When he is close to falling, another Guardian enters this outer pocket plane, ready to take his place.¡± Elven Druid: *pauses, a look of sorrow on her face* ¡°In case he fails unexpectedly, One of us will sacrifice our souls to contain the corruption from spreading onto the material plane, while another of our coven takes our place.¡± Jack: ¡°You are burning your souls to contain and fight The Blight? Does that mean you are denied reincarnation? How many souls have been burned to contain this seed?¡± Elven Druid: ¡°Yes Bhikku, our essence ceases to exist and we exit the cycle of life. It is the price we gladly pay to ease Gaia¡¯s pain. The Gods aren¡¯t happy at this intrusion of ours, but are too cowardly to take any action themselves. Enough of your questions, we will answer them if you are successful in cleansing it. Prepare yourself.¡± Jack: ¡°All right. So what should I do?¡± Elven Druid: ¡°Get comfortable and hold the hands of our Eldest. Then meditate. We will guide you to the inner pocket plane, where our Eldest will further instruct you.¡± Jack took a deep breath, adjusted his posture a bit and held the hands of the ¡®Eldest¡¯ Druid. He then attempted to enter a meditative state of mind. Usually it took him around five to ten minutes to enter the peak of the meditative state. However in this outer pocket plane, it took almost two hours to achieve the same level of focus and clarity! After several hours of meditation, he heard a gentle ancient voice. Ancient Voice: ¡°Welcome Spirit Eater. I commend you to reach this second, no third level of consciousness so soon. It is a praiseworthy act for your first attempt.¡± Jack opens his eyes and stands up. Before him is the eldest druid standing in front of a milky barely translucent door. The walls attached to door weren¡¯t stationary. It looked as if the door was carved out of a volatile pulsing screen of energy. Everything had a greenish tint to it. Near him, he noticed that there was a small monochromatic field, leaching all color. It wasn¡¯t unlike the time he had been confronted by the fire spirits. He seemed to be in a small room with the Eldest Druid, with the pulsing screens of energy trapping them. Stolen story; please report. Jack: ¡®Looks like my Spirit Eating is obvious in the spirit planes. So the outer pocket plane must be more material in nature, since my monochromatic aura didn¡¯t manifest.¡¯ Jack: *frowns* ¡®But what is this. I should be feeling ecstatic by passively absorbing the ambient Spirit Energy. But somehow I feel nauseous¡­ as if I am about to vomit.¡¯ Jack: ¡°What is this sickness in the spirit energy? Instead of the being titillated I feel nauseous absorbing it.¡± (A/N: titillated means experiencing mild pleasure. The best example I can think of is the mild tingling you feel after a truly satisfying and delicious meal.) Eldest Druid: ¡°That is just a whiff of the blight you taste. Also you are marked by Irfit¡­ that is interesting and so unlike him.¡± Jack: ¡°Why exactly so? Wouldn¡¯t it be in his best interest to keep a Spirit Eater shackled under him?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°He is very passionate. His first instinct would have been to burn that part of your soul; instead he used his power to chain it. You must have offered him something very valuable in trade, because he is a being who seldom ignores his instincts.¡± Jack: ¡°He? I thought spirits were genderless entities?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°So you aren¡¯t comfortable discussing the price and are deflecting on semantics? No matter. While it is correct that most true spirits transcend the concept of gender, I prefer to refer to him as a ¡®he¡¯ due to his personality.¡± Jack: ¡®This lady is very scary. She is reading me like an open book. It is best not bullshit with her too much.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Glad we have that out of the way. Now I might have been confident in front of the other elders, but I have no idea how to actually deal with this foul corruption using my Spirit Eating. I mean just passively absorbing a bit of this tainted energy makes me want to vomit.¡± The Eldest Druid paused, and started observing him intently. She maintained an ice-cool unreadable mask on her face. But Jack was sure that she was struggling internally with best how to answer his query. After a few minutes of contemplation and silence, she stirred and spoke. Eldest Druid: ¡°There might be a way, but the chances of success aren¡¯t guaranteed. Even if you succeed, there will be a price you might be unwilling to pay. However, since Irfit has chained your spirit eating, chances are that it will dull the aftereffects significantly. Do you wish to know more?¡± Jack: ¡®That sounds ominous. Will I regret it? Probably yes. Will I try it out? Definitely. My quest depends on it.¡¯ Jack: ¡°I have come all the way here. I might as well hear your option before deciding.¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°Have you ever tried augmenting your Spirit Eating abilities with mana?¡± Jack: ¡°No. You can do that?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°Usually, it would be courting insanity and you would go on a frenzied rampage for quite a while, devouring all consciousness you encounter. The feedback from it would usually be too great of a strain to endure unaffected. But Irfit¡¯s aid will help you see through the worst of it. You can use soulfire affinity correct?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes. I can also use soul and fire affinities individually.¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°How exactly do you shape soulfire spells?¡± Jack: ¡°Other than spell granted to me by Irfit, I usually use it like fire in my own spells.¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°I see. In certain special circumstances, you can channel soulfire like you would channel soul affinity.¡± Jack: ¡°You mean like guide my mana with emotions?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°A crude way to put it, but yes. Now what I am about to suggest is a very perilous exercise, so listen carefully. Whether you go through with it or no, is your decision.¡± Eldest Druid: *pauses and observes Jack carefully* ¡°In spirit planes like this, your Spirit Eating abilities are greatly enhanced. You will be able to use them more frequently and with more potency. In fact, you can manifest the abomination your soul is harboring.¡± Jack: ¡°Wait a minute. Isn¡¯t that dangerous? I have devoured only a couple of souls, but each time I was very close to losing control. It was a struggle to simply remain conscious during the process.¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°That is true. What I am suggesting is to imbue soulfire mana with the most primal of needs, hunger. Then use it to manifest your spirit eater.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm, I get the essence of what you are suggesting. But why do you suggest soulfire and not soul mana? Wouldn¡¯t it be easier to shape soul mana with hunger?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°You infer correctly. But if you go on a rampage with your soul manifested abomination, Irfit will have to spend a lot more power to re-chain you. This will cause a greater backlash for you, and thus the price will be higher. It will also displease him more.¡± Jack: ¡®Oh great, so by trying this out, I am pissing off Irfit either way? That is definitely not going to end in sunshine and roses. But he has already shackled my Spirit Eater, and I am curious how this ¡®manifested abomination¡¯ will turn out. This also looks like the fastest way to complete this trippy quest.¡¯ Jack: ¡®I wished, these tree-huggers would burn more souls ASAP and correct their mistake. But nooo¡­ I have to try out crazy shit to complete this quest. The AI surely has a hard-on for me. Bah.¡¯ Jack: ¡°In case I do manifest my ¡®abomination¡¯ and proceed to devour The Blight, any things I should keep in mind?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°Even while being devoured, the insidious Blight will attempt to corrupt your soul. While using soulfire should mitigate a lot of it, I suggest you try to keep your soul and mind untouched by its corruption or the price will be greater than you wish to afford.¡± Jack: ¡®There is hidden significance to her statement. She said to keep my soul and mind untouched or the price will be too great. So I can afford to pay the price and corrupt my body?¡¯ Jack: *frowns, staring at the Eldest Druid* ¡®I have been warned by the other elder, that the blight offers power to all it corrupts. If keep my mind/soul untouched and allow it to corrupt my body, what power will I gain, and what will be the price?¡¯ Jack: ¡°Before I make my decision, I want some straight answers to my questions.¡± Eldest Druid: *sigh* ¡°Very well. Speak.¡± Jack: ¡°If I refuse to devour this corruption, how long will it take to cleanse this Blight? How many souls will be burnt total for this?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°That is a difficult question to answer. My best estimate would be around six to eight months? As for the souls lost, we have already lost six souls to this seed. I reckon a dozen more at least.¡± Jack: ¡®So the loss these druids face is heavy. No wonder she told me the way to manifest my ¡°abomination¡±. These druids are truly desperate. Well, the higher their potential losses, the greater should be the rewards offered to me, no?¡¯ Jack: ¡°But the elder outside said, you lost only three guardians?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°And two treants, and another elder.¡± Jack: ¡®So they count the trees as losses? What else did I expect from tree-hugging nature worshipers?¡¯ Jack: ¡°During the start of this conversation, you mentioned me reaching the second, no third level of consciousness. What did you mean by that correction exactly?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°You are a traveler, are you not? You already delved into an altered state to act on Terra. On top of that you delved two successive times to reach this inner pocket plane. That is what I meant by the third level of consciousness.¡± Jack: *scowling* ¡®Wait a minute. How aware is this NPC, are all NPCs in general, of the exact situation of the players? I will deal with this question later. For now I must prepare to consume this sickly Blight.¡¯ Jack: ¡°How exactly do you know so much about Spirit Eating? The way you speak about it, it is almost as if you have memories of other Spirit Eaters.¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°Indeed. You are not the first Spirit Eater to walk on Terra. As for your questions, I have humored your curiosity far more than courtesy dictates. Now make your decision.¡± Jack: ¡°Fine. I agree to manifest my ¡®abomination¡¯. The cost of being a bystander while this mess is sorted by your coven is too high. Give me a few minutes to prepare.¡± The Eldest Druid gave him a sad knowing smile and nodded. Jack took a deep breath, and meditated. He intended to be prepared before he attempted to manifest his spirit eater abilities. Both Irfit and the Eldest Druid, referred to his spirit eating abilities as an abomination. When he imagined an abomination, the first thing that popped into his mind was a Beholder. A Beholder was a magical monster common in many RPGs. It was essentially a giant floating eyeball, with multiple tentacles. The Eldest Druid had advised him to manifest his Spirit Eating Skill with soulfire mana associated with hunger. He decided to pay heed to the advice, and imagined his manifested Spirit Eating skill as a beholder, but with a giant soul sucking mouth instead of an eye. The Abomination had multiple tentacles, each ending in miniature mouths. It would be completely black and white, lacking all color. It would hunger for all nearby spirit energy, no matter how corrupted and drain all color from its surroundings in spirit planes. Five of the large tentacles of the abomination would chain it to his body. One tentacle to each of his limbs, and the last tentacle would be attached to his back. Jack: ¡®Now that is what I would call an abhorrent abomination. Any seeing it should hate and fear it. But all it cares about is satiating its hunger for spirits.¡¯ Jack: *opens his eyes and stands up* ¡°I am ready, Eldest. Open the door.¡± ----------------------------------- A/N: And another Chapter this weekend. Hope you penguins enjoyed reading it. However, I will be quite busy this month, so expect one more (perhaps two more in the best case scenario) chapters this month. I will blend the action filled battles and these descriptive conversations in the fan fiction, along with time skips, as and when required. This provides nice contrast between segments, and gives me additional control over the pacing. But just for curiosity, I have added a poll. Please do vote in it. ----------------------------------- Chapter 027 (Proofread) Chapter 027 (Proofread) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Thanks to Mecani for the proofreading! ------------------------------------------ Jack stood up and approached the door which the Eldest Druid was guarding. She nodded and her whole body shimmered, as she opened the door. Beyond the door there was a transparent film, almost like a soap bubble. Instead of the lime green like rest of the inner pocket plane, beyond the film there was the characteristic dull brown-green glow of the seed on the guardian¡¯s forehead. He coated his whole body in a layer of soulfire mana willing it to insulate him from the blight. The monochromatic field around him disappeared, and the nauseous feeling he was experiencing dissipated. Suppressing his passive leaching of the ambient spirit energy, he stepped through the door, which shut behind him. He found himself in a pentagram. The five corners of the pentagram had blazing green pillars of energy, somehow free of the taint of blight. In the center of the pentagram, was the half-elf Guardian. His body was covered in a jet black flame, and he had an expression of agony on his face, with the seed of the blight embedded on his forehead. Jack noticed that the taint of The Blight radiating from the seed was slowly being burnt by the black flame covering his body. The guardian notices him, and attempted to speak. But, all that came out of his mouth was a soul curdling scream. Jack made a hushing gesture, signaling the guardian to silence. Jack: ¡°Don¡¯t Speak. Just nod, if you can understand me.¡± Jack: *the guardian struggles for a few seconds, before he makes a slight nod* ¡°I am here, with the permission of your Eldest. Do not be alarmed at what you may witness. This seed of the blight will be rendered impotent soon. All I need you to do is just watch without interfering, no matter what happens, all right?¡± He waited for the guardian¡¯s consent, and received it in the form of an agonizingly slow nod. He closed his eyes and held the image of the abomination, firm in mind. He then flooded the immediate surrounding near him with soulfire mana. He recalled the feeling of ecstasy he experienced during his first act of spirit eating, while hungering for that sensation. The soulfire mana around him slowly took form, and in a matter of minutes formed a vivid replica of his mental interpretation of the abomination. The abomination floated several feet above him, connected to his body with five thick tentacles. There was one major difference, in this manifestation. The monochrome beholder-like abomination was tightly wrapped in glowing orange manacles of soulfire, none of its mouths allowed to feed on the ambient spirit energy. Just the act of manifesting the abomination, left Jack drained. The guardian¡¯s face was twisted in pain and hate, but a look of horror and disgust flashed through his eyes. Jack then proceeded to flood all his mana centers, with soulfire imagining it burning any traces of blight daring to invade. This act proves to be surprisingly painful, but not unbearably so. He withdrew the protective coat of soulfire over his body. He was immediately assaulted by a painful sensation, as if hundreds of worms were burrowing into his skin. He braced himself and walked within a few feet of the guardian, and pointed at the seed of The Blight embedded on his forehead. He imagined the floating shackled abomination devouring the very seed of The Blight, and uttered a single command. Jack: ¡°Feed.¡± Almost immediately, he experienced immense pain throughout his body. It was as if his entire body was being continuously corroded by acid. He felt as if thousands of worms were burrowing through his skin and entire body, towards his mana centers. He recognized this as an attempt by the blight, to corrupt his very soul! He fed more soulfire mana to his mana centers, scorching any of the worms daring to approach. Suddenly he felt his consciousness snatched away, forced to witness a vision. He was overlooking a battle about to unfold, from a cliff. In the valley below he saw a tall human facing a company of soldiers alone, unarmed. Somehow, Jack knew that the figure was his potential, if he accepted the taint of The Blight. The very land around the human was barren, where even the grass had withered to ash. The human gestured with his hand, and a ball of filth shot towards his enemies. The ball of filth exploded on contact with his foes. It looked like an epidemic had spread among the soldiers. They were vomiting blood and their flesh was flaking off their bodies. Many of them were rendered catatonic, unable to act. The lone figure rushed at his foes crushing them with his bare hands, draining their very life and leaving behind mummified husks. Every hit he received caused a toxic liquid to spurt, debilitating his attackers and making them scream in agony. Jack was unable to move, unable to shift his gaze away from the spectacular massacre which was enfolding before his eyes. All the while, insidious whispers assailed his senses, promising him the power he witnessed¡­ all in exchange for lowering the burning veil guarding his soul. But he refused the insidious offers, instead leaving only his body unprotected. The battle progressed, with the corpses of the soldiers opposing the lone humanoid barely recognizable. The insidious whispers became more urgent, and Jack felt his resolve cracking. He attempted to resist the temptation, but his willpower was slowly eroding. It was simply a matter of time, till the Blight made its way to his soul. Jack recalled the words of Guide1 and focused not on the slaughter before his eyes, but on his inner self. He struggled to tune out the assault on his senses and imagined a dot of nothingness near his heart. He focused his all on the dot of nothingness and fed it his willpower. The voices become more aggressive, and the scene shifted before his eyes portraying devastation on a grander scale. But Jack paid it no attention, nursing the core of ¡®the void¡¯ growing from him. Slowly but surely the seductive voices lose traction and ¡®the void¡¯ grew larger, as it enveloped him. Yet he didn¡¯t relent, as he could still feel The Blight at the edge of his consciousness. He kept focusing on the calm nothingness enveloping him. It expanded, and with it he slowly regained his resolve. Yet, The Blight lurked just out of reach, always waiting for him to falter. After what felt like an eternity, the distant echoes of the blight were finally snuffed, and the nothingness slowly receded into his inner self. He gradually extended his awareness. He found himself back in the clearing, with the two elders and The Eldest observing him. He tried to stand, but his body doesn¡¯t respond. Using all his willpower, he commanded his muscles to respond. He heard cracks, and a layer of dust covered his body. Finally able to move he slowly stood up, dusted himself and observed his surroundings. He seemed to be back in the principal material plane, with the Eldest no longer a statue. In the center of the treants, the guardian was still a statue. Suddenly, cracks formed on his statue and he emerged like a butterfly from a cocoon, leaving behind fine grayish dust. The guardian fell on his knees, grabbed his head and screamed in agony. The focus of the elders shifted from Jack to the guardian. Jack approached him, and the treants backed off. They seemed in haste to get away from the guardian. The guardian stared at the sky, and tears fell from his eyes. The elders were uneasy, hesitating to confront him. On the guardian¡¯s forehead, where previously was the seed of The Blight, a burned patch of skin was all that remained. Jack: ¡°Why are you crying? The seed of the blight is contained, and no more souls from your coven have to be sacrificed.¡± Guardian: *laughs hysterically and looks at Jack , with his tears still flowing* ¡°My coven? They are no longer my coven. I am just a filthy mongrel now, who has lost his sanctuary.¡± Jack: ¡°What do you mean? You survived, so you are still a guardian of Gaia. Are you not?¡± Guardian: *a look of sorrow and agony* ¡°I can no longer hear Gaia¡¯s tranquil song. All that plagues me are whispers of hate and destruction. It would have been better if your abomination had devoured my soul. Why did it spare me? For what purpose am I to live now?¡± Jack: *staring at the guardian intently* ¡®Did he lose his connection to Gaia? No, that can¡¯t be. My abomination should have devoured it while I was ¡®the void¡¯. The only reason my abomination didn¡¯t devour it, was because it couldn¡¯t!¡¯ Jack: *smirks* ¡®I doubt Irfit cares if I ate just another mortal soul. That must mean this guardian¡¯s soul is still in service to Gaia. My spirit pact did dictate after all, that under no circumstance can I devour the soul of any uncorrupted servant of Gaia.¡¯ Jack: ¡°You are too pathetic to realize the truth. You are still a servant of Gaia. That is the only reason your soul didn¡¯t become my meal.¡± Guardian: *looks shocked* ¡°No! You lie! It cannot be. Gaia¡¯s whisper fills my soul with peace and harmony. What I hear now just fills me with hate and agony.¡± Jack: *sneers* ¡°So Gaia¡¯s rampage during The Divine Wars, where she sunk entire continents was of ¡®peace¡¯ and ¡®harmony¡¯? Don¡¯t make me laugh. A being as powerful as her has aspects, you couldn¡¯t begin to comprehend.¡± He notices that the guardian had calmed down somewhat, and was pondering his words. But the guardian still looked unconvinced. He was curious to see how this guardian would turn out, so he decided to push him further to embrace what he had become. Jack: ¡°You are a soldier of Gaia, against the Blight. Channel her hate! Feel her suffering! And unleash its devastation on your foes. Let me give you a taste of hate. Embrace it, and use the whispers you now hear and sing a song for the destruction of your foes!¡± Jack then channeled soul mana in his right hand. He imbued the mana with all the hateful thoughts he could muster. Rage at the death of his parents. Rage at the drunkard who killed them. Rage at the incompetent police who failed to catch the culprit. Rage at the world, for his insignificance in it. With all his hateful thoughts channeled into the soul mana on his hand, he placed it on the head of the guardian. Unknown to him, one of the elders attempted to approach him, but was stopped with a gesture from the Eldest¡¯s hand. He channeled all his hatred into the guardian, and imagined his rage feeding the crouched guardian. Jack¡¯s action seemed to act as a catalyst for the guardian. His spirit senses saw an unstable flickering layer of purple-black energy coating the guardian. The guardian steeled himself and a look of determination replaced his previous expression of hopelessness. He started chanting something under his breath, in an almost inaudible voice. His spirit sense noticed ripples of distorting energy spreading from the guardian, as the purple-black layer on his body stabilized. When the ripples passed through Jack, his body shuddered once involuntarily. There was a bloodthirsty look of hatred in the half-elf¡¯s eyes, and his pupils were blood-red. The guardian then closed his eyes, and slowly stopped chanting. The layer of purple-black energy coating him reduced, though it didn¡¯t dissipate completely. The guardian opened his eyes. His pupils had returned to their usual gray, though Jack could make out a thin red ring near the outer edge of his pupils. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Jack: *laughs* ¡°Looks like I was right! Remember that feeling. Let hate sustain you in your future fights, and invoke despair in your foes.¡± Jack turned and approached the Druid elders. The Eldest maintained her unreadable expression, but the other elders didn¡¯t appear so calm. They had a barely suppressed expression of shock and horror on their faces. The guardian followed Jack, a few steps behind him. As Jack approached them, the Eldest clapped. Eldest Druid: ¡°Well done Spirit Eater. An impressive outcome, even if it was unexpected.¡± Jack: ¡°The seed of The Blight corrupts no more. So can I get the key now?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°Of course. Hand me your part of the key.¡± He withdrew the stone coin from his inventory and handed it to the Eldest. She waved her hand and a small bud form the land grew extremely fast. In a few seconds, it grew waist high, and it resembled something similar to a lotus. The Eldest placed the stone coin on the flower, and its petals closed. After a few moments, it opened. The Eldest then took out a larger stone coin and hands it to Jack, who promptly stores it in his Inventory. Jack: ¡®Showoff.¡¯ Eldest: ¡°I have combined our part of the key to yours. It should enable you to enter the prison you found. Our business is done, prepare to leave.¡± Jack: ¡°That¡¯s it? I get nothing else for taking care of that damned seed of blight?¡± Elder Druid 1: *shouts* ¡°Mind your tongue, abomination! Take the perversion you have created and leave.¡± Jack heard a sinister chuckle from behind. He turned to see the guardian, or rather ex-guardian smile at the elder. But his eyes lacked any humor, and it was filled with an icy hate. The purple-black energy coating him had increased and a larger portion of his pupils turned red. He turned back to see the Eldest staring at the Elder who had shouted, who was rendered meek. The Eldest then addressed Jack. Eldest: ¡°You have already accepted your gift from The Blight. Any of us can sense its taint on your body.¡± Jack: ¡°I made a decision. I safeguarded my mind and soul, didn¡¯t I? If I had attempted to shield myself completely from corruption, The Blight would have won and corrupted my soul!¡± Jack: *gestures at the Druid Elders* ¡°And one of you would have to sacrifice yourselves to snuff its corruption from my soul! Clearly, the price was acceptable enough for you to not do so. The taint of the blight on my body is just its shadow, isn¡¯t it? I can no longer feel its sinister sickening spreading its corruption.¡± Elder Druid 2: ¡°That may be so. But the way you twisted Gaia¡¯s gift in him can never be forgiven!¡± Jack: *chuckles* ¡°Twisted Gaia¡¯s gift? For an Elder, you sure seem to lack Wisdom. He is deeply attuned to Gaia¡¯s gift. The gift just happens to be hate, and you know it. The blight is still out there, and Gaia needs warriors like him ready, when it rears its ugly head.¡± Elder Druid 2: *looks furious* ¡°Your arrogance ---¡° Eldest: ¡°Enough!¡± Eldest: *turns to Elder Druid 2* ¡°We will talk later.¡± Eldest: *addresses Jack* ¡°You want more rewards, fine! You have the key now. Try to free the prisoner. If you can return with the prisoner safely, I will grant you a powerful and coveted gift.¡±
Quest Information
NameRequest of the Eldest DruidGrade???
Description The Eldest Druid has ¡®requested¡¯ you to free the prisoner, who is trapped in the prison, whose key she has given you. In case you manage to do so and bring back the prisoner to the coven, the Eldest has promised you a powerful gift.
Duration / Time Limit---
Privileges ---
Failure You are banned from this particular coven of the Druids. You cannot abandon this quest.
Rewards You are promised a powerful gift by the Eldest.
Jack: ¡®Another Grade ¡®???¡¯ quest. Looking at the vague reward and the penalty of failure, somehow this quest seems like an excuse to get rid of me. Make me clean up your shit, and drive me without pay? What a bitch. Well, fuck you Eldest. I will be sure to get that coveted gift from you.¡¯ Eldest: *addresses the Guardian* ¡°The Spirit Eater is correct. You are a warrior of Gaia. We are blessed by Gaia and cultivate her gifts, whereas you twist her curse to aid you. Terra may need you in the future, but you do not belong here. What will you do now?¡± Guardian: ¡°That depends on you, Spirit Eater. What is your aim on Terra?¡± Jack: ¡°My aim? It is to have fun here on Terra. And gathering riches and power along the way would be a definite plus.¡± Guardian: ¡°What about The Blight? What will you do when you encounter it on your journey?¡± Jack: ¡°Fight it, of course.¡± Guardian: ¡°Why, Spirit Eater? And give a straight answer.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm, many reasons. Where to begin? Irfit has shackled the abomination in me, in return for a powerful spell that I am quite fond of. However, I only have free reign to eat any spirit corrupted by the blight.¡± Jack: ¡°Usually, eating a spirit is way better than the best sex you can imagine! The more powerful spirits I eat, the stronger I grow! That was my original intention for fighting The Blight, to feed on it. But unfortunately the blight just makes me vomit, so there goes that. I can still eat mortal souls if I am careful. I can¡¯t have the Blight corrupting all my future meals now, can I? I rather enjoy the taste of uncorrupted souls.¡± At his honest and selfish response, the Elders seemed even more enraged at him but restrained themselves from taking any action other than glaring at him hatefully, in front of the Eldest. The ex-guardian also had a scowl on his face. However, there was a hint of a faint smile on the Eldest¡¯s face, just for a moment, before her face regained her stoic fa?ade. Jack: *ponders thoughtfully* ¡°While I was devouring the seed of The Blight, I was plagued by visions of its devastation, and sensual promises of devastating power. Before this experience, I just thought all of you were simply exaggerating about its dangers. I realized my mistake.¡± Jack: ¡°Given a chance, the Blight would render all of Terra a desolate wasteland, and I have grown rather fond of it after arriving here a few months ago. I cannot have my leisurely fun in a desolate wasteland, if I have to struggle for survival against The Blight. A single seed is powerful enough. I shudder to think what legions of its corrupted agents will be like. It is best to nip it in the bud, before the insidious blight is given a chance to spreads its corruption.¡± Jack: ¡®Not to mention the rewards for fighting a disaster of this magnitude should be pretty awesome, although this Druid Eldest seems pretty cheap. And the massive nerf I was warned about also dissuaded me. And I bet most NPCs, who are neutral now, will be automatically hostile and hunt me relentlessly if I accept the Blight. Then it will be a real pain to play Asunder Online.¡¯ Guardian: ¡°Very well, that is acceptable. I will follow you, if you allow me to.¡± Jack: ¡®Oh an NCP flunky? Too bad he can¡¯t respawn like Charlie. But the Leadership skill description hinted caution. I might as well be blunt with him. The rage filling him should have hardened his heart.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Keep in mind that I seldom act out of kindness. If the gains outweigh the potential risks, I will gladly cheat, extort and assassinate my way through Terra. If you are to follow me, I need you to obey my instructions no matter how unsavory the task at hand.¡± Guardian: *scowls* ¡°I care not for these trivialities as long as you fight The Blight, Spirit Eater.¡± Jack: ¡°My name is Jack. Address me as so, from now on. The Spirit Eating part is supposed to be a secret damn it. Don¡¯t refer to me as so. What should I call you? I can¡¯t keep referring to you as the guardian now.¡± Guardian: *pauses, with a meaningful look on his face* ¡°My name is Bailefour, Jack. Although, call me something else in front of others. I care not what.¡± Jack: ¡°I will just call you Bob then.¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°Now that you have the key and his loyalty, it is time for you to leave.¡± Jack: ¡®Loyalty? Must be something to do with him telling me his name I guess.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Oh great. So you will have me drugged and smuggled, again?¡± Eldest Druid: ¡°No, just sit still close to each other.¡± Jack and Bob sat down cross-legged. The Eldest gestured at them muttering something under her breath, and thick creepers grew around them in a circle. The creepers started interlocking as they grew, forming a dome around them. Inside the dome, Jack perceived a strange gentle hum as green energy flooded his spirit senses. After a few seconds the green energy and the hum dissipated, and the creepers shrunk into the ground. Jack and Bob were back in the mysterious clearing. Before Jack could stand up, a notification window popped into his vision.
A prolonged anomaly has been detected in your brain wave patterns. Due to its nature, you will be forcibly logged off in twenty minutes. In the following twenty minutes, you cannot leave your current safe zone, nor can you trigger or resolve Quest flags. Please log off voluntarily before the countdown expires and wait for a representative of VDI to contact you, at your earliest convenience.
Jack: *sighs loudly in frustration* ''Great just great. Even the AI is screwing me after I manifested my abomination? At least it had the decency to wait till I resolved the quest.'' Bob: ¡°I thought that went quite well with the coven considering your rash actions, probably because they didn¡¯t want to piss off Irfit. Why are frustrated?¡± Jack: ¡°Apparently that abomination you saw in the pocket plane? Using it to devour the blight had consequences in my world. I will be forced to leave Terra for quite a while. It might take a few days, perhaps weeks even, before I return.¡± Bob: ¡°Ah, so your actions here do have effects on your world? Interesting, Jack.¡± Jack: ¡°Well I suppose it is time for me to leave Terra. The druids won¡¯t create any trouble if you wait here for me till I return, will they?¡± Bob: ¡°No. If we behave, we will just be watched closely that is all.¡± Jack: ¡°Will you have problems getting food and water? I have some rabbit meat jerky, a few cooked gnoll limbs and a water canteen if you like.¡± Bob: *laughs* ¡°Here? Not at all, Jack.¡± Jack: ¡°Then it is time for me to leave. See you soon. I hope.¡± After saying his farewells, and explaining the situation to Bob, Jack logged off Asunder Online. ------------------------- A/N: So fourth chapter this month! And it¡¯s just the second week. Well don¡¯t get your hopes up. This is probably the last chapter this month. Perhaps I will find some spare time for another chapter in the next couple of weeks. As for the poll in the last chapter; it is still open, but the results are nearly a tie. So I won¡¯t go out of my way to include an extra dose of the mentioned elements, unless the plot/world building requires it. Status screens and what exactly he gained from letting the Blight corrupt his body will be revealed in the next chapter. ------------------------- Chapter 028 (Proofread) Chapter 028 (Proofread) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Credits to Mecani for Proofreading ------------------------------------------ Jacob logged off Asunder Online, feeling uncharacteristically agitated and frustrated. Aiding the druids hadn¡¯t given him any additional rewards, well there was Bob. But he thought of it as dividends in his Leadership skill in-game. Being forcibly logged off Asunder Online meant that he was in the spotlight of VDI so to speak, and that made him nervous. He was also curious what the ¡®prolonged brainwave anomaly¡¯ signified. He checked the time, and there was still around a couple of hours before his scheduled morning parkour circuit. After the unexpected developments in-game, he didn¡¯t think that he could go to sleep. Since he was waiting for a VDI representative to contact him, he decided to skip his morning parkour circuit and meditate instead, to calm himself. After a few stretches, his morning ablutions and a quick shower, he began meditating. He decided to integrate the technique of becoming ¡®the void¡¯ that he had learnt in-game. It was surprisingly effective, and soon he lost himself in the tranquil solitude of his altered state of consciousness. He was disturbed from his trance, when his cell phone rang. He sighed and checked the caller details. To his surprise it was a blocked number. While it wasn¡¯t too difficult to hide one¡¯s cellphone number while making a call, Jacob felt that this specific call was somehow different. He answered it. Jacob: ¡°Hello?¡± Husky female voice: ¡°Good Morning. Are you Mr. Jacob Campbell?¡± Jacob: ¡°Yes. And you are?¡± Husky female voice: ¡°Mr. Jacob, I am a representative of Von Danniken Industries. Please call me Kendra. I am calling regarding the recent developments in Asunder Online.¡± Jacob: ¡°Yes. What was that all about anyway? I was locked out of the game before dawn, that too on a Sunday! I have been paying my subscription regularly, and haven¡¯t attempted any sort of hacking.¡± Kendra: ¡°It was an oversight by the system. Rest assured Mr. Jacob, that a representative will be meeting you face to face shortly, to resolve any queries you have and allow you to play Asunder Online as soon as possible.¡± Jacob: ¡°Well I don¡¯t feel like driving to your office on the weekend. How about I visit it after work, on Monday?¡± Kendra: ¡°Mr. Jacob, I would advise you to meet our representative as soon as possible, at your convenience. The sooner we resolve this, the sooner you can log back into AO.¡± Jacob: *sarcastic mocking tone* ¡°Ms. Kendra, I would advise your representative to visit my apartment ¡®as soon as possible¡¯, ¡®at your convenience¡¯. The sooner your representative arrives, the sooner your customer¡¯s query can be resolved.¡± Kendra: *silence* Jacob: ¡°I really do not like driving on weekends; please keep that in mind for our future interactions.¡± Kendra: ¡°That can be arranged Mr. Jacob. A representative will arrive at your residence within 30 minutes. Is that alright?¡± Jacob: ¡®What the fuck¡­ that worked? I was just mocking her.¡¯ Jacob: ¡°Yes, anything else?¡± Kendra: ¡°Not at the moment, Mr. Jacob. Thank you for your cooperation. Have a nice day.¡± *call ends* Jacob: ¡®What was that all about? I don¡¯t think they treat their regular players of Asunder Online like that. A visit at home on a Sunday morning, for a nobody like me? What exactly are they so concerned about? Oh well. I am hungry, might as well prepare breakfast.¡± ---FLASHBACK START--- **Approximately several hours ago, somewhere in California** A well-built middle aged man, with graying hair was asleep on a king sized bed. Beside him was a redhead woman in her early thirties. There was a picture of the couple along with another picture of a young boy, who look like their son, on the bedside table. Suddenly, one of the cell phones on the bedside table rang. The man groaned awake, and answered the call after inspecting it for a moment. Middle aged man: *grumpy* ¡°What is it Malcolm? This better not be irrelevant.¡± Malcolm: *nervous* ¡°Sir, one of the players has been exhibiting unusual neural activity for over an hour now. He --¡± Middle aged man: *annoyed*¡°So just unplug and prepare for the standard tests. Did you wait so long and disturb my sleep because you want a ¡®transfer¡¯?¡± Malcolm: *terrified* ¡°Not at all, Sir. The unplug protocol is being blocked by Icarus.¡± Middle aged man: *suddenly alert* ¡°And you waited an hour before informing me? Idiot. Continue monitoring. Nothing should be missed. I will be there shortly.¡± The redheaded woman was attempting to stir awake, but the man soothed her back to sleep. He wrote a note and placed it near her bedside table, before quickly entering the bathroom and making a few calls. Afterwards, he dressed hastily in comfortable casuals, and left his penthouse in a private lift. A bald man, with a dangerous air about him and dressed in a suit, saluted him and escorted him to a waiting limousine. The limousine arrived in a huge building-complex with a massive sign declaring it as belonging to Von Danniken Industries. The limousine stopped near one of the larger buildings, and the dangerous man in the suit got down, before opening the limousine door, and escorting the middle aged man to the building. All the personnel who noticed him had a respectful expression, but none dared to greet him. He walked with his escort to an elevator, which scanned his retina and thumbprint, and entered it. The elevator traveled downwards for a few minutes, before opening into what looked like a hi-tech underground warehouse, filled with a variety of electronic equipment. Many people, most of them dressed in comfortable casuals, were monitoring the equipment. A twitchy ginger man with a somewhat hooked nose was waiting near the elevator, clearly having consumed too much coffee. The twitchy ginger nervously greeted the middle aged man and led him to a spacious side office. It looked pretty sci-fi with multiple LED screens displaying everything from lines of code in monochromatic green, to oscillating patterns in various colors to pie charts and bar graphs. The middle aged man took a seat, with his dangerous sidekick still standing. The twitchy ginger hastily arranged a bunch of printouts on his desk and handed it over to the middle aged man. The middle aged man equipped a pair of reading glasses started reading it. After a while the twitchy ginger summarized: Malcolm: ¡°Sir, the subject is Jacob Campbell, in-game avatar Jack. He is a 25 year old Caucasian male, of Hispanic descent, working in NASA¡¯s AMES Research center in Mountain View City, California. No immediate family alive, and currently single. Father was a white industrial freelancer, while mother was a Chilean waitress.¡± Malcolm: ¡°The subject¡¯s father was working as a long-term consultant for a manufacturing unit near Colina, Chile where he met his future wife. They were involved in a relationship and soon married before returning to the States with his wife. They died in a road accident a few years ago. The culprit was never found.¡± Malcolm: ¡°Patterns of behavior observed in the subject, both in real life and in-game, hint at the strong possibility of some form of OCD. If the subject has OCD, he is managing it remarkably well without any psychiatric intervention.¡± Malcolm: ¡°That is not surprising, considering he is an active practitioner of yoga and meditation. He also has above average physical fitness and hand-to-hand skills as he has a long term interest in both parkour and krav-maga.¡± Middle aged man: *places the printouts at the desk, removes his reading glasses and glances at Malcolm* ¡°You could have summarized his bio from the start, and saved me the trouble. How do you interpret the subject¡¯s current in-game anomaly?¡± Malcolm: ¡°Sir, initially his brain wave patterns were dominating in the higher frequency range of gamma waves.¡± Malcolm: ¡°After some investigation, we found that the subject had previously meditated in-game and his dominating brainwave in those states was the lower frequency range of the gamma waves. As per our experience, this is not unusual for players who practice meditation in real life.¡± Middle aged man: ¡°Then what is the significance of his brainwave patterns being dominated by the higher range of the gamma waves?¡± Malcolm: ¡°In our pre-release tests, a similar state was attained by only a handful of people who were trained by Tibetan Buddhist monks in their childhood, and had actively practiced meditation for almost a decade. And that too they could achieve such states only for a few minutes at best, in a single session lasting a couple of hours.¡± Middle aged man: ¡°So a prodigy of meditation. That still doesn¡¯t explain why Icarus locked him in.¡± Malcolm: ¡°Sir, that is not all. Soon after, his overall brainwave pattern resembled someone with epilepsy having an episode. We tried to initiate the unplug protocol, but Icarus had blocked it. As soon as that happened, I called you sir.¡± Middle aged man: ¡°What happened next?¡± Malcolm: ¡°His epileptic patterns stabilized after a few minutes; but his patterns are still odd. Right now, the subject¡¯s brainwave patterns are dominated by the lower frequency range of delta waves, with the next largest contribution being by the higher frequency range of the gamma waves. His alpha, beta and theta waves are almost non-existent. The only way to interpret this is as if he was simultaneously in a coma AND meditating.¡± Middle aged man: ¡°What is the subject¡¯s status now?¡± Malcolm: ¡°Stabilized, but still the same pattern persists and Icarus is still locking him.¡± Middle aged man: ¡°This might turn out to be significant. I will make the necessary arrangements to recruit him. Monitor him closely and prepare a detailed report. This event is to be treated as per Class C security protocols. So only rope in those with the required clearance, and follow the necessary procedures.¡± Malcolm: ¡°Yes sir.¡± Middle aged man: *nods, gets up and walks towards the door* ¡°As soon as Icarus releases him, initiate unplug procedure and call me. I will be in my office.¡± ---FLASHBACK END--- Jacob was having a leisurely breakfast of boiled oats in goat milk and mixed with apples, bananas and honey. He was browsing the official Asunder Online forums. Apparently, the average level was around 58 and most players were having difficulty finding suitable hunting grounds. As he was amusing himself at reading the rants of other players, he heard his doorbell ringing. He kept his breakfast aside, went towards the door and peeked out of the peephole. He saw an amicable looking blond man dressed in a suit. While he assumed it was the VDI representative, he didn¡¯t want to take chances. He opened the door a crack, and addressed the well-dressed man. Jacob: *shouts* ¡°Who is it?¡± Blond man: ¡°Mr. Jacob Campbell? I am a representative from VDI here regarding your issue. You had talked with Kendra a short while ago.¡± Jacob: *opens door* ¡°Come in.¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Jacob: ¡®A bit early. Hope he is not a fixer coming to make me disappear. He sure looks the part, with his slick suit. I should have driven to their office. Oh well, I probably am being too paranoid.¡¯ The suited blond man comes into his studio apartment. He looks around, shrugs and sits on his bed. Jacob sits at his computer desk and resumes having his breakfast, staring at the blond man while he was slurping down his sweetened oat porridge. He finished his breakfast after a few minutes, and addressed the blond man. Jacob: ¡°Nice of you to wait for me to finish my breakfast. So how should we proceed now, Mr.?¡± Blond man: ¡°Please call me Chris, no need for titles.¡± Jacob: ¡°Likewise call me Jacob. So when can I play Asunder Online?¡± Chris: ¡°Your access to Asunder Online will be restored after a few scans, at our expense of course. And I also bring an offer from VDI.¡± Jacob: ¡°The force logoff notice said I had brainwave anomalies. What does that mean, and what kind of scans exactly?¡± Chris: ¡°Your brainwave patterns while using the VR equipment were outside of our tolerance limit, and the system automatically logged you off. After further analysis, your brainwave patterns were found to resemble those of Buddhist monks while they pray and meditate.¡± Chris: *pauses and observes Jacob* ¡°The test is a simple EEG scan, taken while you perform various actions. This will help us to calibrate your brainwaves and adjust the tolerance for you, so that any similar event in the future will not prevent you from playing Asunder Online.¡± Jacob: ¡®A simple EEG scan for calibration doesn¡¯t sound too bad. There is more to this event than they are revealing to me, that¡¯s for sure. And who am I kidding? I would do a LOT more to keep playing Asunder Online¡± Jacob: ¡°What is that offer you mentioned?¡± Chris: ¡°Our research division is intrigued by your result, and we would like to offer you a job.¡± Jacob: ¡°Wait, research? You mean like a lab rat?¡± Chris: *chuckles* ¡°Not at all, Jacob. You simply keep playing Asunder Online full time, and get paid for it.¡± Jacob: ¡°That sounds appealing. What exactly does it involve?¡± Chris: ¡°This is a long term arrangement. You become an employee of one our subsidiaries, and receive a salary of roughly $100,000 after taxes and insurances are paid, per year. In return, you play Asunder Online at least 40 Real Life hours a week, in a special capsule which will be delivered to you.¡± Jacob: ¡®That¡¯s a pretty good offer. But the devil is in the details¡­¡¯ Jacob: ¡°Why the special capsule?¡± Chris: ¡°Look and feel wise nothing will differ from a regular capsule. However, when it is used by you, it will record a lot more about the state of your body and mind, while you play Asunder Online, and send it to our research team.¡± Jacob: ¡®So the big bad corporate VDI wants more of my data. But hey $100k after deductions is quite a bit more than I get at my day job. Also I get to play a lot more of Asunder Online.¡¯ Jacob: ¡°What if after you get your data, you no longer want to pay me and downsize by firing me? I will be without a stable source of income¡­¡± Chris: *laughs* ¡°You are aware how large the turnover of VDI is right?¡± Jacob: ¡°Still, corporates want profit above all else. I need an assurance that I won¡¯t be shooed away from this position after a couple of years. If I start playing full-time and leave my current job, it will be very difficult for me to get a similar position after such a long gap.¡± Chris: ¡°In that case, how about we start with a 5 year contract? The first year you get $100,000. The next year you get an additional $10,000 and so on to stay ahead of inflation. The contract will also include stock options of around $2,000,000 at present day value in our core subsidiaries. At the current dividend rate, that is enough for earning around $50,000 annually.¡± Chris: *notices Jacob contemplating* ¡°However, you are only eligible for receiving the dividend if you complete the five year contract, or we cancel it prematurely. You cannot liquidate the stock options for a decade. Also, you lose the stock options if you cancel our arrangement prematurely. In the meantime, the dividend accumulating will be reinvested in our subsidiaries in your portfolio.¡± Jacob: ¡®That is more or less like a combined $2 million singing/loyalty bonus! I don¡¯t get the cash at once, but if I stay 5 years, or fired early, I get it. Way too generous for rights to a few additional scans. Something big is going on. Oh well, what do I care? I get quite a bit of money and more time to play Asunder Online.¡¯ Jacob: ¡°That is good. But if I resign at my present job without notice, the penalty is three months of my salary. So I need to give a notice of 1 month and can accept your offer only from next month.¡± Chris: *smile* ¡°An additional signing bonus of $30,000 will be transferred to your account, if you agree to accept our offer today. You will need to resign from your present job, first thing tomorrow though.¡± Jacob: ¡®This is turning out to be quite good. The Eldest Druid bitch didn¡¯t give me much for that quest, but the RL rewards sure are awesome.¡¯ Jacob: *smiles* ¡°That gives me a lot of assurance in VDI¡¯s intentions. So I guess after the EEG scans today, let us enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement. And I can start playing AO a lot longer from tomorrow.¡± Chris: ¡°Glad to hear that. So will you be accompanying me for the scans? Or drop by later today?¡± Jacob: ¡°I will go with you, please wait a few minutes till I get ready.¡± Jacob then dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans and accompanied Chris to a small, unremarkable clinic. He was placed through what could be described as a standard EEG scan, which recorded his brainwaves when he was alert/drowsy/etc. He was also asked to meditate and his brainwaves were scanned in that state. He was also given a series of yes/no questions which he assumed was some sort of personality tests. His scans had concluded by lunchtime. After that, Jacob wanted to return to his apartment for lunch, but Chris insisted him to have lunch at a nearby restaurant and to proceed with finalizing the contract, and even offered to pay. Jacob then directed him to a nearby gourmet Italian place, which he usually wouldn¡¯t even dare to enter, unless he had a date. He had a hearty (and expensive) meal of Tossed Salad with gulf shrimps and scallops, and a Salmon Chardonnay with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Jacob then reclined his seat, put on his seat belt and took a small power nap, as Chris drove him to a nearby office. After arriving at the office refreshed, Chris presented him the contract, and Jacob went over it carefully. Jacob wasn¡¯t very proficient with the fancy legal terms used, but with a little bit of online help he was able to comprehend it. It was mostly as Chris had explained, but it had a few additional clauses. One of them was a non-disclosure clause, where he couldn¡¯t disclose any of the terms of the contract. He also wasn¡¯t allowed to delete his present avatar ¡®Jack¡¯ till the end of the contract. Also, if any other virtual reality game was released, he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to play them during his contract, unless his employers allowed it. He also wasn¡¯t allowed to leave California, for the entire duration of the contract, without the permission of his employer. To Jacob, it was a very good deal, even if the amount spent was barely a pittance to VDI. The clause locking him to California didn¡¯t really matter to him, as he never planned to leave anyway. After formalizing and concluding their business, Chris dropped him off at the apartment. He was informed that his new capsule would arrive shortly. Jacob then realized that it was almost a week since Valeria had dumped him. While waiting for the new capsule to be delivered, he decided to call her one last time and try to patch up things with her. He called her up, and Valeria answered his phone-call. Jacob: ¡°Hey babe, so how is your life?¡± Valeria: ¡°It is alright. I mean I am not fired, and the tips are good¡­¡± Jacob: ¡°So I was thinking, how to make it better! We should get together for a date. You know talk and patch things up¡­¡± Valeria: ¡°Hmmph, only on one condition.¡± Jacob: ¡°What can I do for you babe.¡± Valeria: ¡°You stop playing that VR game you are so obsessed with.¡± Jacob: ¡®It had to be that? No way am I losing Asunder Online and the fat contract over her.¡¯ Jacob: ¡°Are you joking babe?¡± Valeria: ¡°Absolutely not! It is either me or your game.¡± Jacob: ¡°Then I guess we are done for real, babe. It was fun knowing you. If you ever change your mind, give me a call. Till then it is goodbye.¡± *cancels his call* He then left a text to his three friends that he would resign first thing in the morning tomorrow. He just informed that he had found another job which allowed him to work from home, but the confidentiality clause didn¡¯t allow him to disclose any more details. Soon, all four were available, and they chatted for a couple of hours in their IM group. While they pestered him for details of his new job, he was firm on that point and didn¡¯t disclose any further details. Soon their queries died down. Jacob: But the best part about this is if I actually get more free time, I get to play more Asunder Online! Carlos: Yeah right. Most ¡®work from home¡¯ jobs make you their bitch. You probably won¡¯t get any free time. Dion: Don¡¯t be so negative, Carlos. Jacob is seldom impulsive, he must have thought this through. Adam: What Carlos said is true¡­ unless your job involves playing Asunder Online. Eh, Jacob? Jacob: I can neither confirm nor deny that. Carlos: Lol. Don¡¯t you give up Adam? He has been copy-pasting it to ALL our questions. Dion: Yep. Are you training to be a politician in your new job? Jacob: I can neither confirm nor deny that. Anyway bros, I have to go now. There is someone at the door. See you on Monday, when I turn in my resignation. Dion: That was a troll move, Jacob. Smirking, he closed the IM window, and answered his door. It was his new capsule from VDI. The technicians took a couple of hours to set it up. However, they informed him that he would only be able to use it from tomorrow afternoon. Jacob figured this had something to do with VDI calibrating his brain scans. But still it did piss him enough that he didn¡¯t tip the technicians. The technicians also took his previous capsule. Since he couldn¡¯t play Asunder Online, he wanted to invest some time in his cooking, and decided to cook a classic beef pot roast. He used a full chuck roast of around 2.5 pounds. Instead of preparing mash potatoes as a side dish, he opted to cook the potatoes with pot roast, as that would cause the potatoes to soak up the flavor of the beef stock. The whole process took a few hours, but Jacob felt that the end result was worth it. Tasting the fruits of his labor, Jacob enjoyed a scrumptious meal, before going to bed. (A/N: About the preparation time¡­ I am not kidding. It takes at least 3 hours to prepare something resembling a traditional pot roast and frankly is too much of a bother to prepare unless it you are celebrating something.) The next day, he went for his regular parkour circuit. At work, he surprised his boss, most of his colleagues and the Human Resources department, when he indicated that he wanted to resign today. He was ready to transfer three months of his present salary, as dictated by his employment contract. The process of resigning was surprisingly efficient for such a bureaucratic organization, and he had completed all the formalities by the end of the workday and reached a full and final settlement with his ex-employer. Jacob was excited as he drove home. From now on, he could concentrate most of his time on playing Asunder Online, and not have to worry about his day job! He would only need to leave his capsule for his meals, hygiene requirements and his morning parkour circuit. He took a quick shower, ate some reheated leftover pot roast for dinner and logged into Asunder Online via his new capsule. --------------------------------------- A/N: Yeah I said status screens and stuff this chapter. But this segment got longer than expected, so that stuff will be there next chapter. --------------------------------------- Chapter 029 (Proofread) Chapter 029 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Credits to Mecani and CanadianBacon for Proofreading! ------------------------------------------ Jack logged into Asunder Online, and found himself in the Mysterious Clearing. The new capsule he had used to log in didn¡¯t feel different at all. He noticed that Bob wasn¡¯t there nearby. It was understandable, as he was returning after almost six days in-game. He decided to go through his notifications, till Bob found him. He browsed his notifications. He had gained a new trait ¡®Defiled Husk¡¯ and a new title ¡®Corrupted Cleanser¡¯. For resisting the Blight, he had gained stat bonuses to his Indomitable Spirit and Concentration. The meditation tutoring by the Druid Guides and its subsequent application to fight the Blight had also allowed him to significantly improve the skill level of Meditation. He had also gained a new sub-skill of Shackled Spirit Eater named ¡°Insatiable Manifestation¡±. Although, his Shackled Spirit Eater skill didn¡¯t level-up. Successfully recruiting Bob had also given a boost to his Leadership skill. He had also learned a new spell, Hateful Touch. Fighting the Gnolls and aiding the druids had allowed him to increase his level to 66! That was around 8 levels higher than the average. However, he was confident that he wasn¡¯t the highest leveled player running around. This was because the pro/dark gamers were playing full time for around a month of RL time! Like him, they seldom revealed their in-game achievements publicly. Pondering on his future Asunder Online focused life Jack summoned the system information on his gains.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Defiled HuskTrait------
Thanks to your insight, you have successfully tricked the Blight to toughen and reinforce your body while leaving your soul untouched. This has caused the boundaries of life and death to blur slightly for you, reducing the effectiveness of all magic (including healing, blessings, damage and curses) of the special affinities ''Life'' and ''Death''. The taint of the Blight also makes it impossible for you to obtain the special affinity ''Nature''. These effects increase in magnitude with your level. You are changed in the following ways:
  • Every level, you gain an additional +5 to Max HP (for a total of +25/level)
  • Every 5 levels, you gain +1 to your special stat Endurance
  • Every 10 levels, you gain +1% resistance to all Blight affinity effects
  • Every 20 levels, you gain +1% resistance to all Life and Death affinity effects You cannot gain the special affinity ¡®Nature¡¯
Current Effects: +5 to Max HP modifier for level ups (retroactive). +13 to Endurance +6% Blight Resistance (all effects) +3% Life and Death Resistance (all effects) You cannot gain the special affinity ¡®Nature¡¯
Jack: ¡®Oh great. So it gives me more HP and some resistances, while reducing heals/buffs from Life affinity heal spells? I thought the druid elder was just being iffy, but looks like Nature affinity is permanently blocked for me. This trait feels closer to a Faustian bargain than a buff.¡¯
Title name:Corrupted Cleanser
Description:You have successfully cleansed the Blight, but are not completely untouched by its Corruption. Though your body bears the taint of the Blight, your soul is untouched and you no longer spread its corruption. This makes the servants of Gaia both respect and fear you. When dealing with non-hostile Druid NPCs, you are treated as having an additional +150 fame and +150 infamy. This title cannot be unequipped.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Insatiable ManifestationBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Shackled Spirit Eater You can manifest your Shackled Spirit Eater. On your command, the manifested abomination devours all consciousness in sight, rapidly restoring all resources (HP, PP, SE, Thirst and Satiety). The manifestation is more effective in Spiritual Planes. There is a high chance of going on a uncontrollable rampage, when using this skill. Failing to resist a rampage may cause a permanent loss in mental stat points. After using this skill, all your other Shackled Spirit Eater Abilities cannot be used for a while. Current level effects: Costs 500 PP and 25 Spirit Energy to activate. Rapidly regenerates all resources depending on consciousness devoured. The higher your Willpower, the faster you can deactivate this skill. Can only be used once every 4 days. Puts all other Shackled Spirit Eater sub-skills in a 24 hour cool down.
Jack: ¡®Even after all that trouble to clean up their mess I get equal amounts of fame and infamy. What an uptight bunch of tree-huggers. Insatiable Manifestation is my first Spirit Eater skill which actually requires Spirit Energy. Well looks like a double edged trump card. It would be best if I don¡¯t have to use it.¡¯
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Hateful TouchBeginner100.00%
You imbue some of your soul affinity mana with hatred, and transfer to a target with touch. This causes the target to go berserk, attacking anyone nearby, friend or foe, with regular melee attacks. Chances of success increases with higher magic attack and skill level. Target resists this effect with higher Willpower. This spell is ineffective on targets with the special resource Hatred, and instead restores it. Current level effects: Costs 110 PP per use. Grants 10 Hatred to targets with the special resource. Causes a target to go berserk uncontrollably for 5 seconds with 5% increased attack.
Jack: ¡®Now that is a strange spell. I guess Bob has the special resource Hatred. It is only useful on casters I guess. Have the priest and the mage whack each other instead of casting spells. It looks like it is kind of dangerous to use on warriors though. Using this spell will generally make me the closest target. No point in buffing a warrior with increased attack.¡¯
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level66 (24.78%)Fame / Infamy135/ 22
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator, Irfit¡¯s Vassal, Corrupted Cleanser
CONDITION
HP7476/(6776+700)HP regen9.1207/s
PP8415/8415PP regen69.0032/s
Spirit Energy0/120SE regen- 0.8% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst87% / 87%Weight Limit181/200
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv7)
BASIC STATS
Strength100Vitality183 + 10
Dexterity100Agility115
Intelligence300 + 10Willpower215 + 10
Free Stat Points25
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance113
Sustenance85Balance75
Flexibility75Concentration140+10
Wisdom130+10Indomitable Spirit110
Elemental Affinity
Physical22%Soul38%
Void26%Fire38%
Elemental Resistance
Physical4% + 5%Soul7%
Void5%Fire17% + 5%
Ice0% + 5%Blight6%
Life3%Death3%
(A.N: If you are wondering why MC¡¯s PP and PP regen reduced when he leveled up, it was because I had interchanged the contribution of Endurance and Sustenance special stats. Fixed now, but difference is very minor so won¡¯t bother fixing in the previous chapters)
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Defiled Husk (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Iron Stomach (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 12.38%)
  • Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 02.86%)
Enchanting (Beginner Lv 7: 32.61%)
    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
  • Bestow Enchant (Beginner Lv 8: 21.73%)
  • Absorb Enchant (Beginner Lv 6: 43.25%)
Free Running (Beginner lv 6: 32.64%)
Leadership (Beginner Lv 3: 23.42%)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 9: 32.35%)
  • Imbue Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 82.46%)
  • Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 4: 22.31%)
  • Mana Identification (Beginner Lv 9: 98.43%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 9: 76.83%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 8: 15.13%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 7: 03.53%)
Shackled Spirit Eater (Intermediate Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Insatiable Manifestation (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Sword Mastery (Beginner Lv 2: 76.23%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 7: 25.83%)
  • Opportunistic Striker (Trait)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv6: 95.21%)
  • Poison Resistance (Beginner Lv 5: 34.12%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 8: 62.05%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 7: 46.13%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 73.20%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 25.89%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 24.12%)
  • Mana Claws (Beginner Lv 4: 44.52%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 15.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)
Entropic Leech (Beginner Lv4: 65.73%)
Hateful Touch (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Mana Breath (Beginner Lv6: 41.23%)
Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv8: 68.74%)
Soul Scream (Beginner Lv6: 27.84%)
Soul Strike (Beginner Lv9: 37.42%)
Spirit Pact: Irfit (Unique) (Trait)
  • Summon Charlie (Beginner Lv4: 13.67%)
He refrained from investing his stat points, as he didn¡¯t have enough stat points to make his Vitality equal to his Willpower. Also, the toughest foes he had faced till now, namely Gnolls, were manageable in large groups with the help of Charlie. Suddenly he recalled something. Jack: *groans audibly* ¡®I totally forgot about the spider boss fang sword I wanted. The fucking druids had plenty of elves and half-elves. I bet one of them could have forged me a good sword. I doubt they will entertain my request if my Corrupted Cleanser title is anything to go by.¡¯ Bob: ¡°Why are you groaning now?¡± Jack: ¡°Oh Bob, you are back? It just occurred to me that someone in your previous coven could have made a proper sword out of this spider fang.¡± *displays the spider boss fang* Bob: *snorts* ¡°Yes. But they would have refused to make it before you dealt with the seed. They would have also refused it after you dealt with the seed, due to the pragmatic choice you made during the fight. So don¡¯t bother regretting.¡± Jack: ¡®Somehow that sounds exactly how the druids would respond.¡¯ Jack: ¡±So, what is your level and general fighting style?¡¯ Bob: ¡°I am only level 75 after dealing with the seed. I always preferred swords, but any melee weapons will do really. After awakening my hatred, I am suited to fight multiple foes in melee.¡± Jack: ¡°Well you have some kind of bark armor. Best we get you equipped in a chainmail or something, unless your magic interferes with metal.¡± Bob: *scoffs* ¡°I am no mage. Wearing metal armor would make most of my skills using hate more costly, not unlike stamina. This ¡®bark armor¡¯ provides more defense than most steel chain mails. So unless we find any better armor, this is good enough¡± Jack: ¡°Increases Hate cost? So does that mean Gaia¡¯s gifts act like divine magic? So they are Faith based?¡± Bob: *laughs* ¡°Like those idiot priests? Not a chance. Gaia¡¯s gifts, afflictions in my case, depend mainly on Willpower for their potency. Well Intelligence does affect it, but not quite as much as willpower.¡± Jack: ¡®So druidic magic is like divine magic? Instead of faith it uses willpower. I wish I could just see his damn status and skill screen.¡¯ Jack: ¡°So what are your primary stats? And what kind of skills do you have?¡± Bob: ¡°I have trained primarily in Strength and Vitality. I also have a reasonable amount of Willpower and a bit of Agility. As for skills, they allow me to fight longer and harder in melee, fueled by hate. A couple of skills allow me to charge at distant foes. I can also channel hate through my melee blows for more efficient slaughter. Also my hate allows me to leech a small portion of damage dealt as my Health and Stamina.¡± Jack: ¡®So Bob is a hate fueled berserker? Well he doesn¡¯t look like it, to be honest.¡¯ Jack: *removes one of the Gnoll¡¯s 2H axe and gives it to Bob* ¡°I got that from some gnolls. If that is better than your weapon, use it.¡± Bob: ¡°Hmm, not bad. I presently have only a one handed sword. This axe does more damage and has more reach.¡± Jack: ¡°Let me see your skills in action on the gnolls. I guess I should make a party and invite you in it. After killing some dogs, let us go meet Irfit!¡± Bob: ¡°Oh Irfit? I don¡¯t think I am suited for a spirit pact with him. Spirit pacts are more for wimpy casters.¡± Jack: *scowls* ¡®So I am a wimpy caster? Bah.¡¯ Bob: *notices Jack¡¯s expression* ¡°Of course, more resilient casters like you also benefit greatly from spirit pacts!¡± Jack: ¡°As for your suitability for spirit pacts, we will let Irfit decide that. No harm in asking him. I also have to introduce you to Charlie, my summon. He is the result of my trade with Irfit.¡± Jack: ¡®Well if Irfit gets pissed, I lose a few levels. But if this half-elf isn¡¯t ¡®interesting¡¯ enough for Irfit, no one is. I bet he will get some nifty abilities, so might as well risk it¡¯ Bob tried swinging the 2H axe a few times and appeared satisfied by its balance. Jack then navigated the party creation interface and created a party. He then invited bob who accepted it. Surprisingly, in the party menu, his follower¡¯s name showed up as Bob instead of Bailefour. Jack set the xp sharing to Even Share, and got up and summoned Charlie. He introduced Charlie to his new follower, and both of them seemed to get along well enough. Charlie was looking at Jack hopefully with his mouth wide open, and he felt hunger through their telepathic bond. Jack chuckled and fired firebolts at him, which he enthusiastically swallowed. Jack then led his follower, and occasionally Charlie, towards the residence of the friendly kobolds. After around a day of traveling, it was time for Jack to log off, do his morning exercises and have breakfast. After his parkour circuit and breakfast he logged back into Asunder Online, instead of heading for work as usual. After another few hours of travelling they met a small group of three gnolls. Jack prepared to summon Charlie, but Bob gestured him to refrain. He equipped his axe and a maddening bloodthirsty look dominated his face. The layer of purple-black energy coating him intensified and he disappeared, appearing behind the gnoll archer. Before the gnolls could react, he performed an overhead strike. The strike hit the archer cleanly on his left shoulder, damaging him for almost a fourth of his HP. A purple-black shockwave from the overhead strike knocked the nearby gnoll warriors a little distance away from him, damaging them for almost 10% HP! He then started chanting under his breath smiling with a crazed glee, and Jack saw ripples of distorting energy radiating from him. The gnolls caught in the AoE seemed to react too slowly. Taking this opportunity, He swung his axe sideways which was shimmering with the same purple-black energy. The swing seemed to phase through the gnolls, damaging the warriors for around 15% HP and the gnoll archer for 20% HP. In the few seconds, while he was preparing a soulfire breath, his follower had used two skills to reduce the gnoll archer¡¯s HP to 50% and each of the gnoll warrior¡¯s HP to 75%. Jack rushed with his prepared soulfire breath and released it, catching everyone in its AoE. He damaged the gnoll warriors for around a third of their HP, leaving them with 40% HP. The archer barely had 10% HP left, and Bob finished him off with a regular strike. One of the gnoll warriors attacked Bob with a clean hit, but he barely lost 3% of his HP, and shrugged it off like a scratch! When he received the hit, the purple black energy coating him seemed to intensify, and he retaliated with his overhand strike. The gnoll warrior he hit directly lost another 20% HP and the shockwave passed through the other warrior leaving him with 30% HP. Jack took this opportunity, activated mana claws, and finished off the gnoll warrior with a stab through its neck. His follower received another clean hit, which did around 4% damage to him. His companion retaliated with a regular two handed attack, damaging around 7% HP. Jack sidestepped, created some distance and finished off the last gnoll warrior with a couple of void bolts. After the death of the gnolls, his half-elf companion seemed to struggle for a while, the purple-black energy coating him flickered. He stopped chanting and blood-red mist seemed to radiate from him, like steam. The half-elf had a look of agony on his face as he was slowly walking towards Jack. After a while the mist stopped forming, and his expression and aura returned to its usual state. Jack: ¡®Bob looks like in a lot of pain. I want a capable flunky, not a liability I have to babysit after every fight.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Can you keep on fighting? If you can¡¯t fight, don¡¯t. You will just be a liability and endanger us both.¡± Bob: ¡°Yes, I can keep fighting. I just have to get used to the price. It is nothing compared to the agony of fighting the blight. The Eldest called it a curse for a reason.¡± Jack: ¡®Well looks like the rebound hits him after every battle.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Alright, if you say so. Master your curse, instead of the other way round. You have Gaia¡¯s strength to draw on. Don¡¯t disappoint her.¡± The half-elf nodded, and had a resigned look on his face. They continue travelling and slaughtering all gnolls they encounter. With the aid of Charlie and Bob, battles were over quickly. Since xp was being shared by both of them, the speed of leveling was slower, but his companion could carry a lot more loot than him. After every battle, the rebound from Bob¡¯s cursed gifts reduced slightly. Jack noticed that the half-elf did more damage, and took less damage per hit, when facing more foes. Charlie¡¯s soulfire breath seemed to synergize well with the half-elf¡¯s melee tactics. In this manner they travelled for almost 12 days in-game, going out of their way to hunt gnolls, until they reached the friendly kobold dwelling. ---------------------------------- A/N: Thanks to the kind donor for donating! You know who you are! A shorter chapter than usual, which showcases MC¡¯s progress (status screens!), his somewhat OP companion and why it would be a bad idea for players to have Bob¡¯s class. But I already posted more than 4 chapters this month, so this is more of a bonus really as I felt it would be mean to make everyone wait till next month for MC¡¯s progress¡­ Also, I am planning to start another fiction. It will be a fantasy/sci-fi setting, not a VRMMO one. So there will be no tables and stuff there. There are many ideas I have, many of which will not fit in Asunder Online and that¡¯s why I plan to start another series. Be assured though, that my schedule with posting this fanfic will be at least 4 chapters a month. ---------------------------------- Chapter 030 (Proofread) Chapter 030 (Proofread) ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Thanks to Mecani and CanadianBacon for proofreading ------------------------------------------ After Jack and his follower reached the hill with the friendly kobolds, he had to search for a few hours before he found a guide. His companion was surprised when Jack gestured him to crawl into the underbrush after the kobold. After a few minutes of travelling through underground passages, they were in the room of the Kobold Chief with the huge magical bonfire. Kobold Chief: ¡°Greetingss Human Jack, how can I help you? I ssee you have brought a guesst.¡± Jack: ¡°Oh hi there Chief! I just brought him along to meet Irfit.¡± Kobold Chief: ¡°Be careful. It is unwisse to take those who are unworthy.¡± Jack: ¡°Not a problem, Chief. I already discussed it with Irfit. So can I use your fire?¡± Kobold Chief: ¡°Of coursse human Jack. Do you need our shamanss to prepare?¡± Jack: ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary Chief. I can manage. Jack: *addresses his companion* ¡°Well Bob, let us go meet Irfit now shall we?¡± Bob: ¡°What exactly am I supposed to do? I don¡¯t want to be burnt to death.¡± Jack: ¡°Well just hold my hand, and I will do the rest.¡± Jack and Bob grasp each other¡¯s hand. Both of them look uncomfortable at the act, but proceed nevertheless. Jack concentrates and channels soulfire mana. He imagines a layer of it coating him and his companion, with their grasped hands as the intermediary. After a few seconds they are both covered in a thin flickering layer of translucent orange flames. The heat from the magical bonfire felt like a warm breeze to them. Hand in hand, like a couple, they approached the huge magical bonfire. He warned his companion not to let go of his hand unless he wanted to be burnt to a crisp, and proceeded to step into the planar fire portal. After experiencing a few seconds of gut-wrenching feeling, they arrived in what looked like a throne room made of flames. There was an eerie humanoid figure at the end. It was made completely of flames. It was fluid and formless, with its borders shimmering and flowing. As they approached it, the figure seemed to stabilize and a mouth formed on its formless face. On his side, there was what looked like a lizard of flames. He assumed that it was Charlie. However, as he approached it, the fire lizard retreated and hid behind Irfit¡¯s throne. Irfit¡¯s expression creeped out Jack, but he greeted Irfit nevertheless. Jack: ¡°Greetings Irfit.¡± Irfit: ¡°Welcome to my domain Spirit Eater. I see that you brought a guest. A candidate for a pact I presume?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes. Can I stop channeling soulfire over both of us? It takes quite a bit of focus to do so.¡± Irfit: ¡°Of course. In my domain, if I wanted to burn you your flimsy mana construct wouldn¡¯t help at all.¡± Jack: *lets go of his companion¡¯s hand and relaxes visibly* ¡°That fire spirit hiding behind your throne, is that Charlie?¡± Irfit: ¡°Yes.¡± Jack: ¡°Then why is it scared of me? It seems to like me a lot when I summon it.¡± Irfit: ¡°It senses the ravenous abomination in you, Spirit Eater. In human terms, Charlie is still a child and follows its instincts.¡± Jack: ¡°I see. I had a battle with a seed of the blight though. I am glad I had a spirit pact with you, else I wouldn¡¯t have been sure of the outcome.¡± Irfit: ¡°You tread a fine line Spirit Eater. You could have fought against the blight completely.¡± Jack: ¡°I did fight against it. The seed is destroyed, isn¡¯t it?¡± Irfit: ¡°Yet you willingly allowed its shadow to defile your body. With my aid, even if your will failed, you would have been a conduit for my power against the Blight.¡± Jack: ¡°I know. But the cost for it wouldn¡¯t have been to my liking. Clearly my decision is acceptable to you; otherwise we wouldn¡¯t be having this conversation.¡± Irfit: ¡°Enough. So who is the guest here today?¡± Jack: ¡°Bob here was a Guardian of Gaia fighting the seed with his soul. I encountered him while destroying the seed of the blight with my abomination and your aid. After that, he seemed to be distressed at the change of Gaia¡¯s connection. So I just enlightened him to his new power of Hate.¡± Irfit: *laughs* ¡°Interesting. It has been quite a while before an Afflicted has visited me. An Afflicted Warrior is not suited for a pact with me Spirit Eater. However, it has been centuries till I met one so I will be generous this time.¡± Irfit: *addresses Bob* ¡°So Afflicted. Are you ready for my gift?¡± Bob: ¡°What must I do, Irfit?¡± Irfit: ¡°I will need permission to read your thoughts, Afflicted. After attuning to your being, I will grant you a portion of my power, tailored to you.¡± Bob: ¡°And the price of this gift, Irfit? Spirits seldom bestow gifts without cost.¡± Irfit: ¡°You are a warrior of Gaia, Afflicted. All I require from you is to fight the blight, which you will even if I don¡¯t ask you so.¡± Bob: ¡°Then why the gift?¡± Irfit: ¡°Your awakening foreshadows a calamity by the blight, Afflicted. A bit of my power will aid you to combat it.¡± Bob: ¡°I agree to it then, Irfit.¡± Jack: ¡®what an asshole. He bargained so much from me¡­ but is giving Bob his power almost for free.¡¯ Irfit: ¡°Come here then, Afflicted. Let go of your hate, as much as you can, and allow me to read your memories.¡± Bob then approached Irfit¡¯s throne and kneeled before him. He closed his eyes and focused inwards. Jack noticed that the purple black layer of energy coating him almost disappeared. His companion then opened his eyes and addressed Irfit. Bob: ¡°I am ready Irfit.¡± Irfit then places a hand on his head. For an instant, the skin on his head turned translucent orange and the bones underneath were visible. Irfit then places one of his flaming fingers over his companion¡¯s heart. What looked like a fine thread of soulfire penetrated Bob¡¯s body. Irfit: ¡°It is done, Afflicted. Use my gifts well.¡± Jack: ¡°That was quick. It took a lot longer while you did that for me. Also don¡¯t I get a bonus for bringing an interesting companion?¡± Irfit: ¡°Perception of time is not absolute, Spirit Eater. Hmm, I suppose you do deserve a gift for actions in your first encounter with the blight and aiding his awakening. What kind of spell would you like?¡± Jack: ¡°A short range teleport would be nice.¡± Irfit pondered for a bit and then flicked his hands, and an item flickered into existence. It looked like a small barn lantern (hurricane lamp), completely made out of translucent orange flames. He handed the lamp to Jack. He held the lantern and gazed at Irfit with a questioning gaze. Jack: ¡°And what is this supposed to be exactly?¡± Irfit: ¡°That Spirit Eater, is something which I had crafted a long while ago. I call it the Planar Pharos. And now, you face a choice.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Jack: ¡°Thanks for the Planar Pharos. What is it supposed to be exactly, and what is the choice I face?¡± Irfit: ¡°The Planar Pharos, is something I have long outgrown. However, in Terra it will be quite a valuable artifact. If you exit my domain with it, you will have a powerful artifact. By channeling mana to it, it will allow you to teleport a short range, every once in a while.¡± Irfit: *pauses* ¡°There is an alternative. You can attempt to devour its spirit in my domain. Doing that, will help you obtain the ability of the artifact.¡± Jack: ¡®Hmm so I either get a very valuable item, or a spell. Either way, it adds a mobility skill to my arsenal.¡¯ Jack: ¡°What would be the relative advantages and disadvantages of acquiring the spell, as opposed to keeping the artifact?¡± Irfit: ¡°Difficult to predict exactly. Keeping the artifact will allow you to use a reasonably strong ability from the get go. However, you will be able to use the ability stored in the Planar Pharos a lot less frequently than that of a spell. Also if you lose the artifact, you lose the ability. You could also intentionally trade the artifact for something of potentially greater value to you.¡± Irfit: ¡°Devouring it here on the other hand will grant you a spell, which you can always keep. Initially, it will be weaker than the artifact¡¯s ability. However with time and mastery, the spell obtained has potential to be greater than the artifact! Also, innately knowing the spell will allow you to use it more frequently. So, make your choice Spirit Eater.¡± Jack: *thoughtfully looks at the soulfire lantern* ¡®A tradeoff eh. The artifact looks appealing, with a stronger ability initially and no need to grind. But it has higher cool downs, and can possibly be lost. Also I don¡¯t want to wave it around in battles and attract undue attention from other players.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Whereas, eating this lamp will give a spell. It will be weaker initially, but I can grind it up to be more powerful than the artifact! Also this will allow me to use my mobility spell more frequently and I don¡¯t have to wave around an artifact in battle!¡¯ Having pondered the merits and demerits of both approaches, Jack had decided to devour the Planar Pharos and get his spell. He then focused on the soulfire lantern in his hand, willing the abomination in him to devour it. In a couple of seconds, cylindrical monochromatic grey tendrils emerged from his hand. They were as thick as two of his fingers, and they ended in mouths with sharp teeth. The tendrils wrapped around the Planar Pharos and a gaping maw appeared on his palm. Despite his surprise at the partial manifestation, Jack retained his focus and continued devouring it. The maw in his palm was wide open and the tendrils slowly forced the soulfire beacon into the maw. In a few seconds, the Planar Pharos was devoured and he felt the characteristic rush associated with spirit eating, although at a miniature scale. Jack: ¡°Looks like I made my decision.¡± Irfit: ¡°Indeed. It is time for you and your Afflicted to leave, Spirit Eater.¡± Irfit gestured and a portal appeared nearby. Jack and his follower stepped through the portal, and they appeared outside the kobold hill! This surprised Jack, as he had expected to materialize near the huge magical bonfire near the Kobold Chief. Jack: ¡®So teleporting large distances IS possible theoretically. Looks like something to do with abusing the transit between planes. Why did Irfit show this to me, instead of just teleporting me near the bonfire? Oh well, need to check my new spell!¡¯ He then browsed his notifications. As expected, he hadn¡¯t leveled up or gained any stats, but had learned a single new spell Soulfire Shift. He summoned the system information on Soulfire Shift.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Soulfire ShiftBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Spirit Pact: Irfit (Unique) You channel soulfire, teleporting a short distance instantly, with Irfit''s aid. This shift through fire planes causes you to release a burst of soulfire at your initial location and destination, damaging all hostiles in a small radius. Current level effects: Teleport for a maximum range of 9 meters. Damage all hostiles in a 3m radius near your initial location and destination for 105% Magic Attack as soulfire damage. Costs 250 PP Has a cooldown of 34.5 seconds
Jack: *grinning* ¡®Nice spell! And it will only get stronger. It does have a significant cooldown and decent PP costs, so I can¡¯t spam it, but a small ally friendly AoE damage is a nice bonus.¡¯ Bob: ¡°You seem happy with your spell.¡± Jack: ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a cool teleport. So what did you get?¡± Bob: *smirking* ¡°I got two abilities. One is a self-healing ability, and the other is a passive damage booster.¡± Jack: ¡°What? He can give healing spells too? How exactly does it work?¡± Bob: ¡°I can only use it once every hour, and it is difficult to explain. The exact ¡®healing¡¯ depends on the amount of foes burning around me. So if more foes are burning, the better is the effect.¡± Jack: ¡®So he gets something synergizing with his berserker style huh? Nice!¡¯ Jack: ¡°OK, let us proceed to the next ¡®prison¡¯. I will just try my new spell once first.¡± Jack then channeled soulfire in his feet and attempted to teleport a short distance away in sight. His initial attempts were unsuccessful. Frustrated, he bought up the spell description and reread it a few times looking for a hint. He focused on part of the description which mentioned shifting through fire planes. Jack: ¡®I don¡¯t think the description is just fluff. The spell works by shifting through fire planes. So I have to attempt to use it in a similar fashion.¡¯ Thinking along these lines, he recalled whenever he changed planes to meet with Irfit. On every occasion, there would be a fiery portal of some sort aiding his transfer. Also, to meet Irfit the second time, he had to go through the kobold¡¯s bonfire while coated with soulfire. Feeling inspired, he coated his full body with soulfire. He then imagined two flaming portals opening simultaneously; one where he was and the other at his destination. Almost immediately, there was a small tug behind his navel. There was a flash of translucent orange flames around him, and he found himself at his destination with a mild feeling of being disoriented. Unable to restrain himself, he gave out an enthusiastic laugh. His multiple attempts at teleport took a few minutes, but successfully executing the spell had almost instantly transported him! Bob: ¡°It took you almost five minutes to teleport such a short distance. You could have run a lot farther away in that time¡­¡± Jack: ¡°Those were unsuccessful attempts. It took barely 2 seconds to execute once I figured the spell out. The actual teleport was instantaneous. With more practice, I estimate a teleport to occur in half a second. There is still some way to go to reach the location of the prison. We will need to pass near Rotang City on the way. Let¡¯s go.¡± With a jump in his step, he travelled towards Rotang City with the final destination being the Spider Boss Cave. Whenever his cool-down allowed, he would execute Soulfire Shift, with the focus being to reduce the execution time of his new teleport spell. ------------------------------ A/N: So, first chapter of the month! A short one, I know¡­but next segment is a battle scene and it would have been way too long to include it in this chapter. Also I have some real life stuff to deal with, including a couple of medical issues. Nothing serious, but need some bedrest. So I might skip a chapter next week. I will try to post one, but no promises. ----------------------------- Chapter 031 (Proofread) Chapter 031 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full Thanks to Mecani for proofreading this chapter! ------------------------------------------ Jack was practicing his new teleport spell for a few hours and he could consistently execute it in a little under a second. Soon, his companion stopped and motioned him to do the same. He noticed that the purple black energy layer coating his companion became more intense. He had observed this while hunting gnolls with Bob. This usually indicated that hostiles ahead. Jack: ¡°What is the matter now?¡± Bob: *with a dangerous glint in his eyes* ¡°There are around fifteen travelers with hateful intentions just at the edge of my perception.¡± Jack: ¡®I have my personal hate radar! Ha ha ha ambushers!¡¯ Jack: ¡°Where? I can¡¯t see anyone.¡± Bob: ¡°They are ¡®hiding¡¯ near the trees ahead. I hope we fight them! I am itching for a good fight.¡± Jack: ¡®Probably PKer¡¯s that means good exp and fame! But since I have some warning might as well prepare for it. Fifteen is a bit large, but I have Bob and Charlie.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Well yes, but let us be smart about it. You go off the path and try to flank them, preferably close to casters. Meanwhile, I will get ¡®ambushed¡¯. Start attacking after I teleport once. And listen; if you are in the danger of losing your life immediately retreat! I and Charlie won¡¯t die permanently but that is not the case for you.¡± Bob: ¡°When I go to slaughter, I am fully prepared to get slaughtered. No retreating for me.¡± Jack: ¡®Stop being so hard to manage you damn flunky!¡¯ Jack: *irritated* ¡°Well in that case, you must live to fight another day! You heard Irfit, your awakening foreshadows a calamity and I bet the Blight is involved. Will you give up on Gaia so soon, seeking an early release?¡± Bob: *expression hardens* ¡°Fine, I will live to fight another day. The blight is the highest priority.¡± Jack: ¡°Glad you understand. If I die, wait for me near the friendly Kobolds. Now get into position.¡± Jack observed his companion disappear in the surrounding greenery. He then leisurely walked ahead along the path appearing oblivious of his encounter. As he proceeded, his spirit senses picked up the details of people hiding nearby. He could make out at least a dozen of them. He then shaped a ball of soulfire thinking of Charlie. He paused and taunted out. Jack: ¡°Come out you bitches. I know you are in there.¡± At his taunt, four of the figures revealed themselves. While their equipment was somewhat different, Jack recognized them! It was the Pker group that had ambushed him before he had met with the kobolds for the first time! He also noticed with his spirit senses, that two players were utilizing some sort of stealth and trying to flank him. Jack: ¡°There are more of you hiding like cowards. Are all of you retarded fucks afraid of just me?¡± At his persistent taunts everyone revealed themselves, other than the two rogues. There were a total of 6 casters near the rear. He guessed that three of them where mages while three of them where priests, judging by their equipment. Aside from the axe and club wielding ¡®bros¡¯ he had already met, there were three more warriors. One of them wielded a two handed sword, the other two were equipped with 1 handed swords and shields. There were also a couple of archers. One of them had a hawk on her shoulders and the other had what looked like a bear cub near him. Jack recognized the hawk as the one that was trailing him, which he had eaten. Axe warrior: ¡°This time we got you asshole.¡± Mace warrior: ¡°Yeah! You said it bro.¡± Jack: ¡°I doubt you two idiots are behind this ambush. Ambush Leader, any chance we can walk away from each other.¡± Hawk Archer girl: ¡°Never! You ate my Chester you bastard! I will make you pay for it!¡± Jack noticed that the two rogues were almost in position. He wanted to distance them from the main group before commencing the attack. Jack: ¡°Haha. ¡®Chester¡¯ tasted nice. I look forward to eating him again!¡± Jack: *charges at the PKers, throwing the prepared soulfire ball at them* ¡®Child Charlie, I choose you! Open with a soulfire breath attack and keep the warriors occupied.¡¯ The rogues ambushing him cursed and dashed after him. As soon as Jack was in melee range of the warriors, he paused briefly and coated himself with soulfire. Just before the rogues were about to stab him, he executed Soulfire shift to teleport near the casters in the rear! He backed up a bit and prepared soulfire breath. His companion teleported near one priest and executed on of his skills. There were ripples of distorting energy radiating from his companion, which seemed to weaken and slow the caster PKers. Bob¡¯s 2 handed axe turned translucent with the purple black energy and sheared through three closely spaced casters! His weapon left a trail of soulfire, wherever it passed. Two priests and a mage lost almost 30% of their health. Jack then executed his prepared soulfire breath, catching all but one of the casters in it. His soulfire breath damaged their HP by almost 50%! Meanwhile Charlie had executed a soulfire breath, shaving off around 25% HP of three warriors. His body was glowing with translucent orange flames, indicating that he had activated blazing swiftness. With slashes of his fiery claws and his tail whips, he was keeping the five warriors occupied. But he had already lost around 20% HP engaging them head on. Jack then prepared another soulfire breath, while his companion was butchering the casters in melee, preventing them from completing their incantations. After executing the second soulfire breath, half of the casters had perished. Only two mage and priest was left. One of the mages was near death, and the other had around half her HP left. The priest had around 30% HP left. Jack quickly activated mana claws and entropic leech engaging the priest in melee. The priest had low physical stats, and was further slowed by Entropic leech. It was easy for Jack to stab both of his eyes, dealing enough damage to finish of the squishy caster. He did take a weak blow from the priest¡¯s staff, losing 5% of his HP. His companion in the meanwhile had barely lost any HP and had finished off the near death mage. Bob then raised his 2 handed axe and delivered a powerful overhead blow to the last remaining caster. The mage had barely any HP left and Jack finished her off with a quick soulfire bolt. In around 15 seconds, all the casters were dealt with! However, Charlie was having a hard time occupying the attention of 5 warriors, and his HP had reduced to almost 40%! Jack noticed that the bear cub was also engaging Charlie in melee, while the hawk was just circling overhead. Jack: ¡®So bear pet is melee and the hawk pet is just for scouting? Well need to heal Charlie ASAP.¡¯ The hawk girl archer noticed that the casters had died and shrieked at the melee warriors. Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°Leave the lizard you idiots, all priests are dead. Attack him.¡± The warriors turned and focused on him and his companion. He prepared a fire breath and charged. As soon as Charlie was in range, he unleashed the prepared fire breath. Charlie recovered around 25% of his HP, while the sword and shield wielding warriors lost around 30% HP, leaving them with around 60%. While he was concerned with healing Charlie, a rogue had managed to flank him! Before Jack could react, she executed one of her skills ¡°Dazing Strike¡±. This damaged him for around 10% HP and dazed him making him sluggish and unresponsive for a few seconds, despite his indomitable spirit stat. The archers, as if on cue executed their skill ¡°Triple Shot¡±, almost simultaneously. Before he could recover from the status effect, he was hit with all six of the arrows! Each arrow did around 6% HP damage. The combined attack, along with the previous accumulated damage from the rogue and priest left him with a little under 50% HP. After recovering he turned to the rogue flanking him. His entropic Leech was still active, and the rogue, despite having high agility, couldn¡¯t dodge Jack¡¯s next move! He lunged ahead, kicking her abdomen with both his knees. He had his full weight behind the strike. While it did a measly 5% damage, it caused her to fall on her back. He then caught each of her dagger wielding hands and twisted her hands to stab her breasts with her own daggers! This caused her to lose almost 40% HP as she shrieked. Having disabled her weapons, he stabbed both her eyes with mana claw enhanced fingers up to his knuckles, finishing her off. His companion had intercepted the other warriors. His hate fueled skills and Charlie¡¯s use of soulfire breath had finished off the 2 handed warrior, while the others had around 60% HP. His companion¡¯s HP had reduced to around 70%, while Charlie had around 40% left. He turned to deal with the remaining rogue. Not being caught unaware and having Entropic leech on, he traded blows with the rogue without much difficulty, each of his mana claws damaged the rouge for around 15% HP. When his opponent¡¯s HP was reduced to around 60%, the rogue attempted to use a skill. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Since his opponent was utilizing system assist, there were enough cues for him to interrupt the skill. He kicked him and backed away, rapidly firing soulfire bolts at the rogue. It barely took 3 bolts before the rogue was finished. The two archers were shooting at him, but most of them were glancing blows, as he wasn¡¯t affected by any status ailments. This was because, as the projectiles entered the AoE of Entropic Leech, they slowed down! This reduced the damage of the shots, while simultaneously giving more time to dodge! However, the sheer number of shots he received while dealing with the rogues reduced his HP to around 40%! Turning his attention to his companion and pet, he noticed that Bob had around 50% HP left while Charlie was near death with barely 10% HP. He prepared a fire breath to heal Charlie while simultaneously damaging the warriors. He didn¡¯t have enough time to position himself correctly, as his pet was fast losing HP and he decided to incur some friendly fire. Trusting the magic defense of his companion , he unleashed the fire breath catching Charlie, Bob and three of the warriors in its AoE. His companion lost around 25% HP while Charlie was healed to a third of his HP. The three warriors caught in the AoE lost almost 40% HP, killing off one of the sword and shield warrior! All the warriors were suffering from burns, due to the breath attacks of him and his pet. His companion¡¯s HP was dangerously low at 15%! Jack cursed his decision to incur friendly fire. He immediately shouted at Bob, while firing soulfire bolts at the warriors. He was about to shout at Bob to heal himself when his companion grunted and suddenly his body was covered in orange translucent flames while the nearby burning warriors became brighter. His companion¡¯s HP instantly recovered to 100%! Immediately after he was healed, he started taking DoT of around 2% per second! The warriors on the other hand, became more erratic, unable to focus on the battle and started taking DoT of almost 4% damage per second! This was very high as per DoTs go. He deduced that Irfit¡¯s healing spell instantly healed Bob, while sharing the damage healed among Bob and all nearby burning foes! Of course Bob had higher levels and better stats than the PK warriors, so he took less % of HP as DoT. Furthermore, his fire affinity actually reduced the damage he received from this ¡®healing spell¡¯ by a small percent. The crisis being averted, Jack focused on taking down the male archer. Instead of approaching in melee range, and taking more glancing arrow blows along the way, he chose to cast soulfire bolts rapidly. It only took four bolts to kill the male archer. As soon as the archer died, his bear cub companion also died! He fired two soulfire bolts at the female hawk archer reducing her health to around 40% and causing a burning DoT. He had an evil grin on his face, as he quickly downed a few healing potions, recovering to around 60% HP. In the meantime Bob and Charlie focused their attacks on the remaining sword and shield warrior, reducing his HP to around 35%. A couple of soulfire bolts finished him off. Now, only the mace and axe warrior bros remained along with the hawk archer girl. The warriors had around 40% HP left and it took only two soulfire bolts each to finish them. Jack then fired a soulfire bolt at the hawk archer girl reducing her HP below 10%. He then instructed Bob and Charlie not to harm her further. He gestured his companion to stand behind her, cutting off her retreat. He then addressed her. Jack: ¡°So you are the ringleader of this gang of PKers.¡± Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°This isn¡¯t over yet, monster!¡± Jack: ¡°Oh but it is! We will slaughter you again and again if you attack me.¡± Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°I will make you pay for eating Chester, no matter how long it takes!¡± Jack: ¡®This psychotic bitch will be annoying in the future¡­ but her avatar sure is hot.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Well you guys attacked me first. I really don¡¯t care if you guys PK every other player out there. But stop targeting me, because it gets annoying fast.¡± Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°And why would I do that?¡± Jack: ¡°Simple. Log off now, and admit defeat. I will leave Chester¡¯s corpse alone and in the future your gang don¡¯t mess with me.¡± Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°Log of now? That will give me the regular penalty of dying! Why would I do that?¡± Jack: ¡°Otherwise, I will kill you myself and make sure to eat Chester now, even if I have to vomit. And be assured that I will do that at every future opportunity.¡± Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°Let me and Chester go now, and we have a deal.¡± Jack: ¡°Not possible. You attacked me unprovoked both times. I can¡¯t just let you go free, without any penalties. And I am guessing, if I let you go, you won¡¯t honor your word. You need to admit defeat now by logging off.¡± Hawk Archer Girl: ¡°Never.¡± Jack *sighs* ¡°I figured you would react like that. Bob, knock her down and restrain her.¡± Bob: ¡°I don¡¯t care what you do, but I won¡¯t help you rape someone.¡± Jack: *frustrated* ¡°I will just use my abomination on her. So just do what I say!¡± His companion reluctantly knocked her down with his superior strength and held down all four of her limbs. Jack then removed a set of novice clothes from his inventory and used it to blindfold the Hawk Archer Girl. He then placed his hand near her heart and willed his abomination to devour her soul. Unlike his previous attempt at devouring the to-be lich soul, his abomination manifested partially. Cylindrical monochromatic tendrils emerged from his palm and drilled into her body. Soon he felt a mild rush associated with spirit eating. The magnitude of rush was far lesser than his other acts of spirit eating. It was comparable to the rush he felt when he devoured the Planar Pharos. However, he faced almost no resistance from the Hawk Archer Girl. The PKer¡¯s corpse disintegrated leaving behind some leather body armor was left, in addition to the usual drop from players. Jack then collected the loot from the PKer¡¯s. He collected around 30 pieces of gold, half a dozen potions and one two-handed warhammer, in addition to the leather armor from the Hawk Archer Girl. He then browsed his notifications. He had gained around 22% experience from killing the PKers. He had also gained a measly 5 points in dexterity for devouring the PKer leader¡¯s soul. He had gained some fame and infamy for the battle. Jack: ¡®The loot was good. Thirty gold, six potions and a couple of pieces of equipment for one battle? No wonder PKing is popular. According to my estimates these PKers should be around lv60. Considering that I had to share xp with Bob, 22% for killing 15 players around 6 levels lower than me is quite good!¡¯ Jack: ¡®The gain in fame is good, but why the fuck did I gain infamy? Is it because some of the PKers I killed had lower infamy than me? Must be those town campers the idiot warrior bros had told me about in our last encounter.¡¯ Jack: ¡®This is the first time I gained a physical stat by spirit eating! Although it is only five points, there is some significance in that. Maybe because it was a player, I gained the points she had spent on her level up? Dexterity is the primary stat of an archer, so it looks like that.¡¯ Jack: ¡°So Bob, how would you like to eat some bird and bear meat?¡± Bob: *avoiding eye contact with Jack* ¡°I am not really hungry but I will try it.¡± Jack: ¡°OK so what is your issue with me Bob? Be clear and direct.¡± Bob: *sigh* ¡°What you did was very close to rape. Maybe not her body, but you surely violated her soul.¡± Jack: ¡®I never get a break. It was that bitch who attacked me first and my flunky gets judgmental for using a skill on her?¡¯ Jack: ¡°I get what you mean to say. But you must realize that while in Terra, travellers are different. We cannot be permanently killed, nor can we be raped or violated. Even though I fed on her soul, she didn¡¯t disappear for good. She will be back. And my gains from eating her soul comparing to my other acts of spirit eating, is like a drop of water to a jug of water.¡± Bob: ¡°Still, it made me uncomfortable to aid you to violate her so¡­¡± Jack: ¡°I will use my abomination on both travelers and residents of Terra in the future. Some of them will deserve it, some of them won¡¯t. But it is the price you have to be willing to bear, if you wish to fight the Blight with me.¡± There was an uncomfortable silence and look of defiance in Bob¡¯s eyes. The purple-black energy coating him was fluctuating wildly. Jack was readying himself for a rebellion and confrontation, when surprisingly his aura stabilized and he let out a forlorn sigh. Bob: ¡°You exploit my weakness ruthlessly Spirit Eater. Though I do not agree with the use of your abomination on untainted souls, I will endure and aid it as long as we fight The Blight.¡± Jack: ¡°I was clear from the beginning Bailefour. I also recall that you said something along the lines of ¡®I care not for unsavory deeds you commit Spirit Eater, as long as you fight the blight¡¯. Has that changed?¡± Bob: ¡°Forgive me for losing sight of my goal, Jack. It is just that whenever you use the abomination, it unhinges me irrationally.¡± Jack: ¡°Might I ask why, Bob?¡± Bob: ¡°I do not wish to answer you at the moment. Rest assured, I will uphold my initial pledge to you.¡± Jack: ¡°Good. Let us eat some bear meat then! You can have the full bird if you want.¡± ---------------------------------- A/N: Did you enjoy this chapter? I hope you did! If not, do comment why it was shit in your opinion. If you did enjoy it, please do comment with a thanks! There won¡¯t be another one this month, cause I am going on vacation next week. I will be in the middle of nowhere without any internet access, outside my mobile. And no way am I typing 3k+ words on my mobile. Rest assured I will continue this fiction after I return from vacation! ---------------------------------- Chapter 032 (Proofread) Chapter 032 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Full thanks to Mecani for Proofreading this chapter! ------------------------------------------ While Jack was gutting and skinning the bear cub, he was felt fear through his telepathic bond with Charlie. Looking around he found his summon hiding behind a nearby tree. He willed Charlie to come near him, which his summon did reluctantly. He raised his right hand with the intention of casting a fire bolt at him, when his summon instinctively backed away from him. Jack was puzzled at this behavior of his summon. He questioned his summon mentally, but all he felt through their telepathic bond was a constant fear. He then realized that this was the first time he had used his Spirit Eating abilities in front of his summon. His summon being a fire spirit, was naturally scared at this display of power. Jack then noticed that his companion had finished butchering Chester¡¯s corpse with a practiced ease. In contrast, he was doing a haphazard job of the bear cub corpse. He motioned him to take over butchering the bear cub while he engaged with Charlie telepathically. Instead of using words to state his intentions, he used a combination of images and emotions telepathically with it. He conveyed that his spirit eating was only for foes, and he would never feed on him. He recalled the time when Charlie had gone Berserk when he was in pain, and his genuine affection for it. He also conveyed how Irfit had chained his Spirit Eating, and their entire bargain. He explained to Charlie that he had sacrificed a part of this abomination willingly, to get him, and as such would never use it on him. After a while Charlie warmed up to him, though his summon was still a bit cautious. Jack started feeding his summon firebolts. By the time Charlie was unsummoned, the feedback he had gained from his summon had regained most of its usual enthusiasm. He turned to his follower Bob, to notice that the Bear corpse was neatly skinned and butchered, except for the hack job he had done on it at first. Jack: ¡°Looks like you are practiced with skinning and butchering. So you do eat meat.¡± His follower looked genuinely puzzled. Bob: ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± Jack: ¡°Weren¡¯t you a guardian of the druid coven? I thought that they would all be vegetarians. You know being in tune with nature and everything.¡± Bob: *snorts* ¡°And killing for food is unnatural?¡± Jack: ¡°There were those giant animals with intelligent eyes there in your coven. And the few powers of the druids I witnessed were plant related and the mana was greenish.¡± Bob: ¡°Well they are the awakened. The druids treat them as they would treat each other.¡± Jack: ¡®Hmm that kind of makes sense. I guess balance and equilibrium are the focus of the druids, instead of being vegan fanatics. That is interesting.¡¯ Jack: ¡°And your healing spell was superb! But I guess if you use it without any nearby burning foes, it isn¡¯t really effective. I should get you stocked up with potions just in case.¡± Bob: *smugly* ¡°Yes, that would be prudent. Irfit¡¯s gift is valuable and is like a second chance to survive battles. Its effectiveness will be reduced severely if I have to fight a single strong foe. It will also be utterly useless if I fight foes immune to fire and burning.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm, so we should be cautious either way. Let us start cooking and eating this. I wonder how bear meat tastes like.¡± Afterwards he used his sword as a spit to roast Chester and some bear steaks. Chester was delicious, but the bear meat was a different story. It had a tough almost leathery texture and had an extremely gamey flavor. The worst part was the smell while cooking. Jack felt that the smell was so intense, that he had a status effect because of that. Jack forced himself to eat a part of the meat, and dumped the rest of it. He pocketed the bear pelt and addressed his follower. Jack: ¡°What the fuck was that horrible smell? It smelt worse than shit.¡± Bob: ¡°I usually don¡¯t eat carnivores, so I wouldn¡¯t know for sure. But if I had to guess, I would say it was the fat. The smell started when the fat was sizzling.¡± Jack: ¡°Nice observation. We should remember to remove the fat next time.¡± Jack then browsed through his inventory. He was almost full with loot, mainly the looted Gnoll weapons and so was his companion. He decided to stop at Rotang City to sell loot and resupply with potions. He decided to avoid the Training Hall for now as he wanted to complete the Druid Quest to free the prisoner before that. They travelled for a few hours before they reached Rotang City. One of the guards greeted Jack by name. He recognized the guard as one of the team members in the Spider extermination Quest. The other guard looked at Bob¡¯s Ears and was a bit cautious, and he was about to slowly draw his weapon. The guard who greeted Jack stopped his colleague and advised Jack to have companion wear a helm to cover his elf features before entering the city. When Jack inquired about it, the guard just cryptically replied that the nobles wouldn¡¯t like a half-breed in the city. He was about to ask his companion about the noble deal, but he noticed that the purple-black energy coating his companion had intensified, and he restrained himself from enquiring. Looking through his inventory, he found a low-leveled iron helm, but it would suffice for the purpose. Thanking the guard Jack and Bob, with his new headgear, entered the outer city. There were a lot more n00bs slaughtering rabbits from earlier. Jack chuckled at the sight, and entered the inner city. He tried finding the player merchant Timon, but he was offline unfortunately. He sold all the junk loot and gnoll weapons and bought some health potions for both himself and his companion from NPC shopkeepers. He also bought some darts. Even though his Spiral mana bolt spell far outclassed the darts in damage, Force imbued darts were good for luring enemies and tackling them one by one. Next he went to the tailor¡¯s guild, presented his token and paid ten pieces of gold to collect his spider carapace leather armor. He also enquired whether something could be made of the bear cub pelt. The guild attendant informed him that it was small and furthermore the skinning was far from good so that reduced the material that could be worked with. This was expected as he didn¡¯t have the skinning or butchering skills in-game and in RL. He was informed that at most, it could be crafted into a pair of boots. It would cost him 4 pieces of gold, half payable upfront and the rest payable on collecting. It would require 2 days ingame for it to be crafted. Jack decided to commission it. Before he left the Tailor¡¯s guild, he inspected his new body armor.
Arachnid Jacket
Type:Armor (Light)Durability:200 / 200
Rarity:RareGrade:D
This is a custom made Leather Jacket reinforced with the exoskeleton of a Giant Arachnid without hindering the mobility of light armor. Some of the Arachnid¡¯s power is retained by this armor. Restrictions: Lv90, 120 Agi and 45 VIt Bonus on Equip: +120 Physical Def, +10% Acid Resistance. Reduces duration of poisons used by/made from spiders.
The leather Armor was good, far better than any of his current equipment. However, the requirements were pretty hefty, specially the level requirement. This was to be expected as the giant spider was high leveled and it took a team of around 20 NCPs to bring it down! He still had a few hours in-game before lunch-time in RL. Jack had around 2 days ingame while waiting for his new pair of boots. Frustrated at the piece of equipment he couldn¡¯t use, He wanted to blow some steam ingame. He started a conversation with his half-elf follower. Jack: ¡°So how do you feel like having some fun? The battle there riled me up, I need to unwind a bit.¡± Bob: ¡°And what exactly does ¡®fun¡¯ entail?¡± Jack: ¡°I was thinking of getting drunk.¡± Bob: ¡°I do not trust myself to control my rage if I get intoxicated.¡± Jack: ¡°Then how about visiting the brothels? Guard Captain Zubin mentioned them to me earlier.¡± Bob: *looks at Jack with disgust* ¡°You can indulge your perversions if you want, leave me out of it.¡± Jack: ¡®Ooh. Touchy.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Buzzkill. Anyways, I might be away from Terra for a couple of days to a week. I have been spending most of my time in Terra, and I think I need a break in my world. So let¡¯s get you settled at a nearby inn.¡± Jack then navigated to a decent, but not posh, inn. His follower didn¡¯t have any money with him, so he made the payment for 2 days, which came at around 30 silvers total including meals. He also gave Bob around 20 pieces of gold, if he was late. He still had 1 platinum and 20 pieces of gold left with him. He then navigated to the red light district of the City, near the slums and wanted to explore the brothels, and how sex felt like in-game. As he entered one of the cleaner looking ones, he received a system message. *Ding*
System Notice: You have entered an adult zone, where sexual services from NCPs can be traded for in-game currency. However, prostitution is illegal in your area of residence (California, USA). VDI¡¯s stand is that this is a more advanced form of pornography, and curtailing it for informed adults goes against the spirit of Freedom of Expression. However, various groups oppose this, and litigation is ongoing. Until this is resolved by your local judiciary, sexual interaction with NCPs is restricted ingame. However, you can still get intimate with other players ingame if you have their consent. If you would like to support VDI¡¯s campaign for a more complete experience, please get in touch with our customer support or our passionate community at the official forums.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Jack: ¡®Fucking moral police. Fuck those pretentious prude assholes. They are just pieces of code, and real money isn¡¯t being changed. How the fuck is this prostitution?¡¯ With a frustrated and forlorn look, Jack left the brothel and travelled to the library. He wanted to update Madam Curie about the new spells he had developed, in-case there were any rewards possible. His spirit pact with Irfit made him unable to learn or use any runic magic. His also couldn¡¯t advance Enchanting to Advanced, but he could still use it. This was because Enchanting was both runic magic and a crafting skill! He navigated the library to Madam Curie¡¯s room using his employee card. He knocked and entered when he heard a curt voice say ¡®Come in¡¯. Madam Curie: ¡°Welcome Jack. It has been a while. Have you reached Intermediate in Mana Control yet?¡± Jack: ¡°No ma¡¯am, I am still a beginner at Mana Control. I actually developed and acquired a few spells and I wanted to show them to you while I was in the city for resupplying.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°Interesting. What are they?¡± Jack: ¡°The first couple of spells I developed, with monsters as my inspiration, namely Mana Breath and Soul Scream. Mana Breath deals damage to anyone in a cone in front of me, and I can use all elements except Soul with it!¡± Jack: ¡°The next is Soul Scream. With me as the center, it helps myself and allies fight status effects, while causing a very weak status effect on hostiles! And it also does a small bit of damage to them.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°Impressive developing AoE abilities without Sigils. Especially Soul Scream; that sounds like a very useful and unique spell.¡¯ Jack: ¡°The next couple of spells I developed to counter fast agile monsters. I met a kind of striped giant lizards, and I couldn¡¯t hit them with my ranged spells at all! They were too fast and dodged everything at range.¡± Jack: ¡°I could only rely on soul scream to temporarily stun them when they were close to me and attack them. However, that was barely effective to deal with a single lizard. No way could I deal enough damage to multiple fast lizards with that strategy. Since I was hunting them alone, I needed to increase my efficiency.¡± Jack: ¡°So I developed an enchantment spell and a debuff sustain. My enchantment spell is mana claws, which adds a lot of my magical attack to unarmed strikes! The next one is Entropic Leech. Using some insights in fire and force affinity, I created a sustain which slows everything around me in a small radius while regenerating a small part of my MP! Later on, I found that it slowed down arrows fired at me too!¡± Jack looked pleased with himself recalling his accomplishments. Madam Curie maintained her stoic mask outwardly, but she was extremely impressed. Slows and freezes were possible with ice element, but this traveler had somehow managed to replicate it with fire and force affinity, and regenerated his MP! Madam Curie: ¡°Hmm nifty spells, but they would be more use to a melee fighter if you could cast it on melee fighters in your party. You can¡¯t, can you?¡± Jack: ¡°No. They are limited to me. And lastly, I made another spirit pact!¡± Madam Curie was shocked and couldn¡¯t help but gawk at Jack. Recovering, she inquired Jack about it. Jack then described his encounter with the friendly Kobolds. He then described how he cleared the caves of the lizards, but left out the part about Lady Salamander. He then described going into fire planes and pact with a fire spirit. He skipped over the details of the bargaining and identity of the spirit. Jack: ¡°Out of the pact, I gained two new spells! One is a summon spell, and the other is a short ranged teleport. But unfortunately the spirit pact had unforeseen consequences. I will be unable to use or learn any form of runic magic.¡± Madam Curie was extremely frustrated at hearing this. Once he was intermediate in Mana Manipulation or Mana Control, he could learn runic skills like Sigil mastery and use it to create more powerful spells. Although these spells created with the aid of runic systems would have longer cast times and cool-down times than purely shaped spells, but they had the potential to be a lot more powerful! In her eyes, Jack was a genius. He had already developed four powerful spells with his imagination alone, without the support of runic spell casting. She wanted to see what new heights he would have reached if he could have used Sigils! For satiating her curiosity, she had planned to personally tutor him once he was qualified enough! However, due to his spirit pact, he wouldn¡¯t be able to learn it. Madam Curie: *disappointed look in her eyes* ¡°That is a big sacrifice for a couple of spells. Most arcane spell-casters like me who utilize mana manipulation have to rely on Sigils to create spells beyond the basic mana bolt. While you did create some powerful spells without Sigils, your future spell arsenal will be severely restricted.¡± Jack: *sighing* ¡°I never thought the pact would end up like that. Anyways, what is done is done. I just need to be creative in the future, or squeeze out more spells from the Spirit Pact. But during battle, being able to spam elemental bolts and breaths really helps my damage output. Although the pact spells are way more powerful than mine, in the one battle I used them, I finished the battle before I could use the teleport again¡­¡± Madam Curie: ¡°Do keep me informed of your discoveries about magic. Especially if you can acquire or shape other unique spells. If I find them interesting enough, I might have something for you.¡± Taking the hint, Jack thanked her and went to his bunk bed in the library dormitory and he logged off. Exiting his capsule, he noticed that it was almost time for lunch. He reheated some leftover beef steak and mashed potatoes and had his lunch. He was grumpy about being denied sex ingame. He browsed the forums and found a whole sub forum dedicated to the issue of sexual interaction with the NCPs. He glanced trough the threads, but that just frustrated him more. Jacob: ¡®Fuck this shit. I wanted a whore ingame and was denied that. Well Fuck you too! I can still get a whore in RL.¡¯ But Jacob was stumped where to begin. He didn¡¯t know any Escorts and had never availed their services till date. And going to the bad part of town for a hooker was too unsafe. For a person like him, it was like asking to be mugged. Not wanting to give up, he randomly scrolled the contacts on his phone. He saw Chris¡¯s contact information. Chris was the VDI representative who had arrived at his residence with his new Job offer. After accepting his new employment contract, Chris had given him to contact if he needed any sort of help. He had just brushed it off as simple courtesy at the time. However, his contract was far too favorable for someone to just play games all the time. He suspected that he had some sort of value to VDI, and he also wanted to test out how sincere Chris¡¯s offer was. Most likely he would be refused, however he was feeling impulsive and wanted to give it a shot. He quickly called Chris. Chris: ¡°Hello?¡± Jacob: ¡°Hi there Chris! How are you?¡± Chris: ¡°Hello Jacob! I am fine. So what do I owe this pleasure to?¡± Jacob: ¡°Actually, I had a sensitive issue I was hoping you could help me with.¡± Chris: ¡°Sure what is it?¡± Jacob: ¡°Actually I broke up a while ago, and was hoping you could set me up with a date for the weekend.¡± Chris: *laughs* ¡°I don¡¯t know about a date, but I can hook you up with an escort. So do you prefer men, women or something in between?¡± Jacob: *surprised* ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting you to be so forthcoming. Women, definitely women. You know where I live. I need to unwind for the evening and my budget is a grand.¡± Chris: ¡°Sure I can work with that. I will call you around 4pm to finalize the details and send over someone by say 8pm?¡± Jacob: ¡°Yeah that¡¯s cool. Thanks a lot Chris.¡± Chris: ¡°No problem Jacob. If you are ever in a pinch or need anything, just give me a call.¡± *hangs phone* Jacob: ¡®Well that went better than expected. If the escort thing works out, I guess I know whom to use my one phone call on if the cops get a hard on for me. I should meditate now, Need to make the most of my one grand.¡¯ ------------AUTHOR¡¯s NOTE/RANT/REQUEST.------------ Here is your new chapter and I am back from vacation! It is a bit short I know, but new project with tight deadlines at work cropped up as soon as I joined and I probably need to work overtime for a while. A chapter a weekend will resume from now on, unless there are unforeseen circumstances. How do you guys like the character development? I am picking it up a notch. Jacob isn¡¯t a cheery hero, but don¡¯t expect a grim-dark villain either. I will slowly unravel the moral code which he lives by. Don¡¯t expect him to sacrifice himself for innocents. But don¡¯t expect him to go on a murder/rape spree either. Now I know some readers may have moral issues with the prostitution thing. You are entitled to your opinion and that¡¯s fine. But please remember this is a work of fiction, and it IS tagged as mature and every chapter I put a warning. I may or may not include more controversial themes like mental illnesses, sexual violence, drug use etc. So you have been warned. However, Fear Not! This is primarily a VRMMORPG story, and it will remain about playing a fun VRMMORPG game. I don¡¯t plan to make this a depressing tragedy or soul wrenching tale of redemption or whatever, but when I feel mature elements can spice up the story, I will add them. If you want to provide constructive criticism which will help me improve the story and edit/rewrite certain parts of it so that it flows better and makes more sense, please do so. An example for this would be Chapter 24, where I derped big-time in the original version and significantly improved it in the rewrite as many readers pointed out that the interaction I included was ham-fisted/hurried and unrealistic. However if you just want me to rewrite/edit some parts of my story because you think prostitution is bad, and I am a bad person for including it in my story, I won¡¯t dignify you with a reply. Please consider this as my pre-emptive reply to these kinds of posts. ALSO, I will skip XXX scenes for this (and most future) encounters, as I have no confidence writing those. And I also plan to write short side stories about the other characters to flesh them out a bit. I am open to ideas about a SS for Hawk Archer PKer. You could comment/PM a brief description about her RL stuff and why she behaved the way she did ingame. If I like an idea I might work with it. And if you actually read this full note/rant/request, Thanks a LOT! If you didn¡¯t I still hope you enjoyed the chapter. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 033 + POLL! (Proofread) Chapter 033 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link Credits to Mecani for the PR! ------------------------------------------ It was almost 8 pm and Jacob was waiting for his escort to arrive. He was nervous; as this was the first time he was paying directly for sexual services. Soon, the doorbell rang and he answered it and saw a woman of Hispanic descent. She had black hair in a stylish boy cut and dark brown, almost black eyes. She stood around 170 cm (5 feet 8 inch). She was dressed in what appeared to be a crisp light-grey business suit with a skirt ending above her knees displaying her delicious legs. From what Jacob could make out, she had curves in all the right places and her bust size was somewhere between B and C. She was observing Jacob, and had a mild look of pleasant surprise. Escort: ¡°So you must be Jacob. Wanna invite me in handsome?¡± Jacob: ¡°Sure, Come in.¡± Jacob let the escort in, and asked her to make herself comfortable, while he went to prepare some drinks. She removed her suit and the black top she was wearing further accentuated her figure. Jacob returned with a couple of glasses of scotch on the rocks, which he usually kept for special occasions. He was annoyed to see her sit on the only chair in his apartment, the one which he used whenever he used his desktop. He dragged a side table with an ashtray on it and kept the prepared drinks, while he sat on his bed. Jacob: ¡°So you know my name, but I don¡¯t know yours¡­¡± Escort: *Charming smile* ¡°You can call me Cindy, or whatever you like.¡± Jacob: ¡°Cindy is good enough. So how should we proceed¡­¡± Cindy: *sultry look in her eyes while she pouted* ¡°How do you want to proceed? Should I be the naughty schoolgirl being punished, or the dominating teacher punishing you? Tonight I can be whatever you want.¡± Jacob: ¡°Let us have a few drinks and a smoke first, we can proceed from there¡­¡± -*-*- Jacob woke up early next morning, to find that Cindy had already left. It had been quite a while since he had slept in a bed instead of his Capsule, and it was truly refreshing. He recalled last night¡¯s events. Surprisingly, he had spent more time talking with Cindy on a variety of topics from the advent of Virtual Reality to the politics of Religion. It was the most stimulating conversation he had in years. Surprisingly, Cindy could keep up with his ranting and keep him turned on. The sex was almost an afterthought, though it was great as she was a professional after all. However, he felt the whole experience to be hollow, and there was not much intimacy. Nevertheless, it was a great stress reliever and he had enjoyed the experience. He got ready for his morning parkour circuit and left his house. After his daily exercise he took a quick shower and went to prepare his breakfast. He chopped a small onion, a few cloves of garlic and some jalape?os. He then saut¨¦ed half a cup of ground beef and added the onions, garlic and jalape?os when the fat came out of the meat. He added some salt and pepper and saut¨¦ed all of it together. He broke the eggs into a bowl and added some of the ground beef mixture. He thoroughly beat the eggs with the filling and added some oregano and salt. He then poured the mixture into the frying pan, using some rice barn oil to cook the omelet thoroughly. He reheated some leftover mashed potatoes and mixed it with the remaining beef, and ate it with his omelet for a delicious and filling breakfast. After enjoying his breakfast, he logged into Asunder Online and regained control of his avatar Jack in the dorm of the library of Rotang City. Almost four days had passed in game, and it was currently night in game. He quickly navigated to the tailor¡¯s guild and collected his Bear Skin boots by paying the balance of 2 gold coins. He quickly inspected his new equipment.
Bear Skin boots
Type:Armor (Light)Durability:120 / 120
Rarity:UncommonGrade:E
This is a custom made pair of boots made from the pelt of a bear cub. It grants the wearer some resistance against the cold. Restrictions: Lv60 and 75 VIT Bonus on Equip: +5% Ice Resistance, +15 Physical Defense
The boots were better than what he wore, but he felt that it wasn¡¯t worth the 4 gold coins he had spent on it, in addition to the material. However, even if it had comparatively high requirements for a piece of light armor, it granted elemental resistance to ice, while unenchanted! Jack quickly enchanted it with vitality and equipped his new boots. He then navigated to the inn where his half-elf companion Bob was staying. He found his companion with some sort of soup with chunks of meat, bread and a mug of beer in the corner. He sat down opposite to him and waited for Bob to chew and swallow his current mouthful of meal. Jack: ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t want to be intoxicated¡­and yet I find you here with Beer.¡± Bob: ¡°This much isn¡¯t enough for me to be intoxicated, at least not at the speed at which I am drinking. Besides, the food tastes a bit bland here, and I am just washing it down with some beer.¡± Jack: ¡°Finish your meal then. Meanwhile, I will have some beer myself.¡± He then gestured to a waitress and ordered another mug of beer. As he drank the beer, he felt that it tasted like piss. Still he drank a couple more mugs and had a nice buzz by the time his follower finished his meal. After settling the bill and tipping the waitress, they left the inn and were on the way to one of the exits of Rotang City. Jack: ¡°So we now have to go to the prison and free the prisoner. Last time I went there, it was full of giant spiders. If they are still there, both of us along with Charlie can manage them¡­I think.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Bob: ¡°We will see when we reach there. How far is it anyway?¡± Jack: ¡°Well it takes around seven hours on horseback if you follow the dirt path. However, through the woods, I can manage it in a little less than six hours. There aren¡¯t any threats in the woods, but the terrain is rather unfavorable. Think you can keep up?¡± Bob: *snorts* ¡°I lived in the woods most of my life. I think I can manage to run a few hours through one.¡± Jack: ¡°Well in that case, we will take the shortcut through the woods.¡± He then checked the map once, confirmed the route and beckoned his follower to follow him. He then started running through the woods towards the cave infested by the giant arachnids. Initially his companion had no problem keeping up with him. But after a couple of hours when the terrain became more and more unfavorable, he had to take breaks prematurely for his companion to regenerate his stamina. During one such break, Jack inquired his companion about the frequent breaks. Jack: *smug look* ¡°You are a warrior AND higher leveled than me. It is pretty pathetic for you to run out of stamina before me, a low leveled caster. Guess in all your time in the woods, you didn¡¯t work out much and got lazy.¡± Bob: *irritated* ¡°You are from the Brahman Sangha and not just a caster¡­ so don¡¯t bullshit me. For all I know you have some strange exotic skill helping you conserve Stamina. Besides, I am wearing heavier armor than you. ¡± Jack: *smug* ¡°Yes, I know that I am amazing. You don¡¯t need to make excuses for your shortcomings.¡± Jack: *notices a flicker in Bob¡¯s purple black aura* ¡°I am joking alright? No need to get angry. How about I teach you my skill? We have to travel for quite a few hours now.¡± Bob: ¡°And how do plan to do that? I don¡¯t think you have the materials to write a skill book, Even if you have the expertise.¡± Jack: ¡°Well, I don¡¯t think I have the expertise either. I am still a beginner in this skill, Free Running, But I can teach you all the basics.¡± Bob: ¡°Then it will be quite a while before I manage to learn Free Running.¡± Jack: ¡°It took me almost six hours of constant utilization in this terrain to learn Free Running, even though I know all the principles and utilized them for quite some while in battles.¡± Bob: *excitement* ¡°I still have the return journey to learn this skill. So let¡¯s begin, shall we?¡± Jack: ¡°Sure. Now first you have to unequip your weapon. It will cause too much imbalance in the initial stages. And your Bark armor is flexible enough to be workable, I suppose. However, for best results I would suggest sticking with clothing. Now watch carefully, I will demonstrate the basics¡­¡± Jack then coached his follower through the basic building blocks of parkour. The first move he taught Bob was Quadrupedal Movement or how to effectively move low to the ground on all four limbs. While it seemed simple enough, for a beginner in parkour it was a challenge to master the skills of weight transfer and co-ordination to utilize Quadrupedal movement effectively. After that, he demonstrated how to stand and squat correctly on two limbs. He then further explained how to use these postures to make a gentle, quiet landing while falling, vaulting etc. He then demonstrated various techniques related to falling from handstands and directional rolls to cartwheels and full turns. He then explained balancing and stated that after the previous techniques had been mastered, it was time for balancing. One of the best ways to improve balance was to walk on difficult or narrow paths. As each individual¡¯s body and center of gravity is different, not to mention equipment, they had to master balance on their own by experimentation, and there was no fixed regime of training. Jack then demonstrated a few techniques of the basics like jumping, vaulting, wall running, brachiating (moving like a monkey from branch to branch), climbing, flipping and spinning. By the time he had coached Bob in the first few basics and demonstrated rest of the basics, a few hours had passed. Jack: ¡°Now don¡¯t worry about the later stuff, it may seem fancy now but you will get to it eventually. Once you are proficient in Quadrupedal movement, Falling and Balance, I will demonstrate rest of the basics in depth. Once you master all the basics without your two handed weapon, it will be time to repeat everything with a weapon equipped.¡± Bob: ¡°Those were all just the basics? It will take me at least a few weeks of diligent practice to master all those techniques. And most of them are unusable in any kind of heavy armor. No wonder you prefer unarmed fighting and light armor, I can see how using these with magic in battles can be effective. How the hell did you manage to learn the skill the six hours?¡± Jack: ¡°Yes, that is one of the reasons. I had already practiced and moved beyond the basics for years in my world. I didn¡¯t learn it from scratch here in six hours, if that is what you mean.¡± Jack: ¡°In one of the countries in my world, there are still a few genuine sword masters left. They are last of the Old Guard, so to speak, and teach their art of kendo as more of a sport now. One of the most profound things I heard from them was unless a sword feels like the extension of the arm, natural and fluid, not even the basics are mastered.¡± Jack: *chuckle* ¡°Forget swords and other weapons. Most of us, including me, have not mastered the use of our own body to that degree. Anyways, even if you don¡¯t manage to learn Free Running, mastering those basics will help you in combat significantly.¡± Bob: ¡°Yes, I suppose. All of us can¡¯t be unarmed monkeys jumping from enemy to enemy. Anyways, I am tired and need a nap of few hours. I better be refreshed and in optimum condition before we tackle the prison.¡± Jack: *fake anger* ¡°The unarmed monkey has potent magic! Don¡¯t forget that. Yeah, take your nap I keep forgetting you need to sleep regularly. You do sleep a lot less than I expected though. I might as well practice the basics of my monkey movements in the meanwhile.¡± Bob: *bitterly* ¡°Hate sustains me Jack; it seeps into every aspect of my being. Every day, I feel a little less refreshed after sleeping. And each time I wake up, my dreams make me a little wearier. If things progress at this rate, in a few years I won¡¯t get any solace from sleep.¡± With a bittersweet expression of longing, Bob climbed a nearby tree, curled in a fetal position in a cluster of branches and closed his eyes. -------------------------------- A/N: So another short chapter of around 2.2k words! This focuses a bit on char development and companion interaction. VR battles of slaughter for the sweet ecstatic xp begins next chapter! My hiatus is not over yet, and I will occasionally post chapters. I will resume it at a regular pace from mid to late July. I had my surgery this weekend, and it was a success! There are no post-op complications. But between the pain of surgical trauma and the prescribed painkillers, I feel a bit woozy and not in much of a mood to write. Big Thanks to everyone for well wishes! I also have put up a poll for a new NCP companion. Please vote in it. It is still a long way before I introduce another companion, but would like two know which archetype readers prefer. ----------------------------------- Chapter 034 Chapter 034 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------------ After a few hours of travelling through the woods, Jack and his half-elf companion had reached the cave, which was previously infested with giant spiders. He cautiously entered the cave and went through an oval tunnel till he reached the first cavern His companion followed behind him. In the dim lighting ahead, provided by some sort of lichen growing on the cave ceiling overhead, he observed a group of goblins. There were around twelve of those ugly short, stocky and green humanoids on what seemed like a crude patrol. Jack: ¡®So the game-world is emergent and dynamic. No more spiders to infest this cave, so nearby goblins took over it. So in future, can¡¯t expect dungeons to have the same type of mobs. They may change depending on what quests were completed!¡¯ He gestured at his companion and spoke softly: Jack: ¡°Stay back. I want to see how much I have improved, from the last time I took them on.¡± Bob: ¡°You sure? Even if they are weaklings, don¡¯t underestimate the strength of numbers.¡± Jack: ¡°Meh. I¡¯ll manage. Worst comes to worst, I can always summon Charlie and flee.¡± Jack then unsheathed the fine iron dagger from his boots and activated force blade. He then silently prowled circling around the goblins towards the most isolated one. After a successful assassination of the first goblin, he was creeping towards the second one, when a trio of goblins turned and saw Jack and a corpse of their comrade. The short ugly brutes raised a war cry and charged at Jack. The rest of the goblins were alerted to his presence and charged. Eleven goblins were in a mad rush towards Jack. He sheathed his dagger, and pointed both of his palms towards the goblins. In almost a second, a couple of soul fire bolts erupted from each of his palms. Each soul fire bolt damaged a goblin for around 55% HP! One of the goblins died as two consecutive soulfire bolts struck him. Each of the other soulfire bolts hit a couple of goblins bringing them below half of their HP. A couple of the charging goblins were entangled on their comrade¡¯s corpse. Jack took this opportunity to unleash a Soul Scream. Around 8 of the goblins were stunned for a couple of seconds. He took this opportunity to prepare a Soulfire Breath. As the goblins recovered from their momentary stun and charged at him, he took that opportunity to teleport using soulfire shift. His teleport enabled him to position himself in a tactically advantageous position and he unleashed his prepared soulfire breath. All but one of the goblins was caught in the AoE of soulfire breath. Two of the goblins who had less than 50% HP due to receiving the previous soulfire bolts died instantly. The rest of the goblins went from full health to under 10% HP by taking just one Soulfire Breath! While this may seem impressive, it was expected for a few reasons. Chief among them was that Jack had an advantage of around 20 levels over the goblins and the goblins had extremely low magical defense. Furthermore, his spirit eating skills had added an impressive amount of stats to his mental attributes, and stats wise his intelligence was far ahead of mages of his level despite his investment into vitality. After seeing most of them in critical state, there was a grin on his face as he enabled mana claws, entropic leech and charged into the fucking ugly monsters! He dodged most of the strikes of the goblins, and with each swipe of his augmented fingers caused a goblin in critical condition to die. He got hit a couple of times, but the damage done was too low to even dent his HP bar! It was as if his previous challenge was a cakewalk! He had moderate physical defense due to his investment in vitality and his light leather armor. While it might not have been much to a monster of equivalent/higher level specializing in physical attacks, it was enough to make him a Juggernaut to the goblins. After dispatching the goblins in critical condition, and taking a few scratches along the way, he dispatched the last goblin with full health with only three mana-claw enhanced unarmed attacks. His companion approached him as he began looting the weapons of the goblins. He checked his status, and slaughtering a dozen goblins had only given him 4.9% of exp towards the next level! Jack: ¡°Am I awesome or what?¡± Bob: *deadpan look in his eyes* ¡°They were all dumb melee brutes, at least 20 levels lesser than you. Don¡¯t let it get to your head.¡± Jack: ¡°Yeah you are correct. Trash like them is easy to clear, but the gains are almost non-existent too. The cave is quite large, so let¡¯s slaughter the shitty goblins as quickly as we can.¡± His companion grunted in response and they went deeper into the cave, slaughtering the goblins as they went. They systematically cleared all goblins in the first level. Jack estimated that they had killed around a couple of hundred goblins in a few hours, whereas the exp gain had been enough to level him up once. In the next level, they encountered an additional type of enemy. It was around a foot taller than goblins, and better equipped with fur armor and weapons which appeared better maintained. Other than that, it looked exactly like a goblin with its ugly face, green skin and muscular build. They were hobgoblins, a lv60 monster. The first group of enemies they encountered consisted of six enemies in total. One of them was the hobgoblin, and the rest were goblins. This time both Jack and Bob attacked together, as they didn¡¯t want to underestimate a new foe. Bob shimmered with purple black energy and appeared next to the hobgoblin. He hit the hobgoblin with his axe for around 15% damage. Jack took advantage of the disruption in the goblins to prepare a soulfire breath and everyone, including his companion was caught in the AoE. All the goblins lost over 90% of their HP in a single attack and were in critical condition, whereas the hobgoblin lost around 60% HP, leaving it with barely a forth. His companion was unaffected by soulfire breath, receiving no damage. He appreciated the utility of the soulfire element. It was perhaps the perfect element for offensive AoEs! Due to this overwhelming display of firepower, the agro shifted from Bob to Jack. He readied mana claws and entropic leech, as the goblins rushed towards him. He easily dispatched goblin after goblin, weaving between their attacks, while Bob finished the hobgoblin in a couple of regular attacks. The whole battle took under 10 seconds to conclude. After the first skirmish with the foes of this level of the dungeon concluded, he looted the corpses. The weapon of the hobgoblin was marginally better than those of the goblin; it also had a couple of silvers and some worthless trinkets, which would classify as junk loot. He had earned around 2.8% experience from the whole battle. While it was better than that provided by the goblins, it was still too little to level up on. His companion being higher leveled than him, would definitely earn even less exp! As they went deeper and deeper into the second level of the dungeon, they encountered larger groups of goblins with more and more hobgoblins. He summoned Charlie as much as the cool down permitted. The groups were from around five to twelve in total, with around one to four hobgoblins. However, due to their low magical defense and the level advantage Jack and his companion had, it took only around six hours to clear level two of the dungeon. They had cleared around a hundred hobgoblins with around 450 goblins in that level, though they did have to take breaks for repairing equipment and regenerating PP and stamina. The hobgoblins provided better exp, and he had leveled-up a couple of times to level 69 as a result. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. They entered the third level of the dungeon, and encountered the first group of enemies. It was a group of seven hobgoblins. While it required a bit more effort than the previous floor, it was still a cakewalk with his companion¡¯s teleport and his soulfire breath combo, which bought them under half HP. After that, a bit of kiting with soul strikes and his companion¡¯s melee attacks finished them off. They went deeper and deeper into the third level of the dungeon, and soon they encountered a group of five hobgoblins, but one of them had a reddish tint on their skin. It was equipped with leather armor, and a well maintained mace. They engaged the group of monsters, in the regular fashion. Bob teleported to the red skinned hobgoblin and slashed it with his axe. The hobgoblin variant lost only 10% HP with that attack. It retaliated at Bob with its mace, smashing Bob for around 6% HP. Jack prepared a soulfire breath and it caught everyone in its AoE. The regular hobgoblins lost around 60% HP; however the variant hobgoblin lost only around 40% HP! With his AoE spell, all the hobgoblins switched their agro towards him. He prepared another soulfire breath. But before unleashing it, he kited them for a bit and used soulfire shift to teleport behind them. As he unleashed his prepared soulfire breath, he caught all the hobgoblins in its AoE. The regular hobgoblins died with screams as the smell of cooked flesh hung in the air. The red skinned hobgoblin, however, still had around 10% HP left. It was finished by a strong overhead chop by his companion. His companion had lost around 12% HP in this encounter. As he collected the loot, he made idle conversation with his companion. Jack: ¡°The red skinned hobgoblin seems to hit harder than the others. It will take quite a while to clear this floor. Does any of your equipment needs repairs?¡± Bob: ¡°Not yet. I do need to rest soon though.¡± Jack: ¡°OK. After we clean a few more caverns, you can nap for a couple of hours.¡± They went deeper into the cave, and encountered more of the red-skinned hobgoblin variant. It took significantly longer to clear, as the red-skinned hobgoblin variants were sturdier and did more damage than the usual hobgoblins. This resulted in longer breaks for HP regeneration. However the exp was better too and a single hobgoblin variant gave around by 1.9% exp at lv69! This was to be expected as the red hobgoblin variants were around lv80! Jack had to log out for dinner in real life, while clearing the third level of the dungeon. It took around a day in-game, after RL dinner on Saturday, to clear most of the third level of the dungeon. Outside the entrance of the clearing of the previous giant spider boss of the dungeon, there was a group of around twenty-seven hobgoblins! A third of them were the stronger red-skinned variant. Jack: ¡°Well, that encounter will be a pinch. I wonder what the boss is, to have so many hobgoblins as guards, outside its lair.¡± Bob: ¡°I don¡¯t think we should tackle them head on. It might result in death.¡± Jack: ¡®Thank you, Captain Obvious!¡¯ Jack: ¡°Hmm. Let us retreat for now. I will lure them; one-by-one if possible.¡± He and his half-elf companion retreated. He then scraped off some dirt from the cavern floor, and created a small muddy puddle with some water from his canteen. He then rubbed his exposed skin to mask his scent as much as possible. He then stealthily approached the hobgoblins. As soon as they were at the edge of the range of his spiral mana bolt spell, he fired a force bolt while retreating carefully. Around a third of the group went to investigate, and Jack steadily lured them where Bob was waiting in ambush, and soon the battle began. It was a difficult battle, but nothing they couldn¡¯t handle as they had become familiar fighting the hobgoblins, and could anticipate their moves easily. However, he and his companion both had lost around a third of their HP. Before they could completely regenerate their HP, another six regular hobgoblins with three variant hobgoblins found them and engaged them. Fortunately, due to his companion¡¯s ability to sense hostility, they weren¡¯t ambushed and dealt with them. They rested again, but the last third of the hobgoblins didn¡¯t attack them, presumably being on guard duty. They engaged the last third of the hobgoblins and rested again. Jack also repaired all their equipment, to be in tip-top shape before tackling whatever boss the cave had in store for them. Fortunately, he hadn¡¯t used Charlie in the latest battles with the hobgoblins, so Summon Charlie was available and not on cooldown. He entered the boss-room of the dungeon with his companion, expecting a powerful boss. However, what he saw was something he absolutely had not expected. The boss-room was significantly altered, from the last time he had visited it. There were multiple shallow pools with a greenish viscous liquid in it. Each pool had an ugly monster, which appeared to be a female goblin, who were submerged waist down in each pool. There were around twenty or so pools and each of them had multiple wriggling forms in it, like tadpoles but with limbs. Jack realized that those were breeding pits of the goblins, and the tadpole like shapes swimming were baby goblins. Jack: ¡°A disgusting sight. Well, let us clear this infestation, shall we? I will start from the leftmost pool and you start from the rightmost. Once we kill the female goblins, let me think how to deal with the pools. Oh and Charlie can help too.¡± Bob: ¡°Alright. If we don¡¯t deal with it, in a few days the cave will be full of goblins again.¡± Jack then summoned Charlie and instructed him mentally to systematically kill the gestating goblin females with his soulfire breath and proceeded to his corner of the breeding grounds. The goblin females were weaker than the regular goblins, and one of his soulfire bolt was enough to kill them. They made no attempt to leave their pool or take any offensive action against their slaughter, but made pitiful cries whenever Jack, Bob or Charlie approached them¡­ as if resigning to their fates. In a matter of few minutes all the goblin females were killed and he confirmed that at lv72, they gave a measly amount of exp. Jack: ¡°So any ideas how to kill all the worms in the pools? I am not killing them one by one...It will take far too long.¡± Bob: ¡°The best way would be to poison each of the pools.¡± Jack: ¡°I don¡¯t have any poisons left¡­ I drank all of them.¡± Bob: *poker face* ¡°OK¡­¡± Jack: ¡°Hey don¡¯t look at me all weird. It was to raise the proficiency of my skill! Besides there were acolytes on hand to continuously heal me. Returning to the topic of the pools¡­¡± While brooding on the efficient way to destroy the goblin breeding pools, he got a mental nudge from Charlie, who went to the nearest pool and used his soulfire breath like a flamethrower. Jack could see a number of HP bars blinking into and out of existence signifying that plenty of goblin spawns were getting killed. Jack: ¡°Good boy Charlie! Although it¡¯s a bit slow, but it is the best option we have. Let us get to work. Bob?¡± Bob: *guarded look* ¡°I will pass. My only AoE skill has a very short range and it will be far quicker for you to use your breath spell like Charlie.¡± Jack: *shrugging* ¡°Alright. I am not sure what is beyond the pedestal, or how long we have to spend there. I just don¡¯t want these goblins growing up and biting us in the ass. Killing them all isn¡¯t even worth it otherwise.¡± He and his pet then systematically exterminated the goblin spawn-pools, carrying out genocide. He and his pet used multiple soulfire breaths on a single pool till no HP bar was blinking into existence (to be roasted out of existence an instant later). After a couple of pools, Charlie had been unsummoned and Jack cleared the pools by himself. It took him over an hour to thoroughly exterminate them. After making the dungeon 100% goblin free, he and his companion approached the altar with the depression. He withdrew the modified coin given by the druids, and it fit on the depression. The slab of stone behind the altar creaked and groaned as it slid, revealing a narrow marble passage, which was lit up in an ethereal electric blue. Jack collected the coin from the depression of the altar and quickly followed his companion through the passage. As they stepped through it, the stone slab slid behind them, sealing them from rest of the dungeon. ---------------------- A/N: And another chapter, a little less than 3k words! Please feel free to comment regarding your thoughts on this chapter. My hiatus ends, and next week onwards expect a chapter a week as usual. What is at the end of the marble corridor? Is it some kind of Guardian/Boss? Or is it another dungeon? Find out in next week¡¯s chapter! -------------------- Chapter 035 Chapter 035 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------------ Jack and his companion proceeded through the narrow passageway. Ahead of them was a set of giant metallic double doors. They were made of some sort of electric blue metal and had mesmerizing carvings on them. The carvings were of overlapping geometric patterns which glowed softly in his spirit senses with a lime-green radiance. At shoulder height, near the center, was a circular depression, which fit the augmented coin he had. He withdrew the coin and placed it in the depression. The geometric carvings on the gate blazed with energy and the doors opened inwards. When he retrieved the stone coin, he noticed that it was back in size to its original smaller size. When the door opened, it leaded to a large rectangular room resembling a hall. The room was bare except for an intricate formation near the center. The formation was throbbing gently with electric blue light. In the center of the formation was something that looked like a translucent granite statue. The statue looked like a naked humanoid female. Jack was about to approach the formation, when his companion stopped him. He turned to question his companion, and saw that Bob was frowning. He looked at his companion with a questioning look. Bob: ¡°I sense ahead, taint of The Blight¡­ but it¡¯s different somehow.¡± Jack: ¡°How so?¡± Bob: ¡°It is as if its essence is frozen... yet slowly burning away.¡± Jack: ¡°That sounds¡­intriguing. It must be something to do with the formation¡­ it is radiating a lot of mana.¡± Bob: ¡°So how should we proceed?¡± Jack: *scowls* ¡°For the time being, you stay back. Don¡¯t attack first. I will approach; if something is hostile, join the battle else approach cautiously. If I die without being able to retaliate, wait for me outside the cave. In that case, I should be back in around four to five days. ¡± Jack handed his companion the stone coin and cautiously approached the statue. He stopped at the edge of the formation and observed the granite statue in the center. There were wrinkles on its face, and its eyes were closed. It looked like an expression full of grim determination and disdain. The naked form of the statue had an astounding amount of detail on it. Each and every strand of hair, on her head and elsewhere, looked like separate strands of marble glittering in the ambient light He couldn¡¯t make out whether it was a human or half-elf, as the hair on her head covered her ears. The statue was definitely not that of an elf because the body proportions and facial features wouldn¡¯t match those of an elf. Jack: ¡®A very nice body. It would be very fuckable if it wasn¡¯t for the wrinkles on her face and body. Not to mention it¡¯s a statue. I might as well proceed further with the quest¡­ no point just staring at the naked statue of an old lady.¡¯ Jack took a deep breath, steadied himself and walked into the formation. He felt a tingling sensation all over his skin, as he did so. As he observed the statue, he noticed that the eyelids were slowly opening. The statue¡¯s eyes glittered like gems. Her left eye had an iris which was green like an emerald, while her right eye was like an amethyst. Jack stopped in his tracks, a bit shocked. As he waited for further changes in the statue, the statue¡¯s jaw rasped like grinding stones and he heard an ancient somewhat feminine voice, which sounded like the creaking of metal. Statue: ¡°Why have you arrived here, young adventurer? There are no riches to plunder here.¡± Jack: ¡°Woah, you can talk! As for my purpose, are you the prisoner here?¡± Statue: ¡°Yes. You could say so. What do you wish of me?¡± Jack: ¡°A group of nearby druids sent me here. I am supposed to free you apparently.¡± Statue: *throaty chuckle* ¡°Do you even know who am I? Or what is this ¡®prison¡¯?¡± Jack: ¡°Not really, but does it matter? I don¡¯t think the druids would unleash a catastrophe¡­ even if they are all haughty and uptight.¡± Statue: ¡°There is truth in your words. But even if I could leave, I wouldn¡¯t.¡± Jack: ¡°What do you mean?¡± Statue: ¡°It¡¯s a long story. And you don¡¯t have the qualifications to listen to it, anyway.¡± Jack: ¡°What do you mean? The Druids sent me here.¡± Statue: *sigh* ¡°They sent you on an impossible task, as a pretext to get rid of you.¡± Jack: *annoyed look* ¡°That may be so, but I don¡¯t plan to return before giving it a try. And to even attempt that, knowing your circumstances would be a start.¡± Statue: ¡°You are one annoying brat. I would drive you away, if I could. But unfortunately, my abilities are severely restricted now. I will satisfy your curiosity for the time being then. Call your companion into the formation first though. Or he will probably wonder why you are talking to a statue.¡± He left the formation and went towards his companion and asked him to follow him into the formation. His companion questioned him, but he didn¡¯t want to spoil the surprise. As they both entered the formation, it glowed blindingly and a transparent dome of energy materialized over the formation, trapping them with the statue. Bob didn¡¯t seem to notice it, however the changes to the surrounding mana was as clear as air to jack¡¯s Spirit Senses. Statue: ¡°Now that both of you are here, we can begin.¡± Jack: ¡°Before we begin, why have you trapped both of us in this formation with this energy dome?¡± Bob: ¡°What are you talking about? I don¡¯t see any energy dome.¡± Statue: ¡°Your companion seems to be blind to mana, but you aren¡¯t. Interesting. As for your question, the formation is just draining some of your life force to supplement me. Don¡¯t worry; it is nothing that will kill you. It is only so that I can have a conversation in my present state, without killing myself.¡± Jack: ¡®Fuck. I should have been more careful. Why did I walk into the formation with Bob like a retard? Did those granite tits befuddle me? On the plus side, it just seems to have stopped my HP regeneration¡­¡¯ Jack: *rubbing his temples* ¡°So who are you and why are you trapped here.¡± Statue: *thoughtful expression* ¡°I was a druid during the era of the Divine Wars. You are familiar with it yes?¡± Jack: ¡°Yeah the gods spreading devastation in a series of brutal wars over Terra through their mortal agents.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Well there is more to that story than that. Do you know how the Divine Wars came to a conclusion?¡± Jack: ¡°I have some idea¡­¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Do tell what you know. The more accurate it is, the more I will reveal.¡± Jack: ¡°Gaia woke up and started clearing sentient life and sinking entire continents to force the gods to come to a truce. However, the Forsaken were petty and their agents continued the Divine Wars. The Brahman Sangha assassinated collaborated with other divine agents to hunt the agents of the forsaken and make them betray the Forsaken, who were sealed by the other gods, and peace finally descended on Terra.¡± Druid Statue: *disappointed look* ¡°Hmm, so you are parroting the official version of the Brahman Sangha. Do you truly know nothing more, indoctrinated Bhikku? I thought your members yearned for enlightenment.¡± Jack: ¡°Well I do know a bit more. But reputation of my Order is important, after all.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Oh? Do continue¡­ it¡¯s been a while since I had an interesting conversation.¡± Jack: ¡°Well I will continue. But Bob, don¡¯t ever reveal what I am about to say to anyone else, OK?¡± Bob: *nods* ¡°All right. I can keep my mouth shut.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm, what I have to tell has some drama. Let¡¯s begin with a long forgotten Paladin. He was extremely faithful and blessed with immense powers by his patron deity. He fought for his patron for a while.¡± He paused meaningfully, and observed a hint of shock pass through the druid statue. Jack: ¡°But for some reason, he betrayed his patron and was stripped of his powers. He then allied himself with an Order which fought against the deities as a whole, The Brahman Sangha. This ex-Paladin turned himself into a lich, and collaborated with the Order to wake Gaia. Their plan was far too effective, but the ex-Paladin lich was unfortunately imprisoned for an eternity¡­¡± Druid Statue: *a momentary look of disbelief and shock in her eyes* ¡°How did you know what happened to the imprisoned ex-Paladin lich?¡± Jack: *smirk* ¡°I talked enough, for now. It is your turn to speak now.¡± Druid Statue: *a longing look in her eyes* ¡°This Paladin you speak of, was my lover. Even though we were on opposing sides of the war, we fell in love when he was a prominent paladin, and I was a young druid. Druid Statue: *bitter smile* ¡°The reason he betrayed his patron deity was because of his love for me. His fellow agents reported our affair to his patron. In order to test the resolve of his follower, the deity ordered him to wipe out my coven, including me.¡± Druid Statue: *tearful look* ¡°But his love for me was greater than his faith for his patron deity. He saved me and some of my coven, betraying his patron and losing his divine powers. And that is how the events you mentioned came to pass.¡± Jack: *mocking smile* ¡°Faith and love. The more I learn, the more I am led to believe that these emotions are the gateway to insanity.¡± Druid Statue: *hollow laugh* ¡°That is something unexpectedly wise for someone as young as you. It is almost enigmatic. Indeed strong emotions can be a trigger to lose our rationality. It may be something as small as a petty insult which hurt one¡¯s pride, or the jealousy aroused by coveting someone else¡¯s wife.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Jack: ¡®This NPC is guessing my Enigmatic Wisdom trait just by my offhand comment? Damn¡­ all the druids I meet are very scary.¡¯ Druid Statue: *forlorn look* ¡°But yes, Faith and love are the most powerful emotions one can experience. In my experience, nine times out of ten, Faith triumphs Love. Rarely is it, that Love triumphs Fate.¡± Jack: ¡°So how it is that you came to be trapped here?¡± Druid Statue: *stirring from her contemplation* ¡°Didn¡¯t you ever wonder, how they managed to wake Gaia, who had vowed eons ago to go into slumber eternally? It was because, l too betrayed Gaia. Just like my lover had betrayed his Patron. It was due to my help, that the whole plan was a ¡®success¡¯.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°My act of betrayal wasn¡¯t known to many outside my coven. However, the divine agents hunted me to use me as a bargaining chip to trap my lover. But I didn¡¯t wish to be the tool which leads to his demise, so I fled using my talents.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°The pursuit was long and hard, and it had drained me, almost completely. Fortunately, I came across a seed of the blight festering, almost hidden. I took in the seed of the blight, and started to corrode it using my soul, turning into what you see now.¡± Druid Statue: *sigh* ¡°Soon the divine agents found me, constructed this prison around me and cursed me permanently into this petrified state. So the most I can do now is converse, even if the seed of the blight has long been extinguished.¡± Jack: *frown* ¡°But my companion here sensed the Taint of the Blight in you. Although frozen, and being burned slowly. How do you explain that?¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Your companion seems perceptive. The Blight has tainted my body, not unlike your own. However, instead of accepting its power, I am slowly cleansing it. I can¡¯t utilize too much power due to this curse, so in any case it will be a while before I am fully free of its taint.¡± Jack: ¡°There must be a way to free you. Do tell, no matter how impossible it may sound.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°I believe that there are only two ways to free me. The one is for powerful High Priests to undo this curse on me. But that will never happen because the deities will never allow their agents to act as such with the powers they themselves have bestowed.¡± Jack: ¡°And the second way?¡± Druid Statue: ¡°The second way is also highly unlikely. It would require a Spirit Eater with sufficient mastery and control over the abomination.¡± Bob: *addresses the Statue respectfully* ¡°My leader just happens to be a Spirit Eater.¡± Druid Statue: *chuckle* ¡°You don¡¯t cease to surprise me. You are a Bhikku and a Spirit Eater? On top of that your follower is afflicted by Gaia¡¯s hate, and you have tainted your body with the Blight. Impressive, but not enough.¡± Jack: ¡°So how can a Spirit Eater undo a curse which only the divine power channeled through High Priests can undo?¡± Druid Statue: ¡°I don¡¯t believe that you have the means or the willpower to free me. It is just a speculation anyways. And if experiments with Spirit Eating go wrong, the results can be devastating.¡± Jack: ¡°Let me attempt it before you declare my incompetence. Besides, I am not exactly a Spirit Eater. I am a Shackled Spirit Eater. Irfit has chained the abomination in me, so he won¡¯t allow me to go on a rampage if I do fail.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Hmm I sensed a powerful spirit pact from you, but wasn¡¯t entirely sure. It seems my present state have dulled my perception significantly. Very well, I will explain my theory to you. If you fail, the backlash will be devastating for you even with Irfit¡¯s aid. Do you wish to proceed?¡± Jack: ¡®Yes, I need to wipe off the smile of the bitch Eldest and get my rewards.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Yes. The choice is mine to make, and the consequences will be mine to bear.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°All Spirit Eaters possess an abomination, a mindless primal entity with hunger as the essence of its being. This abomination is extremely powerful and dangerous. It only knows how to feed and devour Spirit Energy, the essence of consciousness and life.¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Any ability to manipulate Spirit Energy, grants Spirit Eaters the ability to interfere in Samsara, the great cycle of reincarnation. That is something which encroaches on the domain of gods! The abomination is destructive innately. But what if the abomination can bestow Spirit Energy instead of feeding on it? A Spirit Eater with enough mastery over his abomination could potentially heal anything short of death!¡± Jack: ¡°Interesting theory and it makes sense somehow. Problem is; I don¡¯t have any Spirit Energy with me now. And once I leave, I will be unable to return.¡± Bob: ¡°I will gladly sacrifice my life for the Spirit Energy you need Jack.¡± Jack: ¡°Won¡¯t work. My pact with Irfit forbids me from feeding on souls in service to Gaia. There must be another way to gather Spirit Energy. Isn¡¯t there, druid?¡± Druid Statue: ¡°Indeed. Spirit Energy is just energy of the Soul. You always have one soul accessible to you all the time¡­ your own. In theory, any Spirit Eater should be able to feed on his own soul to generate Spirit Energy. It should be more efficient than any other means as you will know your own soul best. However, you could potentially end up devouring yourself. As to what the abomination would result in after devouring the soul of its own host¡­ that is something better left unknown.¡± Jack: ¡°Fortunately, I have Irfit backing me up. Your theories are interesting.¡± Jack: ¡°I might need some time before I can figure this thing out. So don¡¯t interfere or disturb me, no matter what as Irfit will channel through me, if things get truly desperate.¡± He then sat down cross-legged inside the formation and went into a meditative state. He veiled his mana centers in Soulfire before proceeding. He imagined the abomination manifesting inside his body. He then imagined the abomination slowly connecting its tentacles, which ended in maws, to his mana centers as he provided miniature gaps in the Soulfire veil guarding his mana centers. He could feel the surprising eagerness of the abomination to feed. However, he only let it satiate itself with a trickle, using the Soulfire veils to restrict the abomination. Soon he felt the familiar elation he felt during acts of spirit eating. However, it was accompanied by a spectral ache which left him very drained. He exited his meditative state and stood up, while allowing the abomination to feed on a trickle from the wellspring of his soul. Jack: ¡°I have managed to gain some Spirit Energy by feeding on my soul. It is now time to free you.¡± He walked closer to the statue of the druid, and placed his hand on her head. He took a deep breath and manifested his abomination. The abomination manifested quite unusually. Instead of floating above him, its ethereal form bound by Soulfire chains was superimposed on him. Many of its smaller tentacles drilled into his body feeding on his soul. The spectral form of a large tentacle superimposed with his arm, the mouth on its end attached to the statue¡¯s head where his palm touched it. He closed his eyes and mentally willed the abomination to transfer spirit energy to the statue. The abomination stubbornly refused to bend to his will, and kept on devouring his soul without transferring Spirit Energy to the petrified Druid. He steeled his resolve, raised his soulfire veil and cutoff the trickle of energy from his soul to the abomination. He then willed, with all his might for the abomination to transfer spirit energy to the petrified Druid. Starving, shackled and cornered, the abomination finally bent to his indomitable spirit as a trickle of fluorescent yellow-green energy spread from his palm to the petrified Druid. However, the process was draining his spirit energy very quickly. He again lowered his soulfire veil as the abomination greedily drank from the wellspring of his soul. He had to limit how much the abomination fed from his soul, while simultaneously forcing it to transfer spirit energy to the petrified statue. It was a delicate balancing act, which required almost all of his concentration and willpower. After what seemed like hours of struggling, he felt a smooth palm catching hold of his wrist and removing his hand from the top of the Druid¡¯s head, interrupting his act of healing. He opened his eyes, and before him appeared the naked form of what seemed to be a human female who was in her late twenties. Almost all of the wrinkles had disappeared from her body and she was no longer petrified! Her skin was a dusky shade of caramel and her eyes displayed heterochromia, with one iris being a brilliant green and the other a sparkling purple. Naked Druid: *melodious tone* ¡°You have done well, Spirit Eater. You can stop now.¡± Jack: *weak raspy tone* ¡°What happened to you¡­¡± Naked Druid: *enchanting laugh* ¡°It is thanks to you Spirit Eater. My theories were correct, and you just proved it. Not only did you heal the curse and cleanse the blight, you also healed all the wear and tear age had brought to my body and soul!¡± Jack: ¡°Well I hope it is worth it¡­ because I feel like shit.¡± Naked Druid: ¡°I would appreciate if you have some clothing with you. And avert your lustful gaze Spirit Eater, as technically I am at least a thousand years old... older than many of your ancestors¡± He looked embarrassed at her rebuke and rapidly browsed his inventory for some clothing. The cheapest set he had was a set of Beginner Clothes. He withdrew it from his inventory and handed it over to the Druid. She elegantly dressed and thanked him. He gave a groan of relief and sat down cross-legged on the ground. Jack: ¡°I need to rest for a while¡­feeling very tired.¡± Druid: ¡°Of course, Spirit Eater.¡± Jack: *addressing Bob* ¡°How long did I take to heal her anyway?¡± Bob: *shrugging* ¡°Around ten minutes, I suppose.¡± Jack: *addressing the Druid, who was now clothed in a set of Beginner Clothes* ¡°I am curious about something though.¡± Druid: ¡°Speak, then.¡± Jack: ¡°Why were you naked, when you were petrified?¡± Druid: *wry smile* ¡°My robe was nothing special, and it disintegrated into dust a long time ago¡­¡± --------------------------------- A/N: Another chapter of Asunder Online. It is a mid-length one with ~3.5k words. Expect the next chapter for stat tables and stuff. It¡¯s been a while since I did one of those! My usual Proofreader is MIA, so all of you will have to bear with some minor spelling/grammar errors...unless you volunteer for PR. --------------------------------- Chapter 036 Chapter 036 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------------ Jack recovered from the exhaustion of healing the previously petrified druid and browsed is notification log. As he had suspected, he had gained two new sub-skills of Shackled Spirit Eater, namely ¡°Grant Life Force¡± and ¡°Satiate Ouroboros¡±. His Shackled Spirit Eater skill had finally reached the Advanced Tier due to unlocking these two sub-skills! He checked the details of the two newly gained sub-skills.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Bestow Life ForceBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Shackled Spirit Eater You subdue and dominate the abomination, forcing it to go against its nature. Instead of devouring Spirit Energy, it grants spirit energy to the target. This causes the target to recover most resources (HP, MP, STA etc.) and cures all status effects. The amount of Spirit Energy used depends on the severity of healing. Your mastery over the abomination also increases your capacity for Spirit Energy. Current level effects: Can be used once every 2 days. Cannot be used during Combat. +10 to max Spirit Energy
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Satiating OuroborosBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Shackled Spirit Eater You take inspiration from the demise of Ouroboros, to feed your abomination''s hunger. You allow the abomination to drink from the wellspring of your soul, recovering Spirit Energy but diminishing your soul and sacrificing experience. Usage of this skill can cause exp to go below 0% leading to loss of levels and the latest invested stat points. It cannot be used if level is 0. Current level effects: Generates 1 Spirit Energy per second. Costs 500 PP and 5% exp to initialize, costs 1% exp per second to sustain. Cannot be used during Combat.
After reading the details of the sub-skill Satiating Ouroboros, a vein bulged on his forehead in anger. He was actually sacrificing his experience for Spirit Energy! The higher level he was, the higher was the loss! The Druid had tricked him, knowingly or unknowingly, to lose quite a bit of experience. Jack: ¡®Fuck these Druids. All of them are bitches to the extreme. I took approximately 10 minutes to heal her, so I should be losing roughly 6 levels. I might as well verify it.¡¯
STATUS WINDOW
NameJackClassBhikku
RaceHumanGenderMale
Level66 (53.68%)Fame / Infamy135/ 22
TitlePackrat, Vermin Exterminator, Irfit¡¯s Vassal, Corrupted Cleanser
CONDITION
HP7476/(6776+700)HP regen9.1207/s
PP8415/8415PP regen69.0032/s
Spirit Energy10/130SE regen- 0.8% current SE/s
Satiety / Thirst87% / 87%Weight Limit181/200
Active EffectsControlled Breathing (Intermediate lv7)
BASIC STATS
Strength100Vitality183 + 10
Dexterity105Agility115
Intelligence300 + 10Willpower215 + 10
Free Stat Points25
SPECIAL STATS
Luck10Endurance113
Sustenance85Balance75
Flexibility75Concentration140+10
Wisdom130+10Indomitable Spirit110
Elemental Affinity
Physical24%Soul39%
Void27%Fire39%
Elemental Resistance
Physical4% + 5%Soul7%
Void5%Fire17% + 5%
Ice0% + 10%Blight6%
Life3%Death3%
SKILL LIST
Ambidexterity (Trait)
Defiled Husk (Trait)
Enigmatic Wisdom (Trait)
Iron Stomach (Trait)
Spirit Senses (Trait)
Dagger Mastery (Beginner Lv 4: 15.38%)
  • Assassinate (Beginner Lv 5: 05.31%)
Enchanting (Beginner Lv 7: 32.61%)
  • Bestow Enchant (Beginner Lv 8: 21.73%)
  • Absorb Enchant (Beginner Lv 6: 43.25%)
Free Running (Beginner lv 7: 10.53%)
Leadership (Beginner Lv 5: 12.01%)
Mana Control (Beginner Lv 9: 35.15%)
  • Imbue Projectile (Beginner Lv 8: 85.46%)
  • Mana Blade (Beginner Lv 4: 25.31%)
  • Mana Identification (Intermediate Lv 1: 03.13%)
  • Mana Repair (Beginner Lv 9: 96.13%)
Meditation (Intermediate Lv 8: 16.23%)
  • Meditative Stasis (Trait)
  • Controlled Breathing (Intermediate Lv 7: 13.53%)
Shackled Spirit Eater (Advanced Lv 1: 00.00%)
  • Devour Soul (Beginner Lv1: 01.00%)
  • Eternal Rest (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Grant Life Force (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Insatiable Manifestation (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
  • Satiating Ouroboros (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Sword Mastery (Beginner Lv 2: 80.23%)
Survival (Beginner Lv 7: 35.83%)
  • Opportunistic Striker (Trait)
  • Danger Sense (Beginner Lv6: 99.81%)
  • Poison Resistance (Beginner Lv 5: 35.12%)
  • Survival Cooking (Beginner Lv 8: 74.05%)
  • Survival Stealth (Beginner Lv 7: 51.13%)
Thrown Weapon Mastery (Intermediate Lv 2: 74.20%)
  • Improvised Missile (Trait)
  • Axe Throwing (Beginner lv 5: 87.34%)
  • Boomerang Throwing (Beginner Lv 9: 12.25%)
  • Chakram Throwing (Beginner Lv 6: 67.34%)
  • Dart Throwing (Intermediate Lv 2: 27.89%)
  • Javelin Throwing (Intermediate lv1: 29.54%)
  • Knife Throwing (Intermediate Lv 1: 27.78%)
Unarmed Mastery (Intermediate Lv 3: 33.45%)
  • Mana Claws (Beginner Lv 4: 67.52%)
  • Mana Fists (Beginner Lv 9: 15.23%)
  • Mana Gloves (Beginner Lv 5: 26.81%)
Entropic Leech (Beginner Lv5: 01.63%)
Hateful Touch (Beginner Lv1: 00.00%)
Mana Breath (Beginner Lv6: 61.53%)
Spiral Mana Bolt (Beginner Lv8: 81.74%)
Soul Scream (Beginner Lv6: 57.84%)
Soul Strike (Beginner Lv9: 41.42%)
Spirit Pact: Irfit (Unique) (Trait)
  • Summon Charlie (Beginner Lv4: 53.67%)
  • Soulfire Shift (Beginner Lv3: 14.38%)
Looking over his status window, he was frustrated to no end. His level had reduced to what it was before he had started this quest! All the exp he had gained with the slaughter of the hobgoblins had been lost. Jack: ¡®I think I am behind the average level in AO. But I did get some levels in a few of my skills. Big Fucking Yipee. Bah.¡¯ Jack: *glancing at the Druid in frustration* ¡°I hope the damn reward for freeing you is worth it. I lost a lot of power permanently, healing you.¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Druid in beginner clothes: *sneers* ¡°You think breaking Divine Curses is cheap? The fact that you managed it is impressive of itself. As for the rewards, you did free me so I will influence the coven to grant you something of value.¡± Jack: *annoyed* ¡°Alright, let us get going. It is a long walk anyways.¡± After they left the ¡°prison¡±, they made their way towards the Mysterious Clearing. It took almost 3 days in Real Life to reach the clearing with the statue. The journey itself wasn¡¯t eventful. Jack: ¡®I feel like the hobbit with the ring, walking and walking and walking some more¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡°So what do we do now? Last time, I channeled some mana through the statue to signal them. I was drugged and kidnapped as a reward.¡± Druid in beginner clothes: ¡°That won¡¯t be necessary. Give me some time to attune to this coven, and I can take you there.¡± The previously petrified Druid placed her hand on the statue and closed her eyes. In his spirit senses, he could see flashes of green mana pulsating on the statue. After a few minutes, the druid opened her eyes and gestured Jack and his companion to come closer. She held each of their hands and he felt a comfortable hum pass through him. Around them, creepers grew in a circle and covered them. His spirit senses were blinded by the green mana permeating it. When it subsided, he found himself in the Druid Coven! They were surrounded by large, tall trees, with dwelling in them. Huge animals, which appeared to be sentient, and had been referred by his companion as ¡°Awakened¡± noticed them. An awakened wolf gave a chilling howl, which resonated through his bones. The druid in beginner clothes seemed relaxed and waited patiently. Soon, a cloaked and hooded figure approached them. Hooded Figure: ¡°Welcome Spirit Eater, we didn¡¯t expect you so soon.¡± Jack: *sneers* ¡°You didn¡¯t expect me at all! Take us to your Eldest, as I have fulfilled her request!¡± The hooded figure seemed annoyed at Jack¡¯s tone, and was about to respond when there was a mild cough from the Druid in beginner clothes. The hooded figure gave a slight bow, and instructed them to follow him. They had climbed a huge tree and entered an alcove in it. Everything in the alcove, even the furniture, seemed to have grown out of the tree itself. The Eldest, along with two Elders waited for them there, seated in chairs made of twisted branches growing from the huge tree. In front of them there was a table which too seemed to grow from the tree. The Eldest maintained her fa?ade, but the two Elders seated beside her had expressions of shock on their faces Eldest Druid: ¡°Welcome back Spirit Eater. I see you have been successful.¡± Jack: *disdainful tone* ¡°Yes, Yes. Let us skip the pleasantries and go right to the reward shall we?¡± Elder Druid 1: *with cold fury in her voice* ¡°You impudent brat.¡± The Elder received a stern glare from the Eldest at her outburst. In response Jack didn¡¯t pretend to be polite and sneered at her with a mocking look in his eyes. No matter what he did, accepting the taint of the blight in his body had made the whole coven irrevocably butthurt, even if he had rendered great services to the coven. Jack: ¡°I have the qualifications to do so. I not only helped you eliminate the seed of the blight, I awakened an Afflicted Warrior to fight the blight and freed the Ancient Petrified Druid from her prison.¡± Druid in Beginner Clothes: *chuckle* ¡°Now Jack, no need to be irritated on this fool¡¯s raving. You will get your reward.¡± Elder Druid 2: *furious* ¡°You may be ancient, but you have no right to call her a fool¡­you traitor!¡± Eldest Druid: *in a panicked tone* ¡°Enough you fools, don¡¯t disgrace our coven further.¡± The Druid in beginner clothes gives a cold chuckle. In a moment, an imposing aura flared around her lighting up Jack¡¯s Spirit Senses. The aura was cool brownish grey in color with flicks of lime green and purple black flickering in it light lightning. One of her eyes was shining with a dim lime green light, while the other one was glittering with a shade of purple black. Except the Eldest, the other two druid elders had eyes popping out of their heads and their jaws hanging open. Even Bob was gasping is surprise, thoroughly flabbergasted. Jack¡¯s Danger Sense was haywire and he was shivering in fear, his previous insolence gone. Druid in Beginner Clothes: *icy cool tone* ¡°Mind your tongue youngling, lest you offend your elders.¡± Bob: *gasps in shock* ¡°Impossible! You are channeling Gaia¡¯s sublime gift of Equilibrium and her cursed gift of Hatred at once! Furthermore, the hatred I feel from you is far stronger than mine. How¡­¡± Druid in Beginner Clothes: *sorrowful tone* ¡°My act of betrayal wasn¡¯t without a price. Fortunately, a millennium of petrification allowed me a lot of time to comprehend Gaia¡¯s dreams and come to terms with it.¡± She withdrew her oppressive aura and immediately everyone relaxed visibly. Eldest Druid: *glares angrily at the two Elders at her side* ¡°Not a word about this to anyone else. Get out; now.¡± The two elders without protest meekly complied with the wishes of the Eldest and ran out of the alcove in haste. The Eldest stands up and bows deeply to the Druid in Beginner Clothes, who waves her ahdn dismissively. Eldest: ¡°Since you have revealed yourself, we have no need for maintaining appearances anymore, Ancestor.¡± Druid in Beginner Clothes (Ancestor): ¡°Indeed. Now give this Spirit Eater a bit of the Primordial Spores as a reward and send him on his way. We have much to discuss.¡± A momentary glance of shock passes through her eyes, before her face quickly regained her usual indifferent fa?ade. Jack had regained his bearings after the Ancestor withdrew her oppressive aura. He watched the exchange intently, gleeful at the reaction of the Eldest. Jack: ¡®So the Eldest bitch gets shocked at the mention of ¡°Primordial Fungus¡±. This is going to be good. Pay-time is here bitch. You could have avoided it all if you hadn¡¯t sent me on what was supposed to be a fool¡¯s errand.¡¯ Eldest: ¡°Of course, Ancestor.¡± The Eldest then waved her arms and lime green mana emanated from it. On the table in the alcove, dark green sapling grew rapidly. In a few seconds, they had intertwined to form the shape of a small Chalice, which could hold around half a glass of water. She then addressed Jack. Eldest: ¡°Fill it with your blood, Spirit Eater.¡± He nodded and manifested Mana Claws in his right hand. He slashed his left wrist with a Mana Claw enhanced finger, and dribbled blood into the chalice. Once it was almost full, he cauterized his bleeding by manifesting a small flame over the wound. The Eldest bit her index finger with her sharp canine tooth and dropped a single drop of her blood infused with green mana into the chalice. Then she pulled out a small crystal amulet from around her neck. She carefully opened the small lit and a single miniature grain of what looked like dust fell into the chalice. The grain of dust seemed to multiply incessantly, and in moments the chalice was full of what looked like some viscous slurry full of lime green algae. Eldest: ¡°Drink your reward Spirit Eater. And be honored to partake of it. I hope you prove worthy.¡± He grabbed the chalice from the table and drank the viscous fluid in it. It tasted like a paste of spinach with a gentle flavor of avocado. As he drank it, he felt a gentle surge of energy spreading through his body. When the wave of energy receded, he felt a foreign presence in his body. The presence was more particularly concentrated in his blood and near his heart. Having disregarded his surroundings, he focused on this new change in his body. He tried channeling some void mana from his mana centers to the cluster of foreign presence in his heart. Immediately, he felt a refreshing wave of invigorating energy passing through his entire body. He was bathed in a persistent mild green glow, and the cauterized wound on his left wrist started healing rapidly. Ancestor: ¡°So you have figured out the utility of the Primordial Fungus already? Good, but remember Spirit Eater that that is just the beginning. As you synchronize more with the Primordial Fungus colonizing you, you can unleash more abilities.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank you. This gift seems to have the potential to be very powerful.¡± Eldest: ¡°Indeed. I was apprehensive whether the Primordial Fungus would accept you or no as you have the taint of the Blight. But it seems to have deemed you acceptable. It is time for you to leave now.¡± Ancestor: ¡°Feel free to return here anytime you wish, Spirit Eater. Our doors will always be open.¡± Ancestor: *whispers to Jack* ¡°My name is Ensiyeh, Spirit Eater. I hope to meet you again.¡± Jack: ¡®Don¡¯t these druids get iffy about their names? She told me hers¡­ so at the very least I have a powerful ally in this coven even if the Eldest doesn¡¯t seem to like me much.¡¯ Ensiyeh then flicked her arms and green mana surged around Jack and Bob. Living tendrils grew from the wooden floor and enveloped them. When the mana dissipated, they found themselves in the mysterious clearing with the statue. He browsed his notifications to see his gains. He had gained a new trait ¡®Symbiote: Primordial Fungus¡¯ and its sub-skill ¡®Regenerating Infusion¡¯. He summoned the information window for his newly acquired skills.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Symbiote: Primordial FungusTrait----
A number of ancient fungi have colonized your bloodstream. These Fungi from eons ago carry primordial power. A symbiotic relationship exists between these fungi and you. Your maximum PP (and future PP increases) is permanently reduced by 10%, but it grants you powerful abilities, with the potential for more abilities to become available when certain special conditions are met. Current Effects: -10% max PP.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Regenerating InfusionBeginner100.00%
Subskill of Symbiote: Priomordial Fungus The Primordial Fungus colonizing your body releases a wave of natural energies, causing you to rapidly regenerate health for a while. Current Level Effects: Self-Regeneration of 1.05% HP/s for 10 seconds. Costs 150 PP. Can be used once every minute.
Jack: *grinning* ¡®Nice. A healing skill! Sure I can¡¯t heal others and had to sacrifice 10% max PP but it will only heal 10.5% of my max HP over 10 seconds now at Beginner lv1! That is around 780 HP of heal every minute. And the more HP I have the more valuable this skill is. I must grind this skill diligently!¡¯ Jack: ¡°I got a healing spell! Hahaha I am on my way on becoming an Unstoppable Juggernaut.¡± Bob: ¡°I don¡¯t mean to rain on your parade, but I could kill you easily in less than 15 seconds. That¡¯s nowhere near an ¡®Unstoppable Juggernaut¡¯.¡± Jack: *shrugs* ¡°Haters gonna hate. Let us start our long walk back to Rotang City. I hope Master Janus gives me some good rewards¡­¡± ------------------------------ A/N: Sorry for missing a chapter last week, but I had to run around many hospitals before a doctor gave me some decent treatment. Anyway hope you enjoyed this chapter. Also, my most active proofreader (Mecani) seems to be MIA, so please PM me if you wish to PR AO. ----------------------------- Chapter 037 Chapter 037 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------------ Jack and his companion were around a couple of day¡¯s walk from Rotang City. They were walking at a leisurely pace, when his companion stopped. Bob assumed a combat ready pose and wielded his two-handed battle-axe. Seeing this, Jack also enabled Entropic Leech and Mana Claws. He then swaggered and mentioned in an annoyed tone. Jack: ¡°Really, another ambush? Don¡¯t you retards ever learn?¡± There was a rustle from the bushes and a man in his early twenties appeared. He was about 5 feet 9 inch (175 cm) tall and had light brown skin. His eyes had epicanthic folds (A/N: Asian Eyes) and he was bald. He was clean shaved, except for a tuft of hair near his chin. He was dressed in what appeared to be a dark grey tunic made of silk with matching pants. He had a sheath near his hip, which looked like it contained a katana. He held up his palms and had a sheepish grin on his face as he addressed Jack. Bald Stranger: ¡°Please give me a chance to explain, before both of you slaughter me. And for the record, I never ambushed you before.¡± Jack: ¡°Well a group of idiots have ambushed me a couple of times already. And you were acting all sneaky, so you can¡¯t blame me. Why exactly are you here?¡± Bald Stranger: ¡°To exchange pointers with you, of course.¡± Jack: *snorts* ¡°That¡¯s just sugar coating that you want to kill me¡­¡± Bald Stranger: ¡°Well, I just want to duel you Jack.¡± Jack: *mild alarm* ¡°How do you know my name?¡± Bald Stranger: ¡°You are quite famous in the forums, you know. Someone uploaded a partial video of you, your buddy and your pet lizard slaughtering his group of fifteen until you killed him midway.¡± Jack: ¡®Oh great. Now random retards want to fight me¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡°Well you know my name, what is yours?¡± Bald Stranger: ¡°My avatar here is named Hiro.¡± Jack: ¡°And why exactly should I bother ¡®exchanging pointers¡¯ with you?¡± Hiro: ¡°The same reason you could dominate those fifteen idiots. We both don¡¯t use System Assist. It would help both of us improve ourselves fighting against a real challenge.¡± Jack: ¡°It does sound intriguing, but no way am I risking a death penalty just for that. So if you excuse me, I will be on my way¡­¡± Hiro: ¡°There is no need to risk a death penalty. We can fight a duel.¡± Jack: ¡°A duel? Isn¡¯t that just both of us whacking each other? How does it bypass the death penalty?¡± Hiro: ¡°No. A duel is a PvP feature. You can challenge and fight opponents with certain conditions which both parties agree to in a safe zone like a city. But a certain items can bypass the requirement to be in a city for issuing duel challenges.¡± Jack: *sigh* ¡®Oh boy¡­he is a persistent one. I guess I could fight him¡­will be a nice change of pace.¡± Jack: ¡°Well if you have such an item, sure lets duel.¡± Hiro¡¯s face breaks into an enthusiastic smile and he withdraws what looks like a copper coin. Hiro: ¡°So let us duel. The first one to reach half his HP loses. And no potions or other consumables allowed. Agreed?¡± Jack: ¡°Till half HP and no potions. Sure.¡± Hiro then flipped the copper coin in his hand. A notification window popped up in Jack¡¯s vision.
Duel Request
The player Hiro requests you to an honorable duel. Conditions: The duel proceeds till one of the contenders reach 50% HP. No consumables like potions or scrolls are allowed during the duel.
Do you Accept?
Yes[/td4][td2]No[/td4]
Jack: ¡°Yes, I accept.¡± Hearing Jack¡¯s reply, there was a glint of battle-lust in Hiro¡¯s eyes. Surprisingly, he kept his sword sheathed and readied his unarmed fists. He grinned and addressed Jack. Hiro: ¡°I am ready when you are.¡± Jack: *irritated* ¡°Hey are you looking down on me? Draw your weapon.¡± Hiro: *smug* ¡°You don¡¯t have the qualifications to make me do so!¡± He looked at the bald challenger¡¯s arrogant and smug look and fired a couple of firebolts at his face. Hiro stood at around 15 m away from him. When the firebolts approached, he didn¡¯t make any movements. When the bolts were a couple of meters away from him, he casually sidestepped, dodging them both by a hair¡¯s breadth. Hiro: ¡°Easily readable attacks like that won¡¯t work on me¡­¡± Jack: ¡°Then eat this!¡± Jack fired a couple of soul strikes in rapid succession in an overhead arc. The soul strikes homed in on Hiro and attacked him. Hiro still stood his ground, as he met the incoming soul strikes with the swipe of his palm. In Jack¡¯s spirit senses, a formless cloud of mana appeared near Hiro¡¯s hand. As the mana cloud collided with his soul strike, he could see that his spell¡¯s strength was cut to half as it collided with him. Each of the diminished soul strike hit him for around 5% HP each, and Hiro lost a total of 10% HP. Losing a tenth of his HP in a couple of diminished spells clearly surprised Hiro. He had a scowl on his face as his body was enveloped in a layer of mana. Jack intently observed with his Spirit Senses and refrained from spamming more spells as he wanted to observe this challenger, and it wasn¡¯t a life-death match anyway. His Spirit Senses observed what looked like a mix of soul and force affinity mana enveloped Hiro. The mana did not remain a formless layer however. In a flash, Hiro¡¯s whole body was covered in a double helixes of mana. The mana wasn¡¯t static and was constantly rotating like a corkscrew. The mana around Hiro rotated from head to toe and across his limbs in a spiral manner. One of the ¡®arms¡¯ of the spiral was of force mana, while the other was soul mana. It also vibrated at a constant rhythm as it rotated around him. Immediately after that, Hiro rushed at him, at an obscenely fast speed. He had covered more than 10m in around half a second! Jack¡¯s Danger Sense started tingling into overdrive, and he immediately unleashed the prepared fire breath. Jack¡¯s field of vision was blocked with scarlet flames from his fire breath. He couldn¡¯t see it, but Hiro had barely managed to move in time outside the AoE, and the fire breath was a glancing blow damaging Hiro for around 15%. Hiro appeared to his right and before Jack could react, his jaw was smashed with a punch from his left. This caused him to stumble a couple of meters (~5 feet) backwards and he lost around 7% HP! His jaw was throbbing painfully as he turned and faced his opponent. Even though Hiro was in the AoE of Entropic Leech, Jack could barely follow his movements. Before he could retaliate with a Mana Claw enhanced swipe, he was punched again in the gut. This attack caused him to almost lose his balance and he lost another 10% of his HP. Jack: ¡®Fuck. This guy is a monster. He is pummeling me in unarmed close combat as if I were a practice dummy. Need some distance, ASAP.¡¯ Utilizing Mana Fists on both his legs, he jumped backwards with the aid of force blasts, in order to create distance. When he began his backward jump, he saw a slight smirk on Hiro¡¯s face as he too leaped forward. Jack was in mid leap, and before he could alter his trajectory with Force blasts, Hiro¡¯s right knee smashed into his ribs and both landed in a tangle on the ground and Jack lost another 12% of his HP. Hiro immediately grappled with Jack on the ground and locked all his limbs. Hiro however, had one arm free and he punched Jack repeatedly in his ribs. Each punch was causing jack to lose around 5% of his HP. Jack prepared a soulfire breath, but before he could release it, Hiro had pummeled his HP to below half and retreated with a backward leap. A notification window popped up in Jack¡¯s vision. [td2]Duel Winner:
Hiro
Term Violations:None
Gains & Penalties:Hiro gains +1 Fame
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Jack was wheezing a bit when he got up. While he was somewhat grumpy at his defeat, he admired the prowess of Hiro. There was no question that his opponent, like him, was not taking the aid of System Assist. Furthermore, his movements and actions were far more fluid and skillful than his. Jack: ¡°It is my loss. You won fair and square. Your movements were too fast for me to follow in close range.¡± Hiro: ¡°You praise me too much. I already lost a fourth of my HP before you were in melee range. Furthermore, you didn¡¯t summon your fire lizard.¡± Jack: ¡®He is humble, even though he curb stomped me. Seems like an honorable good guy, though I am sure his honor will come back to bite his ass.¡¯ Jack: *genuine smile* ¡°And you didn¡¯t use your sword!¡± Hiro: *sheepish grin* ¡°It was a good fight nevertheless. How about I add you to my friend list, and we can have a rematch after we polish our skills a bit?¡± Jack: ¡°Sure! I look forward to an all-out match with you.¡±
You have received a friend request from the player Hiro. Do you wish to accept?
Jack: ¡°Accept Friend request from Hiro. Next time we meet, I will be the one winning.¡± Hiro: ¡°I hope for a good fight. With your talent, don¡¯t bother playing around with system assisted noobs for too long. If you had the practice fighting real players like I did, I would have probably lost today.¡± Jack: ¡°Wait, you mean there are many players without System Assist. Where do I duel with them¡± Hiro: *smirk* ¡°I might tell you if you beat me in our next duel. Later, Jack.¡± He ran off into the woods while whistling a merry tune. After a few seconds when he was sure Hiro had departed, Jack used Regenerating infusion and a mild green glow surrounded his body. He rapidly regenerated some of his HP. Bob: ¡°This traveler could fight decently; unlike the ones form the previous ambush. If you had used this healing spell after receiving the first blow, you could have probably lasted long enough to unleash your breath spell while both of you were grappling.¡± Jack: ¡°Probably, yeah. But it was just a friendly match, not a life-death scenario. He didn¡¯t expose all his cards, and neither did I.¡± Bob: ¡°It¡¯s strange though. He shouldn¡¯t have been so fast or strong. His movements during the battle contained more explosive power than afterwards, when he went away.¡± Jack: ¡°Oh yeah. He was using his mana to enhance his physical capacity during battle. We will delay our journey to Rotang City for a while. I might as well try to copy him.¡± Bob: ¡°You only saw him use it once, that too not for long. You sure you can emulate his skill?¡± Jack: *shrugging* ¡°Maybe not exactly, but it should be similar enough.to be worthwhile.¡± Jack and Bob then went off the path into the woods. After almost an hour of walking deeper into the woods, Jack used a fire breath to burn some bushes to ashes and made a small clearing. He turned to his companion and addressed him. Jack: ¡°Your detection range is larger than mine. Is anyone else nearby?¡± Bob: ¡°Except a few small animals running away, nope.¡± Jack: ¡°Good. I will attempt to simulate Hiro¡¯s skill. Don¡¯t disturb me in the meanwhile.¡± His companion nodded, and he sat down cross-legged in the clearing and closed his eyes. He raised his right arm ahead of him. It took him a few minutes to manifest two strands of mana around his arm. One was of soul affinity and one was of force affinity. He then attempted to gently vibrate the mana in the rhythm he had observed when Hiro had used the skill. After numerous failed attempts he could sustain the vibrations on the two straight strands of mana. He then attempted to rotate the mana in the helical form he had observed. Unsurprisingly, the mana sizzled away. He manifested two strands of mana very close to his arm, and slowly rotated them around his arm in a helical manner. After he did that, he tried to vibrate the mana while it was rotating and it fizzled yet again. A couple of hours of trial and error still didn¡¯t leave him with any successful results. He stopped his attempts and started contemplating. Jack: ¡®I can either rotate it, or vibrate it; not both. Once I start vibrating mana, trying to rotate it disperses it and vice versa. Doing one is easy enough, but starting the other on it, causes it to fail without exception.¡¯ Jack: *frown* ¡®Maybe I should start to rotate and vibrate it simultaneously?¡¯ By now, he had got the rhythm of vibration and the speed of the helical rotation of the mana. He then started manifesting two strands of mana. As it manifested, he vibrated and rotated it in the rhythm he had observed. Unlike his previous attempts, the mana didn¡¯t disperse immediately, but it lasted a few seconds before dissipating. Excited at his progress, Jack continued practicing it diligently. In around 15 minutes he could maintain the vibrating double helix of soul and force mana around his arm. After another couple of hours of trial and error, he could main a series of helixes all over his body. In his mind¡¯s eye this was pretty similar to what Hiro had used against him. He opened his eyes and noticed that his companion was skinning a freshly killed boar. His body felt light as a feather and he tried jumping at full strength. He leaped faster and higher than he expected and hit his head on an over-head branch. He recovered quickly and landed on all fours on the ground. He then dashed from tree to tree and was elated at the ease of movement. He punched a nearby tree trunk at full strength and noticed the impression of his fist almost an inch deep. He let go of the shaped mana rotating around his body and punched the same tree trunk again. The impression left on the trunk was barely a cm deep. He smiled enabled Mana Gloves and smashed his fist again into the tree trunk. This third impression was a little deeper than an inch. He noticed that a visible chunk of PP from his PP bar was consumed. Jack: *grinning* ¡®So this helical vibrating mana thingy adds almost as much raw physical strength as Mana gloves does to my punches! Using this helical mana thingy with Mana Claws or Force Blade will make me quite decent at melee.¡¯ Jack: ¡®But the PP cost is something which will be difficult to sustain in long drawn fights.Next time I meet this Samurai wannabe, I will use his own skill against him.¡¯ *gives a crazed sounding laugh* His companion snorted. Bob had finished skinning the boar and was making a small fire to roast the meat for their meal. Jack sat down near his companion. While Bob was cooking a boar haunch over the fire, he checked his notifications. He hadn¡¯t gained any stat boosts, but his Mana Control skill had increased to Intermediate Tier and he had learned a new spell Body Augmentation. He quickly summoned the spell information on Body Augmentation.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Body AugmentationBeginner100.00%
You have successfully deduced how to reinforce and augment your physical capabilities with mana. Using Force and Soul mana in a specific manner, you become physically stronger, faster and have enhanced reflexes. However, sustaining shaped mana in this manner taxes your concentration and reduces your maximum magical attack by 5%. Current level effects: +51% of Intelligence to Strength. +25.5% of Willpower to Agility. +25.5% of Willpower to Dexterity. -5% to maximum magical attack. Costs 450 PP to initiate and 11 PP/s to sustain.
Jack: *grinning* ¡®My most expensive spell till date, but the boosts are awesome. It boosts three physical stats! So I need only the minimum stats to equip leather armor, rest of it for melee damage can come from this spell!¡¯ Jack: ¡®The PP/s drain can be partially countered by Entropic Leech¡­ though having both spells on will reduce 10% of my magical attack. Still this gives me a powerful tool for inflicting Physical Damage. Not to mention added Agility for running away.¡¯ Bob: ¡°You seem to be pleased. Lunch is not ready yet, by the way.¡± Jack: ¡°I can wait for lunch. And yeah I am pleased because I managed to copy his physical enhancement spell.¡± Bob: *sarcastic tone* ¡°Great. That just means more of your monkey-like antics during battle.¡± Jack: ¡°Says the brute wielding a weapon almost as large as himself. Like a Gorilla wielding a tree trunk!¡± ------------------- A/N: Mecani, I hope you re alright wherever you are. Also special thanks to rosidbeken2 for his great ideas! I mean he seriously gave me a ton of new ideas. Sorry for missing chapter last week. A friend of mine had returned from abroad after a year so my weekend was busy (and fun!). So this chapter, our MC learns that there is a tier of players, which is way above the noobs he had fun bashing. He also plagiarizes a sweet skill even if he lost the duel! ------------------ Chapter 038 Chapter 038 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------- After Jack reached Rotang City, he first sold whatever loot he had and restocked his supplies of potions and darts. He did meet Timon the merchant, who was very hopeful for some more of his enchanting services. However, as he knew that his enchanting was limited to the Intermediate Tier, he politely declined. He also browsed some equipment shops. Although upgrades to his present leather armor were available, he refrained from it. There were two main reasons for this. He already had an Arachnid Jacket, which was far better than anything he could afford on the market, even if he didn¡¯t meet the requirements to use it yet. Also, he only had around 1 platinum and 30 pieces of gold with him. He currently gained +30 Physical Defense from armor for his torso; +10 for his hands; +20 for his legs and +15 for his feet. The Physical Defense gained from various pieces of armor didn¡¯t add up to give a total defense score. Instead, they would reduce damage received only if physical attacks targeted the armored part. A full set of upgrades would barely give him an additional +5 to 10 Physical defense for every part, and an additional set bonus of +10 Physical Defense for every armored part. However, on doing so he would lose the auxiliary benefits of his Bear-Skin boots (+5% ice resistance) and Survivor¡¯s Cap (+500 HP). Spending around 40 gold for a measly +15 to +25 Physical Defense on every armored part while sacrificing +5% ice resistance and +500 HP didn¡¯t sit well with him. This was because, rogues and other Agility/Dexterity based characters hardly put any points into Vitality. Every point of vitality increased the natural Physical defense of a player by 1. Therefore these speed focused classed required every small scrap of physical defense any equipment provided. Furthermore, Jack had even unlocked the Endurance special stat which also added +1 Physical Defense for every point it. The Physical Defense provided by Vitality and Endurance applied to the whole body, instead of just specific body parts like Armor! But Armors had a hidden advantage as compared to the stat Vitality. Attacks striking armored parts had less chance of being a critical hit. And this reduction in critical hit chance was proportional to the defense provided by the Armor. Hence, even if someone had a reasonable amount of Vitality, having good armor was a must to increase survivability in melee. But the hidden stat Endurance unlocked by Jack, functioned differently compared to Vitality. Endurance gave +1 Physical defense and +10 HP per point. Whereas, with the bonuses from his Class, Vitality provided +1 Physical Defense and +20 HP per point! How can a hidden stat have lesser gains than a Basic stat with similar function? The Physical Defense added by Endurance functioned like the Physical defense from Armor! This meant that the hidden reduction of a received blow being a critical hit was given by the Endurance Stat as well, and that too, over the whole body! His Endurance of around 110 provided him the same chance in critical hit reduction for blows received as a nice set of steel chainmail, but over the whole body. Jack however, was unaware of these subtleties of the game mechanics. He simply added up the defense from all his equipment to the natural defense obtained from his stats and compared the values while making a cost-benefit analysis for armor upgrades. In spite of his ignorance, he came to the valid conclusion that the upgrades to his armor weren¡¯t worth the cost. As for weapons, his backup sword/dagger/axe/mace was good enough for now. And he preferred playing with a mixture of unarmed attacks and spells anyways. He had very little real-life skills with bladed weapons, and felt slow and clumsy fighting with them compared to his unarmed attacks. He decided to keep the dagger, as the Assassinate sub skill was very useful in situations which called for stealthy slaughter, and it could be only used with a dagger. As for the other weapons, he just kept his sword and sold the axe and he mace, as he could use Mana Blade only with his sword. His companion¡¯s equipment didn¡¯t require much upgrades at all. The Two-handed axe, which was acquired from the Gnolls, was a far better weapon than anything they could afford. His bark armor was only inferior to a set of Steel Full Plate armor, and the prohibitive cost of almost 90 pieces of gold wasn¡¯t worth it. He gave his companion a few gold coins and dropped him off at an inn and made his way to the Training Hall. He was greeted by Instructor Theon. Master Janus, who was napping on the bench at the far corner woke up with a start and also greeted him. Instructor Theon: ¡°Greetings, Jack. It has been a while since you visited us.¡± Master Janus: ¡°Welcome back, Jack. Learn any new interesting spells?¡± Jack: ¡°Greetings, Instructor Theon and Master Janus. Yes, I recently learned a spell to boost my physical capabilities! It is called Body Augmentation, and enhances my strength, agility and dexterity.¡± Jack then went to a dummy and began pummeling it. His punches and kicks were fast and precise, but nothing Theon and Janus hadn¡¯t expected. After a couple of minutes, he then enabled Body Augmentation, and helical strands of force and soul mana rotated and vibrated around him as he addressed them. Jack: ¡°I have now enabled this spell and will start hitting the training dummy. Notice the difference.¡± Jack then resumed abusing the innocent training dummy, and the difference was noticeable even to a complete novice. The speed of his punches and kicks increased significantly, his explosive power increase drastically and so did the fluidity of his movements. The dummy was rebounding almost as twice as much as before. Instructor Theon and Master Janus were shocked at this difference. Jack¡¯s unarmed damage potential had just doubled! His explosive speed and power was altogether on a different level from before. While they were still shocked and digesting the developments, Jack stopped his abuse of the training dummy. Jack: ¡°I also learned a healing spell from the druids. It regenerates some health over time.¡± He then deactivated Body augmentation and rolled up his left sleeve. He activated mana claws and gouged his forearm with his claw like fingers. Immediately, fresh wounds appeared and he started bleeding. He then activated Regenerating Infusion, and a soft green glow covered him. His wounds started healing rapidly, and in 3-4 seconds, his left forearm was as good as new. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Instructor Theon: *amazement* ¡°How exactly did you learn the Body Augmentation spell?¡± Jack: *smug* ¡°A traveler challenged me to a duel, and beat the shit out of me by using a similar ability and only his fists! I had memorized the mana flow around his body and just replicated it.¡± Master Janus: *chuckling* ¡°I just asked casually. I didn¡¯t expect you to learn two such powerful spells.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°And about our task. What had happened to the Druids?¡± Jack: ¡°A seed of blight was found by the coven. They had invested all their manpower to suppress and dispel it. That is why they couldn¡¯t contact this you this year.¡± Instructor Theon: *grumbles* ¡°Seed of the Blight. Damn. Well, I am grateful for the news, but I don¡¯t suppose you could aid them. I will make arrangements to send them some help¡­¡± Jack: ¡°Umm, I did help in destroying the Seed of the Blight.¡± Instructor Theon & Master Janus: *simultaneously shout* ¡°What?!¡± Jack: ¡°Yeah. I was transported to some pocket plane and I dealt with the seed, destroying it and saved months of time and probably half a dozen lives. But the druids didn¡¯t give me any rewards and instead got all huffy and drove me away just because my body was corrupted slightly by its taint. I mean, sure my body is defiled now. But the infectious taint of the blight isn¡¯t spreading, it is just dormant and reinforcing me.¡± Instructor Theon and Master Janus exchanged a glance, fully flabbergasted. They didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry. This Bhikku initiate had helped to destroy a seed of the blight, which took a lot of sacrifices, and spoke about it in a casual offhanded tone. Not only that, he had somehow integrated the taint of the blight in his body, strengthening and tempering it. However the taint of the Blight was contained, otherwise the druids wouldn¡¯t have left him unmolested and just drove him away. Master Janus recovered first from these shocking revelations and inquired his disciple. Master Janus: ¡°You said that the Druids drove you away without any rewards, then how did you learn that healing spell?¡± Jack: ¡°Well I got the key to the second prison for aiding them destroy the seed of the Blight. The Eldest of the coven also gave me a quest to free the prisoner from that Prison. I did free a petrified Druid from that prison, and as a reward got the healing spell.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°How exactly did you manage to not only destroy the seed of the blight, but free the Druid from a Divine Grand Curse? It was a goddamned curse which had chained the prisoner for over a thousand years and multiple attempts had failed to do so.¡± Jack: *sigh* ¡°I guess I can¡¯t keep it from both of you any longer. In the first prison I went, before I got my class, I devoured the spirit of the prisoner there granting him Eternal Rest. That act made me a Spirit Eater.¡± Master Janus: ¡°The birth of a Spirit Eater. That creates more headaches than it solves. We need to figure out how to limit the abomination from going on a rampage, every time you attempt to use its power. I guess, I will get in touch with the Order. Till then, do not attempt to use it indiscriminately, even if you were successful in dealing with the Seed of the Blight and freeing the Prisoner.¡± Jack: *sheepish grin* ¡°Master, that is unnecessary. My spirit contract with Irfit put many stringent restrictions on my Spirit Eating Abilities and has shackled it from rampaging.¡± Instructor Theon: *laughs* ¡°You keep on surprising me, Jack. Now tell us all the details.¡± Jack then narrated the details of his spirit pact and experiences with the seed of the blight. He managed to surprise them once again with the awakening of an Afflicted Warrior, who in turn chose to become his follower. He then narrated on his experiences with the goblin/hobgoblin infested cave and his interactions with the prisoner. Jack: ¡°And while I did awaken two new abilities of my Shackled Spirit Eater abilities, I lost a lot of levels to heal the petrified druid.¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°Well you got a powerful reward for it, which in my opinion more than makes up for it.¡± Master Janus: ¡°And now for your rewards you have a choice. I can give you the Gravity affinity and a spell for it. Or Theon can give you the Darkness Affinity and a spell for it. Since you cannot use ruinic magic due to your spirit contract, you will find these personally shaped spells very valuable. The choice is yours.¡± Jack: ¡°What kind of spell can I expect with the darkness and gravity affinity?¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°For the darkness affinity, I will impart you with a spell which will be very useful for stealth operations.¡± Master Janus: ¡°As for my gravity spell, it is very useful in restraining and damaging a single strong foe.¡± Jack: ¡®So I either get a spell for something akin to invisibility, or get a boss-restraining spell. Hmm¡­ that is a difficult choice.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Can¡¯t I get both?¡± Master Janus: ¡°No. Mastering a single new affinity and shaping your own spells will take a lot of time and effort.¡± Instructor Theon noticed Jack¡¯s crestfallen mood and snorted at Master Janus¡¯s statement. Instructor Theon: ¡°Don¡¯t be sad. You have gathered sufficient merit to advance further in our Order. However to get your class upgrade, you must be at least lv100. You can get the second affinity and spell at that time, if you wish.¡± Jack: ¡®Oh, a Class Advancement? Pity I need to be lv100 for it. I have two free affinities now. I can fill up one of them now. If I don¡¯t find any interesting affinity when I level-up, I might as well take the other while I accept the class upgrade.¡¯ Jack: ¡®While the stealthy dark spell sounds cool, I severely lack nuke spells to use against a single powerful foe. But a stealthy approach can come in handy too. Meh, I might as well flip a coin and be done with it. No point in agonizing over the choice, as either one is great.¡¯ He then withdrew a single copper coin from the inventory and observed the designs, fixing the heads side and tails side in his mind. He assigned heads for Gravity and tails for Darkness and flipped the coin¡­ ------------------------------ A/N: Thanks to sabric, for reading all the chapters in a couple of days, according to the timestamp of his thanks comments. its really motivating to know that someone enjoyed my fanfic enough to binge read it till the latest chapter in a couple of days. Taking a few seconds to say Thanks to the author goes a long way to motivate him/her! This was one of my shorter chapters of ~2.2k words. I was a bit evil and ended the chapter on a cliffhanger. Hehe¡­ Some readers might be wondering why our MC didn¡¯t get a title for the genocide of the Goblin spawn in one of the previous chapters (before meeting the petrified ancestor). This is because; he already has an applicable title! Goblins are Vermin and our MC already has the title ¡®Vermin Exterminator¡¯ right when he cleared the first floor of his first dungeon of those mutated Giant rats. I had also missed including ¡®Soulfire Shift¡¯ in the skill/spell list in chapter 36. That¡¯s fixed now, btw if anyone had noticed it earlier. Also 1k+ followers! Wohoo. At least a thousand people give a shit to follow this fic :D -------------------------------- Chapter 039 Chapter 039 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------- Jack flipped the copper coin. As the coin was falling back on his palm, he anticipated what choice of affinity was fated for him. He caught the coin in his palm and observed it. The heads side was visible. He deposited the coin back in his inventory and having made his decision, spoke up. Jack: ¡°Master Janus, I would like the Gravity affinity and the relevant spell.¡± Master Janus: ¡°Good Choice! Although it was the coin¡¯s choice and not really yours¡­¡± Jack: *smirk* ¡°Well they both sounded great, and I couldn¡¯t decide. So I let the coin decide.¡± Instructor Theon: *smiling* ¡°A better method to decision making, than many others I have seen. Instead of endlessly agonizing the pros and cons of relatively attractive options, just let chance decide it.¡± Jack: *smiling* ¡®Can I please have my reward now?¡¯ Master Janus: ¡°Return in a couple of days for your reward, Jack.¡± Jack: ¡°Alright, Master Janus.¡± Jack: ¡®I was so pumped about a new affinity. But the old man had to cockblock me for a couple of days. Bah.¡¯ As he left the training center, he was debating what to do to fill time for a couple of days. Due to the lack of grinding options nearby, he decided to grind his Enchanting skill and earn some gold in the meanwhile. Although he couldn¡¯t proceed beyond Intermediate in Enchanting, there was gold to be made even if he used his Beginner Enchanting skills, for now. He met with Timon and took up his offer for enchanting gear to resell. Once the contract was worked out and agreed, he started taking equipment from Timon to enchant at the enchanting guild. Every session of enchanting took a few hours and he earned roughly 50 gold from it. After having enchanted gear for a whole day, he had earned around 2 platinum. Although he could have enchanted more, but Timon had ran out of gear to enchant. The next day, he decided to go to the Library. He decided to meet with Madam Curie. She had promised him a reward after all, if he managed to shape some interesting spells. He knocked on her office, and entered after hearing a curt affirmative. Madam Curie: ¡°Oh it is you Jack. What brings you here?¡± Jack: ¡°I learned a couple of spells, and wanted to show them to you.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°Oh, interesting. What exactly do they do?¡± Jack: ¡°The first spell I learned was from the druids. It is a self-healing spell which regenerates some of my health over time.¡± He then gouged his forearm with mana claw, and a wound formed. The wound was not very deep, but it started bleeding. He then activated Regeneration Infusion and the wound healed rapidly in a few seconds. Jack: ¡°The next spell I learned was due to my Mana Control. I was in a duel with a traveller, and my opponent was using some sort of mana construct to boost his physical capabilities. I copied it and ended up with an adapted version.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°I will take your word for that. No need to punch something to demonstrate.¡± Jack was disheartened, as he wanted to demonstrate the effects of Body Augmentation. Randomly punching stuff to see the impression of his fist was oddly satisfying! However, she had stopped him before he could even begin. Jack: ¡°But I am curious. Although the spell is very useful, what kind of caster would spend time and effort developing it instead of developing spells which directly do damage so as to kill faster.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°This other traveller you dueled. Did he use any weapon?¡± Jack: ¡°Umm No. He kept his weapon sheathed and beat me with his fists. It was so demeaning¡­lying on the ground, getting beat up and unable to retaliate with any spells. At least I copied his spell, hehe.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°I have some speculations on who might have developed the spell, but can¡¯t confirm it, if he didn¡¯t use his weapon.¡± Jack: ¡°And what do you speculate, Madam Curie?¡± Madam Curie: ¡°There is a sect of arcane-warriors, all hidden and hush-hush you understand. They specialize in augmenting melee combat with a variety of arcane magic. They are called Mindslayers, and they are a part of casters called Psions.¡± Jack: ¡°Psions? Do they use mind powers.¡± Madam Curie: *snorts* ¡°All they use is arcane magic. But they like to refer to their shaped spells as ¡®mind powers¡¯.¡± Jack: ¡®Well the theme kind of fits. Use your mind to augment your body¡­and they have a spell which adds a part of INT/WIL to STR/AGI/DEX¡­¡± Jack: ¡°And how do I confirm your speculation, that the other traveller is a mindslayer?¡± Madam Curie: ¡°Their most iconic spell is ¡®Third Hand¡¯. It generates an invisible telekinetic hand, which can wield a weapon and attack with it! It is like having, well a third hand.¡± Jack: ¡®Ahh that explains why he didn¡¯t unsheathe his weapon. He uses his fists while the third hand wields his weapon. It can catch you off-guard if you don¡¯t know about it. Need to re-duel him and copy it.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Also looks like Madam Curie isn¡¯t in the mood for giving me any rewards. Probably because the druids gave me one spell, and the other was copied. On top of that, body augmentation isn¡¯t a spell for ¡°proper mages¡± so it might have pissed her off somewhat.¡¯ Jack: *stands* ¡°I will take my leave then, Madam Curie.¡± Madam Curie: ¡°See you later jack.¡¯ Jack left the room and searched the library for information on Psions and Mindslayers. Unfortunately, he found nothing more than a casual mention of them. He did find out that there were a group of casters, who identified themselves as Psions, but they were more in-line with traditional mages being caster oriented. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. After some more fruitless research and some restocking of rabbit jerky, he returned to the Training Hall to receive his rewards. He entered the training hall and greeted Master Janus, eager for his reward. Master Janus withdrew a book from his robe and gave it to Jack. It was a thin hard-bound book greyish in color. He quizzically stared at Master Janus, who replied. Master Janus: ¡°That is a spell-book for a personally casted spell I am very proud of. It is called Ravaging Prison. It uses gravity and force mana to slow, if not stop, a target while damaging it continuously. Once you sue the spell-book, you will learn it and gain a little bit of affinity with Gravity.¡± Jack: ¡°Thank you Master.¡± Jack then immediately used the spell-book. Unexpectedly, he got a short vision. He saw himself rotating his hand, while simultaneously clenching his fist while pointing at a goblin towards him. A distorting sphere appeared around him. The goblin seemed to be crushed and stopped, unable to stand. After the vision ended, he became aware of his surroundings. Jack: ¡®That was unexpected. It looks like that gesture is the sequence essential for casting this particular spell.¡¯ Master Janus: ¡°How do you like the spell? Once your proficiency increases, the spell will add additional effects other than just stop/slow and DoT!¡± Jack: ¡°That sounds pretty good Master, but it does have that hand rotating and clenching gesture. It¡¯s a giveaway to the observant.¡± Master Janus: ¡°I had to adapt my spell somewhat, since you can¡¯t use Mantras. It is not very easy to shape such complex spells without it, you know. Be glad that it uses only a single gesture, that too of only a single hand, you spoilt brat!¡± Jack: ¡®Da Fuck? He adapted a spell to not use Mantras in two fucking days? What a monster¡­¡¯ Instructor Theon: *snickering* ¡°You are getting rusty, Janus. I can easily adapt my stealth spell to not use any gestures. Too bad Jack, you won¡¯t learn it any time soon.¡± Jack sighed and bought up the spell information window.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
Ravaging PrisonBeginner100.00%
You focus on a target, and with a gesture envelop it with a crushing prison of Gravity and Force mana. The target is stopped or slowed, depending on its Strength, and takes continuous physical damage for a while. The range of the spell is dependent on the Perception of your Spirit Senses. Current level effects: Affects a single target for 40.5 seconds Max 1 instance of a spell active simultaneously 10.1% MAtk/s as Physical DoT which ignores Armor and PDef (but does not ignore Physical Resistance) Stops/Slows a target for the duration (resisted by Strength) Ineffective on incorporeal targets Costs 275 PP
When he read and analyzed the spell information, his eyes popped out of his skull. It was an extremely powerful spell. Not only did it restrain a target for over half a minute, it also did defense ignoring DoT! This meant that he could do a little over 400% of his MAtk as defense ignoring damage! And the duration and DoT of the spell would only increase at higher levels! It ignored Armor and PDef, but not resistance. However, physical resistance was very rare. Armor and PDef reduced damage by a flat value, whereas resistance reduced it by a percentage. Most DoTs therefore had very little effect if the target had a high Defense Value. Poison is an exception to this though, as it ignored both PDef and MDef. That is why, a tanky warrior with high Vitality would take very low damage from bleed DoT unless the bleed inflicted had special properties. This also caused mages to take little DoT from burning status affliction from fire attacks. If the situation is reversed, burning will do decent DoT on a tanky warrior while bleeding effects are very deadly to a squishy mage. The spell did have a major drawback. It was ineffective on incorporeal targets. That means the awesome restrictive effects of this spell was useless on spirits and certain undead like ghosts! The only consolation he had was that, these sorts of enemies were rare, at least in his experience. Jack: ¡°Master, I take back about the gesture! This spell is simply mind blowing. Defense ignoring Damage¡­¡± Instructor Theon: ¡°Hmmph.¡± Master Janus: *smiling* ¡°Now Theon, no need to be grumpy. You made an excellent choice Disciple!¡± Jack: ¡°Anyways, my next priority is getting to level 100 for moving up the ranks, and to get the darkness affinity. I am level 66, any suggestions?¡± Master Janus: ¡°There is a town called Houndborough to the southwest which is about two weeks¡¯ journey on foot. You will find a variety of monsters suitable for you. Once you are around level 80, you can tackle the nearby dungeons. It should be enough for now.¡± Master Janus then bought a map from upstairs, and explained the exact position of the forementioned town and the main paths leading to it and nearby dungeons. Jack: ¡°Thank you Master Janus. Do you have any tips for shaping new Gravity spells?¡± Master Janus: *smiling* ¡°Find out for yourself. What is the fun if I tell you everything...¡± Jack: ¡®Now I remember why he is such an annoying old man. Always making me jump through hoops¡­¡± Jack said his goodbyes and left the Training Hall. He shopped for some provisions like preserved food and condiments essential for a journey and refilled his Enchanted Canteen to the brim with water. He then visited the inn at which his companion was staying and set off on the journey to the town of Houndborough. ------------------------- A/N: Time for some shameless self-promotion! I have a new fanfic on RRL. It¡¯s a Xianxia in a fantasy world. It is mainly inspired by Coiling Dragon, but with many re-interpretations and personal touches. Check it out and please Rate and Review it for more visibility! Chronicles of Leofric ----------------------- Chapter 040 Chapter 040 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------- Instead of sticking to the dirt paths, Jack decided to travel through the woods to reach Houndborough. It gave him the opportunity to grind his Survival and Free-running skills. He was also anxious to try out his new spell Ravaging Prison. While practicing on a (now weak) lv20ish pack of wolves, he confirmed few things. His spell caused a wolf to be completely immobilized leaving it unable to even stand on its four limbs. The wolves had very little HP due to their low level, and thus a single cast of Ravaging Prison immobilized and killed it within 15 seconds. When one wolf was under the effects of Ravaging Prison and not yet dead; he tried casting it on another. On doing so, the spell would end on the first wolf and affect the latest targeted wolf. This confirmed that though the spell had no cooldown, it could affect only a single target at a time. Recasting it on another target, cancelled its effects on the previous one! After about one week of travelling through the woods, his enchanted canteen was nearly empty of water. He was a bit distressed at this. While due to his trait ¡°Iron Stomach¡± he could drink the blood of animals to satiate his thirst; his companion couldn¡¯t do so. Jack: ¡°My water is almost over. So unless you want to stay thirsty after a couple of days, we should find a source of water.¡± Bob: ¡°Don¡¯t you mean ¡®we¡¯? You are here too...¡± Jack: ¡°I have a couple of skills to eat and drink almost anything without too much of an adverse effect¡­unless it is highly poisonous. In that case I would need to use some healing potions or cast regenerating infusion.¡± Bob: ¡°Well, if you are running out of water, there should be a water-source to our east, near that rocky hill in the distance. It should be less than a day¡¯s walk. Once we get nearer, I will be able to find it with more precision.¡± Jack: ¡°How did you know that? Do the forests speak to you?¡± Bob: *chuckles* ¡°It is easy to look for it if you know the signs. ¡° Jack: ¡°Can you tell me? It will at least pass the time. There are no reasonably challenging monsters nearby¡­¡± Bob: ¡°Very well, pay attention then. There are many subtle clues to the location of water in forests¡­¡± Jack then heard Bob¡¯s lecture and practical demonstration over where to find water. Animals always know where the water is, so he should be on the lookout for wildlife or animal tracks. Lush green vegetation is also a sign that water is nearby. Swarming insects may be a hassle, but they also signal that a water source isn''t far away. Bird flight paths in the morning or evening can also point someone in the right direction. While pausing to rest, one should use their ears -- rivers can be heard in quiet woods from great distances. Water always flowed downhill, so low-lying areas and valleys were a good bet. After hearing a crash course on finding water in forests, Jack browsed his notifications. He didn¡¯t learn any new skill, but his Survival skill had gained proficiency due to absorbing the knowledge of his companion¡¯s lecture. After almost eight to ten hours of searching, they came to a small lake. It was near a cluster of large moss covered rocks. Jack filled his enchanted canteen to the brim with water and quenched his thirst. After drinking the water, he felt somewhat lazy and leaned against the moss covered rocks. He felt a comfortable scent invading his senses. It smelled of crushed juniper and mulberries. He felt mildly drowsy and felt like taking a nap. Beside him, his companion Bob also had a drowsy look on its face. He immediately recognized that something was not right. Jack: ¡®When did Bob ever start to be so comfortable? Something is not right. I should try to stay awake.¡¯ He resisted the urge to sleep, but the more he fought¡­the more insidious was the desire for rest. He speculated as to why it was so. Was it some status effect by a monster? Or was it something in the water? With his last remaining ounce of willpower, he turned and saw that Bob was already fast asleep as he succumbed to his desire to sleep. Jack regained consciousness near the lake. He observed that everything was a dreary shade of black and gray, with hardly any color. His companion was nowhere nearby. In the center of the lake, there was a pitch black whirlpool. He looked at his surroundings and saw that farther and farther away from the lake, everything became more translucent shade of grey, almost transparent. Jack: ¡®So I am in a pocket plane, I guess? Strange though¡­there is no color. That black whirlpool seems to be the focus. Might as well venture there, or who knows how long I will be stuck in here¡­¡¯ He then got up, and walked towards the lake. As soon as he stepped on the dark grey waters, instead of sinking, a paper thin bridge formed beneath his feet leading to the whirlpool. He chuckled at the welcome, and followed the path. Though it looked fragile, it supported his weight without any problems, and soon he appeared near the whirlpool. From the center of the whirlpool, a sinister looking jet-black portal appeared. Cracks and tremors passed through it like lightning. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he stepped though the portal. He felt a gut-wrenching sensation, a tugging behind his navel. He felt as if he was about to puke. After a few seconds, the sensation passed, and he found himself on all fours, staring at the grey-black floor. The floor had fantastic geometric shapes etched in it. He could identify a few fractals on it. The more he observed, the more details he could find in it. As he was absorbed by the mathematical beauty of the fractal patterns etched on the floor, he heard a chiming voice interrupt his thought. It almost felt as if small prayer bells were ringing in harmony¡­;yet he felt a dangerous undertone to it. Chiming Voice: ¡°Fascinating, is it not; Spirit Eater?¡± Jack snapped upwards and noticed the surroundings. He was in what seemed an infinitely large hall. It was so vast that he couldn¡¯t see any walls which marked the boundary. He gazed upwards and found that the ceiling was too far above to make out any details. All around him, there were thin yet intricate pillars made out of what looked like grey granite. The only color in the place was thin psychedelic veins covering the grey pillars. They pulsed and throbbed gently to an enigmatic rhythm. He turned ahead to see the source of the voice. Just a few meters ahead of him, was a large circular floating cushion. On the cushion, sitting cross-legged was a black indistinct figure. It looked as if black smoke had taken a humanoid form. On the figure¡¯s face, there were two radiant eyes which seemed to shimmer and throb with various colors. He couldn¡¯t make out any other feature except the radiant eyes. The whole sight was awe-inspiring and he felt a deep shiver pass down his spine. According to his crude estimations, this being was someone who rivaled Irfit in power! He had to tread carefully and not make the entity in front of me annoyed. Jack: ¡°Greetings to you, oh mighty spirit! How may I address you?¡± There was a chuckle from the powerful entity in front of him. It sounded as if a thousand bells were incessantly ringing. The intensity was so that he almost had a headache. Chiming Voice: ¡°Very Polite. We guess we should repay your courtesy. Even we do not know our true name, Spirit Eater¡­ but most address us as The Dreameater.¡± Jack: ¡®The Dreameater? Sounds ominous and what is with his referring himself as we? Sound sliek some pompous royalty. But I guess he can afford to do that. I bet he could curb stomp me without lifting a finger.¡¯ Jack: ¡°Might I know your purpose in summoning me Dreameater? And very forthright of you to admit you don¡¯t know your true name. Although I am not sure about it, but aren¡¯t names extremely important to spirits?¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. The Dreameater: ¡°All are welcome to try and find our true name and use it; doing that will allow us to gain that knowledge and exponentially increase our already considerable might. But our existence is a huge taboo spirit eater, not unlike your own before Irfit chained you. As for our purpose to invite you here, call it a coincidence?¡± The Dreameater: ¡°We were just trawling the prime material plane for interesting dreams, and found your soul somewhat unique. Curious, we invited you to our domain¡­ and it turns out to be a spirit eater shackled by Irfit. It was too interesting to pass, and hence we were a bit forceful to bring you here. Now that you are in our domain, I suggest a deal.¡± Jack: ¡°Like a spirit pact?¡± The Dreameater: ¡°Maybe. Why not we have a conversation and see what it leads from there.¡± Jack: ¡°In that case, why is your existence a taboo?¡± The Dreameater: ¡°What others call us should be hint enough. But let¡¯s just stay that everyone would rather pretend that we don¡¯t exist. As long as we aren¡¯t too overbearing and behave, it is going to stay as such.¡± The Dreameater: ¡°Let¡¯s talk for some time. While we do travel through dreams; having a conscious conversation partner is oddly refreshing. Sometimes in a single dream we have devoured, mighty kingdoms rose and fell in the span of a single night; all in the dreamer¡¯s psyche. What do you think are dreams Spirit Eater?¡± Jack: ¡°Who knows? Perhaps they are just a peek into our true being. An illusion our mind shows us, so that we may know ourselves better?¡± The Dreameater: ¡°Let us take the previous example. To the citizens of a kingdom in a dream, all they do is real. What is reality, then?¡± Jack: ¡°That¡¯s uhh deep? I would be lying through my teeth if I even said I understood that question. After all to travellers like me, the whole existence of Terra is like a shared dream.¡± The Dreameater laughed loudly at that. Its bell like voice was resonating with a multitude of tones. Due to his laugh, near him a warping could be seen. It was as if the power of his laugh was distorting this plane itself! Jack felt terror in his heart as he witnessed The Dreameater¡¯s powerful laugh. After a while, The Dreameater regained his composure and addressed him. The Dreameater: ¡°Interesting answer, Spirit Eater. To all of us, the planes here are our realit which has existed for aeons. But in the world of your travelers, this is just a shared dream? That answers a lot more of my musings than you could guess, Spirit Eater.¡± Jack: ¡®Opps. Informing an in game NCP that it¡¯s just simulated might not be the best course of action. But I though anything which clashed with the in-game residents is censored to all but players? So terms like real life, NCP, log-off is automatically screened from the in game residents. I might have found a loophole¡­ at least The Dreameater seems amused.¡± The Dreameater: ¡°The nature of Terra¡¯s reality is what grants us powers comparable to Spirit Monarchs. But I do ask you Spirit Eater, what if your reality is nothing but a shared dream?¡± Jack: ¡®Is it saying that we live in a Matrix?¡¯ Jack: ¡°While it may be impossible for me to confirm, in my world many great minds have had similar thought. Because the more we learn about our reality, the more questions it raises.¡± The Dreameater: ¡°We do not know about your reality Spirit Eater, but this reality is malleable. In your own words, this reality is nothing but the collective dream of those who experience it. Our conversation enlightened us to quite a few things, so we will give you a reward. Do you accept?¡± Jack: ¡°What is the reward, Dreameater?¡± The Dreameater: ¡°We allow you to devour one of us, and gain a bit of insight we have accumulated. What you make out of it, is dependent on you.¡± Jack: ¡®So more unique abilities and a chance to devour a spirit? Yes please!¡¯ Jack: ¡°I would accept your gift with gratitude, Dreameater.¡± Out of the Dreameater¡¯s figure a black incorporeal shadow appeared. Like the Dreameater, the shadow had two eyes full of color, in contrast to rest of it which was black. The eyes on the shadow however, were a lot less intense than The Dreameater¡¯s. The shadow floated in front of Jack and compressed into a black baseball sized object. Out of the black baseball, two multicolor eyes stared at him. He assumed that he was supposed to devour it. He tried to manifest his abomination to devour it, but he unexpectedly felt a deep fear in him. Jack: ¡®Is my abomination actually scared of this thing? Even in Irfit¡¯s domain it manifested without hesitation at the prospect of a meal. What is this Dreameater exactly?¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡°Ah our apologies. We should suppress our presence, otherwise your abomination will never have the courage to show itself, much less devour one of us!¡± The scene in front of Jack¡¯s eyes changed substantially. Everything was painted in a myriad of crude watercolors, and the pillars stopped their psychedelic pulsation. Everything had more color, yet he felt that something was muted. Shrugging, he manifested his abomination. Grey monochrome tentacles enveloped the baseball with glowing eyes and it slowly sank into its palm. In his body the black baseball with glowing eyes broke through the abomination¡¯s tentacle and dived towards his Mana Center near his heart. A stream of visions passed through his eyes, of which he couldn¡¯t comprehend a thing. A slight jingling voice erupted in his mind. Jingling Voice: ¡®Just endure for now Spirit Eater. I, one of The Dreameaters will stay with you and lend you my power. It is time for you to leave my domain. Keep me entertained now, will you.¡¯ Jack blacked out and woke up with a cold sweat. He saw that his companion Bob was awake and he had returned to the principal material plane of Terra. It was the first time he had slept in game, and he wasn¡¯t sure what he had experienced. He quickly browsed his notifications and learned that The Dreameater had granted him a trait. He bought out the description of the trait he gained, nd didn¡¯t know whether to laugh or cry.
Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:
The Dreameater¡¯s Gift: SolipsistTrait------
Reality is nothing but the collective dream of those who experience it and nothing exists out of the mind¡¯s ability to perceive it. This is the foundation of The Dreameater¡¯s power and it has granted a sliver of these insights to you. This is a dangerous realization and you must guard your thoughts, lest you come to believe reality exists only within your mind. These insights significantly alter the way the world interacts with you. A portion of all HP damage and HP healing you receive goes to your PP, depending on your Void affinity. If your PP is below a certain threshold, you suffer penalties to all your stats. You may unlock new sub-skills if certain special conditions are met. Current Effects: 20.8% of all HP damage and healing is redirected to your PP. If your current PP is less than 20.8% of your max PP, you suffer a 10.4% penalty to all your basic and special stats.
Jack: ¡®Dangerous realization indeed. On one hand, it ties up my HP and PP, so theoretically HP healing can be used to recover PP! But the vice versa is also true. If I take too much damage in a short while, I lose HP and PP. If my PP gets too low¡­I am basically fucked with penalties. Furthermore I am sure the damage/healing transfer and stat penalty both will increase with my void affinity. Should I actively seek to increase it, or refrain from using Void altogether?¡¯ Bob: ¡°Are you alright? Your face looks strange. You took quite a long nap btw¡­ I tried to wake you up a couple of hours ago but you didn¡¯t respond.¡± Jack: ¡°I am, at least for now. I just realized that a gift is not always a good thing¡­¡± Bob: ¡°¡­¡± --------------------------------- A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Sorry for the late chapter. Due to RL factors, my releases will become sporadic. Treat of it as a semi-hiatus. I don¡¯t want to promise anything but I will probably write one chapter every two weeks to a month for now (probably till November end). Not getting dropped however. You might have noticed that the Donation thingy has been removed, I requested for it. But I do appreciate all the (only) donations I got till now, Mr. T of Germany! Thanks a lot!! ------------------------------------- Chapter 041 Chapter 041 ------------------------------------------ ¡® ¡® for thoughts. ¡° ¡° for speech. * * for actions. Please point out any mistakes/inconsistencies you find and feel free to comment on anything regarding this FF. If you enjoy reading this FF, please Rate & Review! Warning: May contain mature content (18+) of an adult nature. Read at your own risk. Just to be safe: Asunder Online (and all its chapters) by fidelc123 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Google Drive Link ------------------------------------- A couple of (in game) days after his meeting with The Dreameaters, his companion alerted him to a big group of travellers approaching for them in the forest. They were at least two dozen of them and were around 100 m away, although it would take at least a couple of minutes for them to encounter him and his companion. Bob: ¡°So how should we proceed? They feel much stronger than both of us.¡± Jack glanced around his surroundings and noticed a few tall trees nearby. He gestured to them and addressed his companion. Jack: ¡°Let us climb up and conceal ourselves and see how it goes. It is probably just a co-incidence. If it does come to a battle though, I will create a distraction and do your best to escape.¡± Bob: ¡°I don¡¯t like running.¡± But almost immediately he noticed jack¡¯s frown and hastily added. Bob: ¡°But it does seem to be the smartest decision in this case! Where should I wait? I probably won¡¯t be allowed in city limits without accompanying you.¡± Jack: ¡°Hmm¡­ wait near those kobolds. Now quick, go climb that tree. They will be here in less than half a minute now. And remember retreat is the first priority! Run before even you have to sue your healing spell.¡± His companion hung his weapon on his belt and climbed a nearby tree. It was awkward climbing, but he made it in time. He himself used a combination of free running and Mana Claws to nimbly climb and sheath himself in a bunch of leaves. Soon a tall guy, around 6 feet 4 inch tall, in clunky plate mail armor arrived beneath them. His plate armor was silvery in color and his electric blue cape had an emblem etched into it. It looked like a golden thunder bolt embossed over a grey cloud. His weapon of choice seemed to be a bastard sword and a kite shield. The same emblem was etched into his kite shield. The thunder bolt insignia player stopped and scratched his beard. His face was quite handsome with a cleft chin and strong jaws. He had blond dreadlocks extending up to his chin. He had golden yellow eyes and a French beard. He walked around a bit and frowned. A chainmail wearing warrior, somewhat shorter than the blond dreadlocks guy approached him. He had spiky brown hair and was clean shaved. His weapon of choice appeared to be a halberd which was around 6 feet tall, although he did have a hand axe near his hips. Behind them were around twenty other players of various classes. Judging by appearances around 8 were lightly clothed casters ¨C mages and priests. Around 5 were equipped in leather armor, three of whom were wielding long bows. Jack assumed them to be rogues and archers. And the rest were in an assortment of heavy and massive armor wielding a variety of melee weapons, most of whom stuck with a one handed weapon and a shield. Halberd Guy: ¡°What is wrong Boss¡­ why did we stop?¡± Blonde Dreadlocks Guy: ¡°Our quest objective should be right here. But there is nothing here¡­¡± Halberd Guy: ¡°Well it has to be around here somewhere. We will spread out and surround it and wait for you, Boss.¡± Jack: ¡®Quest Objective? Shit. That blondie looks like a paladin. I am sure I didn¡¯t use Spirit Eater abilities in front of any divinely aligned player or NCP.¡¯ Jack then suddenly heard a chiming whisper in his mind. Chiming Whisper: ¡®That¡¯s probably because of me.¡¯ Hearing a whisper in the back of his head Jack was surprised and started panicking. Was that whisper something the game was enforcing o him, or was he starting to lose it? Chiming Whisper: ¡®No you are not ¡°losing it¡±. I am hurt you don¡¯t remember me after you accepted our gift.¡¯ Jack groaned mentally. Of course¡­ it seemed a bit too convenient that he had got a potentially game-changing trait for free, just by napping near a random lake. Jack: ¡®The Dreameaters? Why am I not surprised that I am being hunted barely a couple of days after I accepted your gift.¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®I must confess, we were kind of desperate for a foothold in Terra. In order to not appear too desperate we put a bit of a show. On the bright side because you did help us understand this reality better, your gift was quite powerful too!¡¯ Jack: ¡®Well I did accept it. Anyways, is there any way to get out of this mess?¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®Well there is a way, but you would have to agree with another small deal.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Another deal¡­with you? Do you take me for a retard? I would only consider it if it could save my flunkie from death.¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®Suit yourself¡­¡¯ While Jack was having a conversation with the voice in his mind, the Plate Armor wearing blonde player stood exactly below Jack and pointed his shield and sword upwards. He then did a half crouch and his bastard sword started glowing golden with crackling electricity. He then stabbed upwards as he shouted ¡°Lightning Spike¡±. Jack was almost hit by that spell, but fortunately the shout alerted him and he managed to dodge just in time. He could not however, maintain his footing and fell from his hiding place as soon as he dodged the lightning spike. He did however manage to roll on the ground and mitigate most of the impact. He stood up and dusted his sleeves while glaring at the Paladin. As if on cue, Bob jumped down from a nearby tree and landed next to him, causing a mild depression due to his impact. Jack had a clam fa?ade outwards, but inwardly he was cursing his hot blooded companion. These players were clearly searching for him. Why did he have to reveal himself? Jack: ¡°That was pretty rude you know. Firing a sneak attack spell while I was distracted.¡± Halberd Guy: *sneers* ¡°And you hiding like a sneaky thief wasn¡¯t rude?¡° Blonde Dreadlocks Guy: ¡°Be Polite Spear_of_Death.¡± *addresses jack* ¡°What I would like to know is why you are the target of our quest.¡± Jack: *feigning ignorance* ¡°What quest? I was just on my way to a leveling ground. I was hiding because a large group of PKers has dogged me for a while¡­¡± Blonde Dreadlocks Guy: ¡°Well my church instructed me to seal a small rift before a demonic spirit invades. But a couple of days back, that quest ended in failure and I got a new quest to imprison the host.¡± Jack: *frowns* ¡®Demonic Spirit? You fucked me up big time, Dreameater.¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®Many powers don¡¯t like me because I am a big anomaly. I do have a deal which can get you out of it, but at a price¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡®Tell me the details of this ¡°deal¡¯ and don¡¯t miss anything important like last time¡¯s ¡°gift¡±. I will stall for some time here.¡¯ Jack: ¡°And what does this ¡®Demonic Spirit¡¯ have to do with me?¡± Blonde Dreadlocks Guy: ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious? My quest is pointing at you, so you must have made a deal with it. Why don¡¯t you just quietly accompany us?¡± The Dreameater: ¡®I am but a mere fragment of our true selves hitchhiking with you Jack, greatly limiting the powers at your disposal. They are almost non-existent in fact. I can however, form a link with my true selves and channel a great amount of power.¡¯ Jack: ¡°And why would I do that¡­ out of the goodness of my heart?¡± Blonde Dreadlocks Guy: ¡°I am to bring you into custody to complete my quest. Obviously it will be a lot more bothersome if we decide to fight and I have to track you back to your city. I also noticed that your party member is an NCP. You wouldn¡¯t want him dying now would you?¡± As if on cue, all the other players readied their weapons, and the priests started chanting buff. Jack: ¡®Are you sure that it will end this manhunt with me as the target?¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®Not sure, but it is your best bet.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Then what are your terms Dreameater?¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®All I require is your permission, and I will start channeling. You will allow us to use your vessel for a short period of time, the after effects of which will kill you.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Demonic Spirit indeed. What you are asking is to possess me!¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®Well yes, but its only temporary! And it will get you out of this mess¡­¡¯ Jack: ¡®¡­ which was created by you! Not unless it is otherwise hopeless!¡¯ After they entered a battle ready stance, the priests cast their various buffs. While the blond paladin was threatening Bob¡¯s life, Jack channeled a ball of Soulfire in one of his hands as he activated Entropic Leech. He then threw the soulfire ball at the largest group of casters, while simultaneously shouting: Jack: ¡°Run Bob.¡± But it was too late. A strong purple black aura coated Bob, and hate radiated from him as he teleported outside the encirclement, not to flee¡­but to attack another group of casters! Jack cursed in his mind, and noticed the Paladin was chanting another spell. He quickly pointed at him with his left hand and clenched it into a fist as he imagined him being crushed form all sides. Ravaging Prison was activated and distorting transparent, almost invisible, sphere covered the Paladin, interrupting his casting and he started losing around 1.3% HP per second! Due to his heavy armor, he was especially affected by Ravaging Prison and he was rendered completely impotent! This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Furthermore, if the whole spell was allowed to run its course, the paladin would lose around 50% of his max HP! This was very significant as his opponent was almost 15 levels over him and was a Paladin, which meant that he had a decent P.Def and M.Def! After disabling the leader, he prepared a Soulfire Breath, and activated mana Claws. As four armored warriors including Spear_of_Death moved to intercept him, he activated Soulfire Shift and teleported to bob and unleashed his prepared breath. It hit 3 casters and an archer and they lost around 10 to 15% of their HP. Jack then enabled Body Augmentation and pierced a nearby caster¡¯s throat, reducing its HP by a quarter while simultaneously interrupting its chanting! Clearly against these casters around level 80, a Body Augmented Mana Claw Slash was much more powerful than a cast of Soulfire breath! Jack: ¡°Run, Bob¡­what are you doing.¡± Bob didn¡¯t even reply, and he had actually lost himself to rage and was wildly swinging his axe. Each clean hit shaved off at least a third of the caster¡¯s HP. They managed to kill three casters in a short while, but were not unmolested themselves. Jack had been hit by stunning crowd control skills of the Archers and although he resisted it, he was slowed down quite a bit, which allowed a couple of warriors to surround and use their Bash skill at him reducing his HP by almost 30%. His summon Charlie had managed to soften a couple of casters and kill one with his Flaming Claws and blazing swiftness, but had lost almost 60% of his HP under concentrated attack by the nearby warriors who were defending the casters. Jack didn¡¯t want his summon to disperse early, but he was too occupied to aid it! His companion had also lost around a20% of his HP and his weapon was phasing through all those who surrounded him. Each impact was further generating small shockwaves which disoriented those nearby. After taking care of the group of casters they had targeted, Bob had managed to bring 4 warriors to around 60% HP. Jack was frustrated in his heart, and he knew that Charlie would be un-summoned soon. He mentally instructed his summon to go berserk and prioritize the casters. His pet¡¯s translucent orange aura turned into a deep Crimson shade, as it exploded with power, head-butting a warrior out of the way and flipping over another to bite at another mage¡¯s throat. While this sudden burst of strength and savage display of might was impressive, Charlie¡¯s HP was reducing under an alarming rate under the combined effects of the attacks it was receiving and HP drain of its induced Rampage. It stubbornly held on the caster¡¯s throat (whose HP had reduced to around a fourth) as it received attacks from the surrounding players. Soon, its HP bar emptied and Charlie exploded! In a three meter radius of its surroundings there was dark crimson explosion of flames which killed the caster he had been attacking and shaved off around a 20 to 25% of the HP of nearby warriors. As Charlie was un-summoned, the pressure had increased on him and his companion. He resorted to slashing and piercing the nearby players with Augmented Body on and Mana Claws with each hit reducing around 15% of a warrior¡¯s HP, while making full use of the environment and Entropic Leech to evade hits. In the melee, it was extremely difficult for the mages and archers to target him without friendly fire¡­ still he had only 40% HP left as he activated Regeneration infusion. His HP regenerated, and within a few seconds he was over half his HP. Meanwhile Bob had been reduced to around 20% HP as he was recklessly rampaging through the nearby foes. He had activated his healing spell ¡°Scorching Revival¡± and translucent orange flames enveloped him and 5 burning warriors near him. He was healed to full health but started losing HP at a steady pace of around 1%/s, while those near him were momentarily distracted as a powerful burning DoT drained around 1.5% of their HP/s Wherever, his blade passed, purple ¨Cblack shockwaves with trails of orange soul fire could be seen further spreading destruction. By now, only two squishy casters had survived and Ravaging Prison had expired on the paladin. Jack again shouted at Bob to retreat, but he had drowned in bloodlust¡­paying no heed to his commands and kept on fighting. As the paladin approached them with Fury Jack: ¡®Shit shit shit. My flunkies gonna die. Dreameater, possess me.¡¯ The Dreameater: ¡®It¡¯s a deal then, Spirit Eater.¡¯ Instantaneously, a powerful cocoon of Grey-Black energy enveloped Jack and a large shockwave spread of it, knocking back almost everybody in a radius of 10m. This seemed to have captured everyone¡¯s attention and interrupted Bob¡¯s bloodlust. When the shockwave dissipated, there was a thick layer of Grey-Black energy coating jack and his eyes were shining completely with scintillating colors like diamonds. His HP and PP were full and his look and aura was eerily similar to the Dreameater¡¯s. He seemed to regain his bearings, and the purple-black aura of rage around him actually dissipated in the presence of the terrifying energy around Jack. The possessed Jack spoke with a chiming voice of bells, yet it inspired terror in all those who heard him. Possessed Jack: ¡°Bob, run away. NOW!!¡± Bob seemed to be terrified out of his wits. As he heard the powerful command, his figure shimmered with purple black energy as he teleported out of the encirclement and ran away a full speed. The Blond Paladin¡¯s heart was filled with fury. He had almost assuredly ailed this quest, but he won¡¯t let the other party get away without losses! Blonde Dreadlocks Guy: ¡°Don¡¯t let that NCP get away! I want him dead.¡± Possessed Jack: ¡°As if I will let you.¡± A distorting colorless ripple tinted with sparks of grey-black spread around Possessed Jack and attracted all the players towards him. The other players who were attempting to follow Bob were instead struggling to remain at their position. His possessed form had clearly shaped some sort of Gravity AoE spell to keep anyone form escaping. The Possessed Jack turned towards them and let out a terrifying breath of grey black energy. It looked somewhat similar to his regular mana breath, but its range and size was much larger. His possessed form could also maintain the breath for much longer and do much more DPS. Meanwhile, jack felt as if he was a prisoner in his own body. After he agreed to the deal, he had felt a terrifying presence overwhelm him. As he watched he rapidly regenerated all his used HP and PP in a few seconds. As The Dreameater cast the powerful Gravity AoE, he noticed that his Full PP bar had instantly reduced by 20% and had rapidly regenerated back to full! The terrifying grey-Black breath that the Dreameater was currently using was barely making a dent in his PP before it regenerated. The other players systematically died as Jack was in awe. Jack: ¡®That¡¯s some powerful shit.¡¯ The Dreameaters: ¡®Well we have barely a minute remaining before your shell collapses.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Hope you can hold your end of the deal Dreameater.¡¯ The Dreameaters: ¡®Just enjoy the ride now, Spirit Eater.¡¯ One of the remaining mages managed to cast a spell and several powerful spiked balls of ice smashed into the Possessed Jack. Each spiked ball of ice damaged him for around 5% HP, and there were around five spheres that hit him. To everyone¡¯s astonishment however, its HP rapidly recovered at the rate of roughly 1.5 % max HP per second. The mage was cursing in his heart. It was his most powerful single target spell, ¡°Frozen Sphere barrage¡±. Firstly it had done almost half the damage he had expected it to do¡­and on top of that that devil had regenerated almost half the damage done before the spell completed. The Possessed Jack then slashed with its grey-black claws towards the mage. Five arcs of grey-black energy shredded a couple of warriors between them and impacted the mage, who died instantly, while the warriors suffered the same fate. The possessed jack then systematically wiped out all the players using augmented grey-black version of Jack¡¯s abilities. He simply ignored all attacks hitting him, as he took reduced damage form everything and rapidly regenerated his lost HP. Soon, only the paladin was left. The possessed Jack teleported near him and the resulting grey-black shockwave had shaved off more than a third of his HP! He then grasped the paladin¡¯s neck and lifted him off the ground as if his heavy armor was made of paper. Possessed Jack: ¡°Listen carefully, Worm and repeat it to your patron. We have finally managed to gain a foothold on Terra. It is a traveller like you so it cannot die. Furthermore, our conduit is a vassal of the Soulfire Spirit Monarch. End this manhunt on his head now, or soon rifts will open everywhere on Terra and hordes of spirits will begin to slaughter all the believers of your patron. Can your patron afford this war of attrition? Do you understand?¡± The blond paladin nodded meekly at this turn of events. He was feeling overwhelming rage and fear at this outcome, but he was powerless now! Seeing his acknowledgement, the Possessed Jack squeezed the paladin¡¯s neck and a layer of grey black energy coated the paladin¡¯s body. His corpse was turned to ash before he could even scream. Jack: ¡®That was intense.¡¯ The Dreameaters: ¡®And our time is almost up. Hope we don¡¯t have to possess you Spirit Eater.¡¯ Jack: ¡®Yeah ¨C¡® Jack¡¯s vision suddenly turned completely black and a window popped out.
You have died.
-------------------------- A/N: Sorry for the late chapter. Kind of expect irregular releases till mid-December. So our MC experiences his first death¡­ but goes out with a massive bang! But at what price? Although I have a pretty solid idea as to what the cost of this possession should be, please suggest stuff you feel should be included in the penalty. If the idea clicks I will include it :D Also A BIG THANKS to all you readers for my first achievement! Imma Leader of penguins, fuck yeah! ------------------------- NOTICE of Indefinite HIATUS, Not a chapter Hello everyone, I successfully shifted jobs and my paycheck is a lot better now...even if the working hours leave me with little free time. Now regarding this FF, I sat down to write a chapter the previous weekend, and after 3-4 hours managed only 700 or so words, barely a fifth of a chapter! Earlier, I didn''t get the free time to write, but used to manage a rough draft of a 3k word chapter in a couple of hours max. This is probably writers block, or lack of inspiration. I will officially put this FF on Indefinite Hiatus (and dropped my other fic), and take it easy for a while. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I am sorry to all who waited expectantly for a new chapter, but as it is quality (and popularity) has dropped down a bit from chapter 25ish or so and I feel it would be unfair to all you readers for me to grind out chapters as if it were a chore which will cause a further drop to quality. Not a Chapter. Shameless Self Promotion New fiction by yours truly: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/23154/psychic-brawler-greg Summary: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A dude transmigrates into a underground post-apocalyptic shithole while finishing character creation for a VRMMORPG he was a veteran of. Fortunately he bought along a Status Screen and level-up system from the VRMMORPG. Watch out Greg as he combines Psioncis and Pugilism in this transmigration litrpg. Oh yeah; there won''t be much drama and (or any) romances in this fanfiction. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now get butthurt about how the author is a dick for dropping this novel; having another novel on hiatus while daring to start a new project etc. etc.