Chapter 60: Willliam (Not a necromancer) Oh

William oh commands an army of the dead! He will sweep across the city of Akul, righting wrongs and saving lives with his merciful unholy horde.

Women and children will weep with an ecstatic mixture of awe, love, and terror as they are delivered from the jaws of death by the skeletal hands of his thousands of minions!

He will destroy Akul! And in the process of destroying it…save it’s people.

Then he’ll kinda get bored with the whole necromancer bit and only take it out on special occasions, like spring cleaning.

-          Jason Salazar

He’s definitely making that up to trick us, right?

-unknown.

“Welcome to Rings and things!” a cheery voice called as Will and Loth entered.

Will froze mid-step as he spotted the ‘person’ behind the desk, an enormous insectoid creature that looked something like a mantis, if a mantis had stubby fingers growing off their wrist where their arm folded into a serrated killing machine.

Nobody else in the shop was running or screaming, so Will relaxed and went with the flow.

“Good afternoon,” Will said, approaching the counter. “I’m participating in a tournament in a few days and I’d like to find some new options for my Build?”

“What is your Build, Sir, if you don’t mind my asking?” The necklace around the creature’s neck glowed and emanated with a sweet young womans’ voice while the creature stared at him unblinkingly.

“Summoner? Light warrior, heavy warrior, Scout, Tank, Nuker, Necromancer, Buffer, Healer, Logistics, Crafter, Crowd Control?”

“…Flexible, actually.” Will cocked his head. “Did you say necromancer? I thought those were illegal.”

“Not illegal in and of itself, just difficult to pull the archetype off and prohibited by the government.”

“Prohibited by the government is illegality.” Loth said.

The mantis-creature didn’t move an inch, showing no reaction to Loth’s statement. In fact it hadn’t stirred this entire conversation.

It’s voice was another thing.

“Oh my, a kobold! How cute! I could just eat you up! Ah, it’s so nice to meet a fellow world-traveller outside our ancestral homes in these parts. As for illegality, the Xeju believe that if the Tower allows it, it is legal. There is no higher authority.”

“Huh.” Will grunted. “So do you have any necromancer Relics?”

“Oh, my, no, that would be Illegal. Wink.”

“I’m assuming you can’t wink,” Will said.

“That would be a fair assumption. I do not have any necromancer Relics, but I do have a few post-life summoner Relics that might satisfy your needs. Wink.”

“I’m not a necromancer, but I’d still like to look at them,” Will said. “…Wink.”

He actually wasn’t, but despite the illegality there was no young man that didn’t enjoy the concept of raising the dead to serve them. being cool, and badass, girls thinking you were fixable, wearing all black leather and being stick thin…

It actually reminded him of that mask wearing outlaw that nearly captured him on the 2nd Floor. learning more about the kinds of relics the man wore might give him insight into how to analyze and disassemble his Build, should he ever come across him again.

Will knocked on the wooden countertop, but he knew he’d already jinxed himself.

“Right away!” the Xeju moved with alarming swiftness, going from completely motionless to flickering into the back, flickering back through the back door, climbing sideways along the doorframe to control her momentum until she stopped in front of Will, setting a collection of items on the countertop in front of him.

Will picked up the bone ring and inspected it.

Ring of the Undead Horde

+5 focus

Increases potency of Necromancer Archetype Abilities by 15%

Reduces Focus cost to maintain Undead minions by 2 each, cannot lower the Focus cost below 1.

Will frowned. So necromancers needed high Focus, to allow them to keep lots of undead running simultaneously. They also had less available Charge based on the number of undead you could visually confirm, which the ring of the Undead Horde helped with.

Will didn’t know how much the ring helped, but if he had to guess, it was likely that the Focus drain for maintaining undead was likely related to their power, so this ring could allow someone to cut down the maintenance cost on 3 Focus undead to 1, allowing the wearer to triple their number of worthless staggering meat-shield zombies, but, say, a Death Knight might take 40 Focus to keep in play, and  a reduction of 2 apiece wasn’t actually that much of a game-changer.

Interesting glimpses into how the Class might work.

Will checked the next item, a gnarled wand with a velvet handle that seemed to blur the line between driftwood and bone.

Wand of the Undead Retainer

+6 focus

+3 Acuity

+15% potency of necromancer archetype Abilities.

1 charge: Heal Undead. Repairs undead tissue. Some reassembly required. Does not revive dead undead.

5 Charge: User may summon one permanent low-power Undead Retainer, to a maximum of 1.

The Undead Retainer is an intangible spirit with a limited ability to interact with the physical world, performing simple tasks for the wielder. They are sustained by the wand, not reliant on the wielder's Focus. If the wand is unequipped, the Undead Retainer is dismissed.

The Undead Retainer can be the target of Abilities requiring a living sacrifice and subject to lifedrain, as though it were alive.

“Oh, this one is a good choice, young necromancer.” The Xeju said as will inspected the weapon.

“Not a necromancer,” Will said, but she continued as if he hadn’t spoken.

“Many necromancer Archetypes gain life-drain and sacrifice mechanics with their Abilities. Having a disposable undead retainer on-hand to sacrifice in an emergency is quite the powerful benefit, and makes Party members much less nervous about winding up on the chopping block, so to speak. Having it available to clean house, cook, and set up camp, and the ability to heal one’s minions is also a blessing.”

Hmmm.

A single low-power undead was basically nothing. Most of its utility was derived from the ability to target it with other Necromancer abilities that might require a living sacrifice, or the Ability to have it stand there and let you cut it’s head off to heal a critical wound.

Plus the wand could allow you to patch up your other undead, something a necromancer might not want to waste a whole Ability on.

The wand wasn’t the primary strength of a necromancer, merely filling gaps in their Build.

This did make Will stop and think, though.

A single low-power undead was basically nothing, but if he fed the wand to his Phantom Hand, and it doubled the power of the ability…

Would Low-powered become Medium-powered, and could the hard limit of one undead become Two? While Will was wearing his Cloak of the Fade, he was raising the power of Phantom Hand by 25%, which pushed it’s multiplier just over 100%, effectively doubling all effects the slotted item had.

If one medium-powered undead was significantly stronger than a Low-powered one, and if he could raise two instead of one, the power was effectively quadrupled. The potential damage output of the Undead retainer was no longer an afterthought to the utility of having a convenient sacrifice. Instead, combat power could become the primary draw of the Ability.

Interesting.

Will put it back down, but couldn’t help lingering on it for a moment.

Will flinched as the Xeju flickered away, soundlessly darting into the back before returning with a polished steel ring, which it placed beside the wand.

“You seem interested in the wand,” She said. “And I remembered possessing a synergistic item.”

Will picked up the ring and inspected it.

Ring of the Eidolon

+4 focus

+3 Acuity

Abilities that create eidolons are 35% more potent.

Eidolons are more freely able to interact with the physical world, improving their ability to perform tasks and deal physical damage, while retaining their intangible damage resistances. Scales with Acuity.

“What’s an eidolon?” Will asked the obvious question.

“Any non-physical, spirit-type summon. Ghosts, elementals, avatars…that sort of thing.”

“So the undead Retainer would qualify?” Will asked.

“Yes, sir.”

Soft-set.

“Hmm..” Will mused for a moment before moving on to the next one, picking up the wavy blade with a skull carved into the pommel and fingerbones forming the wristguard.

I wonder if Necromancers just prefer a certain style? Will thought. Why not a hatchet, or a cleaver, or heavens forbid, a regular, plain dagger that doesn’t announce your Class to anyone with eyes?

But then I suppose…how would girls know you desperately needed a hug?

Done with his internal complaints, Will inspected the dagger.

Dagger of eternal Servitude

+4 Strength

+3 Kinesthetics

On kill: Consumes corpse to create a permanent bone maksu to serve the wielder. Capable of simple tasks, but prefer combat. Bone Maksu are sustained by the dagger. Maximum 3 bone Maksu.

Will sat and thought about that one for a moment.

There was the upside of not needing to pay Charge to create the undead.

There was the downside of needing to kill something to trigger it.

The bone maksu had a higher starting combat potential than the Undead Retainer, geared for combat rather than making beds and setting up camp, what with them being purely physical, and will remembered the maksu being fast and vicious.

Still low-power undead, but with a focus on physical combat rather than utility.

Will could set up his own camp.

So if I consumed it with the Phantom hand, they would be much more powerful, and I would be able to make six of them (probably), but it would require me to kill things directly first, and that’s not necessarily going to happen against a single strong opponent.

So this is good for ranging in areas with lots of small enemies that might need a bit of extra manpower to prevent them from overwhelming you, but against elites, its not as good, because you can’t fuel it as easily, and Elites would just annihilate the bone maksu.

Actually…

“Can the wielder kill anything with this to create a bone maksu?” will asked, thinking of Loth’s hundreds of thousands of insects. If Will could squish a handful of them and throw half a dozen overpowered bone maksu in his enemy’s face, that would be phenomenal.

“Only monsters and other Climbers. The way on-kill effects pay for themselves is by utilizing the miasma inside the body of the target to fund their effect, so typically they don’t work with plain animals or un-Classed humans.” The Xeju said…still motionless.

“Ah, darn,” Will mused for a moment before turning to Loth. “do you think you could-“

“Breed a species of insect solely designed to hold onto a large amount of Miasma, so it can be used as the target of on-kill Relic effects?” Loth asked.

“…Yeah.”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Sounds like a real exploitable Build idea for me, though. I’ll start on it when we get back.”

“Can you hold onto the ring and wand for me, and then bring some on-kill effects, on-charge effects, as well as wands that grant decent Abilities, be they CC, Direct Damage, or utility, as well as Ranger and Rogue boosting Relics?” Will asked. “And I’d like to see if you have any interesting Amulets with odd effects.”

“Oh, you are flexible.” The Xeju said before flickering into the back with that eerie speed before she began returning with piles of Relics for Will to sort through.

Legs of the Indomitable.

+4 resistance

+3 Kinesthetics

+15% potency of charge attacks.

On charge, gain a damage-absorbing shield, lasts until the charge ends.

Interesting. That synergizes well with the mask and boots. Triple soft-set.

Will would hate to give up his extra movement speed, but the ability to fly and be extra durable while flying? That was hard to pass up.

Will went through the wands while Loth inspected a dagger with an on-kill healing effect that would synergize well with both the Undead Retainer and her proposed Miasma bugs.

“In theory,” Loth said, “This dagger could be used to turn five Charges through that wand into a moderate heal. It’s a bit clunky and indirect, though, since you would need to pass the dagger to the wounded ally, who would have to at least be conscious enough to use it. You likely couldn’t use it in the heat of combat, but outside of combat it could be a handy way to patch up the party without an official Healer or wasting a consumable.”

“Add it to the pile.” Will said, reading the wand’s details.

Wand of Flamethrift.

+4 Acutiy

+3 focus

After maximum Charge has been reached, any Charge the wielder would have gotten is added to the wand, up to 20.

These charges may be spent to launch a powerful flame dart at a single enemy

No. Will thought, moving on. Sure it was modestly handy for a Nuker who might want attack options that saved power for big booms, but it wasn’t synergistic or build-changing, it was just a little safety blanket.

Next.

Wand of Sparkforce

+3 Focus

+3 kinesthetics

+2 Strength

+8% Movement and attack speed

1 Charge: launch a small lightning bolt at a single target for moderate damage. May paralyze.

Well, that I like, Will thought. The movement/attack speed was excellent, especially if he fed it to his Hand, and having three stats it boosted was nice too.

And the chance to paralyze? Also good.

Will was somewhat neutral on the actual damaging Ability itself. Why shoot a lightning bolt when you can launch a cannonball at someone?

“Do you have any more Relics that effect both attack and movement speed?” Will asked, pointing at the wand.

“Of course.”  She ducked aside and returned with a handful of relics, clearing away the ones Will had already looked at.

“attack and movement speed are often associated with lightning abilities, and they are often weaker than just attack or just movement,” She said as Will picked up a pair of gauntlets.

Stormfists

+3 kinesthetics

+3 Resistance

+3 strength

+9% movement and attack speed.

Each blow struck has a 12% chance to add a low amount of lightning damage. May paralyze.

“May paralyze?” Will asked. “It doesn’t have an exact chance?”

“The System does not know exactly what you will be using it on. A fleshy meat sack like you? Chances are good, but against a stone golem? The shell of a mountain-sized spirit turtle? Not happening.”

“I suppose,” Will said, trying not to let himself get too excited. These gauntlets were an excellent choice for his Phantom hand, as they boosted all of his physical stats, and granted an excellent boost to movement speed and damage, as well as a solid chance to add extra damage to his attacks…and paralyze?

And if he doubled all those stats?

“Add these to the pile,” Will said, handing them back to the Xeju. Her stubby insectoid picked them up with surprising deftness and added them to a growing pile behind her.

Will went through the rest of the wands and didn’t find anything that sparked his interest quite like the sparkforce and the undead retainer wands. Mostly they were designed with Nukers in mind, and either plugged into the Nukers damage boosts, or offered cost-saving elemental attacks, or simply a different element in order to cover a weakness.

None of that was what Will wanted.

Will turned his attention to the Xeju’s ‘rogue’ selection and noticed a wand shaped like an ornate skeleton key, albeit far too big to ever fit in a lock, with a leather-wrapped handle and a chisel-like edge that looked designed to do some light stabbing.

He picked it up and inspected it.

Wand of the Trespasser

+4 Kinesthetics

+3 Acuity

+20%  Potency of Rogue Archetype Abilities.

30% reduction in audiovisual effects of actions taken to open doors, locks, or when sneaking on something or someone else’s territory.

1 Charge: Wand of the trespasser changes size and shape to match any lock. Alternatively, can become a pry-bar.

Stabby Stab: This Wand has mutated to function as a melee weapon in addition to it’s normal functions. Reinforces it’s durability to direct damage.

Do I want this, or my Hold out Dagger as my secondary? Will thought, inspecting his current off-hand weapon.

Holdout Dagger

+4 Kinesthetics

+7 Resistance

It is more difficult to notice the dagger for those who mean the wielder harm. In combat, apply a stacking bonus to the wielder’s Strength, Resistance, and Movement Speed based on the number of enemies.

That would be a noticeable drop of seven Resistance if he switched, but it would be an additional 20% boost to Phantom Hand and whatever he put into it. Plus, nearly everywhere was something’s territory, so the +30% bonus to sneak would work anywhere except Will’s bedroom.

Well, I still own the Holdout Dagger, I can always switch back if it sucks.

Will added it to the pile.

Pile’s getting pretty big.

“How much for all of that so far?” Will asked.

“One hundred ten-pieces,” the Xelu said.

Will did some mental math.

“…Let’s add the On-kill bone maksu dagger to the pile,” Will said before turning back to the ‘rogue’ pile.

And try not to think about the sheer amount of money changing hands.