Ruthless ~ 28!

~ 28 ~

Soul Forge complete! Skill gained: Retaliation of Shadows.

Retaliation of Shadows (Apprentice I) (Legendary): You have forgone the active usage of the Shadows around you for the ability to use the Shadows at a more…  instinctual level. When you are attacked, your mind automatically reacts. Whether it be from a physical blow, or a magical attack, the shadows will lash out on your behalf. Effect: upon taking damage, an instant retaliation will strike your attacker for 1n% of the standard potential damage of the attack, up to 10n damage, where n = skill level. As the retaliation moves at the speed of Darkness, only the most agile of foes will be able to dodge. Toggleable. Cost: Reserves 15% of total mana pool while active.

Joe sat up, healing himself in the same motion. He saw Everard standing and looking at him with a question in his eyes and blood rolling down his face. “Did you slap me?”

“What? No.” Joe took an unsteady ready stance as Everard flew at him. His sword went point-first into Joe’s hand, and he could feel the bones breaking. At the same time, for a bare instant, he saw a perfect copy of himself appear in front of Everard and slap him soundly across the face.

“Ow! You did it again!” Everard snarled. Joe was too busy fixing his ruined hand to care what this man had to say for himself. Another strike came in, but Joe managed to get his defense up in time, and cleanly blocked it.

“Guards are here! Scatter!” The crowd thinned rapidly, but Everard remained standing in place, glaring at Joe.

“So, where should we meet up for the next lessons? Five free ones, yeah?” Joe had a faint smile on his face, and Everard slowly nodded.

“Somewhere private, so that we don't have a mess like this.” Everard’s training sword went into his belt, and he reached out a hand. They shook, and Joe used Lay on Hands at the same time. “Gah! Why is your hand so slimy…! Oh, I feel better.”

“You should, I’m a Cleric. I heal people.” Joe made his staff vanish into his ring. 

“Cleric? I was told that you were a Mage.” Everard made plans to train soon, and Joe looked at his skill notices.

Polearm Mastery (Beginner III).

No bonus, but he was using his staff at the end there like a person who had trained for months; not for only a few minutes. That man was talented, and Joe was going to make sure the guild knew to snap him up as soon as possible. Now, Joe wanted to look deeper into his new skill. Since there was no one else to talk to, he summoned Mate and spoke to the coffee elemental.

“Think through this with me. Retaliation of shadows… let’s see… at Apprentice three, looks like you return up to twenty-one percent of damage taken, up to a maximum of two hundred and ten total damage.” Joe thought that over and nodded thoughtfully, “Interesting. I can do more damage directly to armor with Acid Spray, but there is one thing missing from this that makes it extra powerful.”

Mate bubbled inquisitively, and received a pat for being a good listener. Joe gleefully rubbed his hands together, “Just think, Mate! It’s missing a limit on simultaneous targets! Hopefully I never have hundreds of people hitting me at the same time, but if I do… I’ll… oh… slightly inconvenience them. Before dying. Right… I’d need to tank all that damage. I can see the drawbacks, I guess that’s why it dropped to Legendary instead of taking the higher Mythical rank. Thanks for helping me work this out. Let’s see…” 

Mate nodded sagely, swirling in place.

“I have to give up fifteen percent of my total mana, but then it doesn't take any mana to function. That’s… three hundred forty-six mana for unlimited retaliations. Good trade. Should I work on boosting my defences now, or figure out a better fighting style that incorporates this?” It only took Joe a moment to decide. “Best way to survive is not to get hit. New spells are the way to go, maybe more polearm training later. Good. Now…”

“Oh, I know!” Joe snapped his fingers and went to the temple, deciding to pop over to Ardania. It was time to start his journey with enchanting.

As the sun started setting, Joe appeared in the temple and fell directly to the ground with a groan. The Enchanter had not been kind, and had demanded that Joe demonstrate all his current ability in enchanting. Then, he had taken the majority of their time together to show Joe why what he was doing was dangerous, inefficient, or both. Joe had even broken down and shown the man his enchantment for creating Mana Batteries in an attempt to gain some respect.

Instead, the Enchanter had become so furious about the wasted potential of the Cores that he kicked Joe out of the building. Joe was told by Terra to come back after a day to give the old man a chance to calm down. Currently, Joe laid in a pile, trying to figure out why he was so despondent. “All of that… and not a single skill rank in Enchanting.”

There had been a gain, and Joe was almost embarrassed by how accurate the feedback must have been to get his skill all the way from non-existence, to… 

Skill gained: Enchanting Lore (Beginner II). Allows you to fine tune Enchantments that you find or create. Can increase potency of enchantments and/or decrease cost of creating enchantments.

“Why do I hate that I only got a Lore skill so much?” Joe sat upright and rubbed his eyes.

“Finally something I can work with.” The voice boomed through the room, and Joe felt a huge amount of fury welling up within him. Just before he shot to his feet to attack the intruder, he caught himself and realized that the emotion was certainly not natural.

“Who-”

“I am Tommulus, deity of fire and wrath.” The voice was coming from that altar, where a blood-red flame was burning without flickering. It had gotten quieter as well, and there was no longer roiling emotions impacting Joe. “I have an offer for you.”

“Interesting.” Joe smoothed his robe and stood tall. “Why now? You have been here since I built this temple, and never spoken before. What changed?”

“You, of course. When have you been here before, full of fury and shame?” The deity didn't seem coy, instead appearing to be listing facts. In fact, the voice was honorable; something he would expect from a noble paladin. “You lay on the floor of my temple enraged over your lack of knowledge, full of anger over being beaten like a rug publically. If you didn't come here today, and had instead acknowledged your feelings and moved past them like an adult, who knows when we may have spoken?”

“First, ouch.” Joe’s cheeks were flushed, and he filled with embarrassment over his flaws so clearly shown. “Second, good to know that there were requirements to speak with the deities.”

“Of course there are. Even you were originally contacted because you gained access to a hidden class. Occultatum took the first person that met his minimum standard.” Tommulus stated clearly.

“Are you the god of wrath because you make people angry, or…?” Joe growled.

“The truth often enrages those who cannot handle it.” Tommulus said, making Joe deflate like a popped balloon. “Will you hear my task, or no?”

“Please, feel free.” Joe sighed and waved for the flame to continue speaking, only realizing afterwards that he was expecting a fire to read his motions. Magic was weird.

“Good. I need you to help my cleric, Crimson Flame of Wrath.”

“Crimson…? Is that Crim’s full name?” Joe held back his laughter, but only barely. He was going to need to re-estimate Crim’s age when they met again.

“Yes.” Tommulus solemnly intoned. “There is an opportunity for Crim to gain a specialization that would also benefit you greatly, but I think that you already have plans for your own advancement. There is another group that is going after this holy relic, the Golden Tome of Divine Favor. You have bested them once before, and I hope that you will be able to do so once again.”

“I see… and in return?” Joe knew that there needed to be a reward for a quest like this, so he didn't feel too bad being blatant about it.

Quest offered: The Golden Tome of Divine Favor. Retrieve the Tome for Crim, the cleric of Tommulus. Reward: Tommulus has offered you a chance to gain favor from him! Accept? Yes / No.

“Nope, try again.” Joe shook his head, hearing a slight chuckle in reply.

“Had to try. I will do one of three things.” Tommulus stopped speaking, and a quest appeared in front of Joe.

Quest offered: The Golden Tome of Divine Favor. Retrieve the Tome for Crim, the cleric of Tommulus. Reward: 500 gold for each participating party member. 5,000 experience. Joe only, choose one: Cleric spell on the path of Wrath. +5 in all characteristics. Divine Infusion x1. Accept? Yes / No.

“What is a Divine Infusion?” Joe questioned Tommulus. Everything else was pretty straightforward, but that had no other information.

“It is a short term buff that imbues you with the power of the deity you follow. For ten minutes, all of your stats reach the peak of the tier your highest stat resides within, and there may be other effects. Some good, some… not as good, depending on the deity.” Tommulus stated the last bit only after a moment of hesitation. “There is a week before you will be able to enter this holy site, and I guarantee that others will be after it as well.”

Joe swallowed the mouthful of saliva that had built up. That sounded amazing. If he got his intelligence to one hundred and fifty-one, then used Divine Infusion, suddenly all his stats would be at two hundred for ten whole minutes. He was sure that he would really feel like a demi-god for that time period. “What if I fail to return with the Tome?”

There was silence for a long moment. “That will depend on you, I suppose.”

“Then I accept the quest.”

Reputation increase: +100 reputation with Tommulus.