Chapter 153: Interpretation

Erani sat, meditating and trying to figure out which Talent to choose. Between Elemental Embrace and Expanded Capacity II…ugh, she didn’t know. But she was leaning toward Embrace. She just needed to give it some time and come back to the problem with a fresh set of eyes.

For now, she still needed to also look at her Spell Choice, anyway. Maybe that would give her some additional perspective when deciding.

Choose one Spell to learn:

Force Spike

School: Alteration, Arcane

Type: Activated

Cost: 55 Mana

—

Shoots a wave of force that travels 10 paces, dealing up to 50 damage, depending on where it hits, on a direct collision with a being. When Force Spike damages a being, 20% of the damage dealt is returned as a force shield that protects you from that much damage from a future hit, wearing off after use or 15 seconds after application.

Torpor Orb

School: Summoning

Type: Activated

Cost: 500 Mana

—

Summons a small orb. While a being is within 50 paces of the orb, that being loses 0.5% of their current Stamina every second.

The orb will only affect the five nearest beings at any given time.

After 5 minutes, the orb crumbles to dust.

Distortion Strike

School: Alteration, Illusion

Type: Toggle

Cost: 0.5 Mana/Second

—

While active, you are Shaded, making you slightly harder to notice in the dark. When you damage a being with your body or a physical weapon while Shaded, deactivate Distortion Strike and spend 30 Mana to appear in a bright flash of light and deal an additional 2 damage per second you were Shaded, with a maximum of 200 additional damage.

Okay, she thought, let's try to be more decisive about this one.

She hadn’t done as much research about the path following Angelic Shield as she had about the paths following the other options on her second Spell Choice, but she was still familiar with these effects. Force Spike was the generally-taken Spell here, to continue with the more defensive direction taken with Angelic Shield. Though she had also seen a couple builds that took the more controversial path of Torpor Orb with a build that went with a more lone-wolf style, taking advantage of Angelic Shield’s allowing one to not have to worry as much about having others watch their back. And Distortion Strike wasn’t a very common Spell, seeming to encourage people to move down a melee build taking advantage of Angelic Shield’s nature of making the user somewhat tanky.

Out of the three, she was more immediately leaning toward Force Spike. Torpor Orb, while it seemed like it could actually do quite well when used in conjunction with Arlan’s Stamina-draining strategy, had an element that was a massive drawback—it drained everyone nearby. Enemies, friendlies, even the caster of the Spell. Erani could still remember the math she’d read about behind the Spell. Over the course of the full five minutes it was in effect, assuming a being began with their entire complement of Stamina, they’d end up with around twenty percent of their original value. For Erani, she’d end up with 60, and Arlan would probably be no better. Obviously, their enemies would be low, too, but if everyone ran out of Stamina, it would essentially achieve nothing.

Since the orb drained so much of a person’s Stamina, the strategy was often for the caster to be prepared to end up completely sedimentary near the end of a fight, doing everything they could to avoid moving. Angelic Shield could help quite a bit with that, since it allowed them to just take hits full-on instead of worrying about dodging. They’d even sometimes take someone with an extremely high regeneration along so that they could have that person literally carry them through the battlefield instead of walking.

Erani still remembered the ‘face’ of that strategy using Torpor Orb. It was a man called Riir Stax, who lived a couple hundred years back. He’d apparently saved up every single Spell Strengthening he got as he Leveled as a Sorcerer, refusing to put even a single free Rank into his Spells that came before, until he finally got access to Torpor Orb and put every one of them into it, powering the thing up to insane levels. His entire fighting style was based around the single Spell, summoning the orb and then just stalling until his opponents passed out just barely before he collapsed, himself.

There was even a story about him getting into a fight against some massively famous Melee-Type, where they fought and fought until they both collapsed, paralyzed at the exact same time. Stax couldn’t kill him in that position, but he also knew that if he let up with Torpor Orb, his opponent, with their higher physical Stats, would get up first and be able to kill him. So he kept casting Torpor Orb over and over, repeatedly resummoning the thing for hours on end, then days on end. Eventually, his opponent literally died of thirst, having been forced to lay there, paralyzed, until they perished. The only reason Stax survived, the story went, was because he was able to lick a single droplet of water off the back of a frog during the days of paralysis.

Now, were those stories exaggerated? Absolutely. But they also inspired an entire style of fighting based off of that basic “I’ll hurt both of us until you die just before I do” strategy. It wasn’t extremely successful—not many recommended it, and it got more people killed than it helped succeed—but it was certainly memorable. Hells, even Arlan’s fighting strategy, focusing on resource denial and waiting an opponent out, had a similar style. Though he obviously preferred to force his opponents to lose resources while he gained them, rather than hurting both him and his opponent simultaneously. Definitely a more reliable way to do things.

And that was pretty much the problem with the strategy. It really didn’t work well unless you were prepared to bypass that drawback. Sure, if enough time passed, Arlan might be able to drain someone of their Stamina, but he, Erani, and Ainash would all be low by then as well, making them especially vulnerable against any additional forces that showed up afterward.

Plus, there were the two limitations of the Spell in its range and maximum number of affected targets. If someone really felt like the Spell was that detrimental, they could just keep away from Erani until it crumbled away on its own, and at that point, she and her allies would be so drained from her own Spell that they’d all be easy pickings for the still-strong enemy.

The Spell was extremely powerful in the right hands—it could essentially completely control the course of a battle the moment it was cast—but Erani simply didn’t have confidence in her ability to take advantage of its effects without having constructed her entire build around it.

Distortion Strike was similar. It felt good, but like it needed a very specific build; it was the least popular pick of this Choice for a reason, after all. The Sorcerer Class just wasn’t built to be able to easily take advantage of a Spell that wanted the user to get within melee range of a target, due not in small part to the fact that Explosive Firebolt was such a pervasive baseline for the Class. If she wanted to get within melee range of an opponent, why would she want her only other damaging Spell to literally blow her up if she ever used it that close? It simply didn’t synergize with the most powerful Upgrade for Firebolt—and the one Erani had taken—so it was pretty much thrown out immediately by most users.

By contrast, Force Spike was a solid option to continue to increase one’s survivability. It didn’t have quite the pure Mana-to-prevented-damage efficiency of Angelic Shield, but it did when you counted the damage it dealt to the opponent, as well—especially when used with the Talents Erani had. Increasing the damage Force Spike dealt would also increase the size of the shield it gave her, after all, so it simply made sense to take the option that so well synergized with her build so far. At least she wasn’t going too far off the beaten path.

Though, she still needed to figure out her Talent. Maybe Arlan could offer some help picking. He had that Index thing, right? It could probably give her some information to help her choose.

**********

I watched as Bon brandished his bloodied sword against the now-hostile monster.

“Get out of the way, don’t steal our kill!” he yelled at me.

I frowned and instinctively backed away from him, unsure of what was going on. “Uh, what’s going on? Were you guys hunting this thing?”

“Yeah,” Jannin said. His warhammer was still strapped to his back. “Bon’s decided we’re going on a ‘training expedition,’ which is something we literally never do.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, still surprised by their sudden appearance. We weren’t too far off, but I hadn’t thought they’d be coming down the road toward us. “Well, I guess I’ll get out of your way, then.”

“That would most likely be for the best,” Poppins said, a hint of hostility in his own voice.

Yeah, it wasn’t like I expected them to like me after I beat Bon up so thoroughly the night before, but still, seeing people look at me like that…I got ready to fight if need be.

And speaking of fight, the monster charged at Bon, lowering its horns in an attempt to gore straight through him. He lowered his blade and attempted to deflect the attack, but just got thrown aside regardless.

“Um,” I called out to him, “you might wanna dodge rather than parry. That thing seems like it carries a lot of weight behind it, so it’d probably be a lot safer to—”

“Don’t tell me how to fight!” he scowled back at me. “Didn’t I tell you to make yourself scarce? You think you’re better than me, just because you beat me once? When I was drunk?”

He turned back to his opponent with a grunt, readying himself for another strike.

Jannin looked back at me again. “He’s pissed that he lost. What Level are you, anyway? Seems like it was enough for you to beat his ass even when you were smashed.”

“Oh, y’know,” I shrugged, “high enough, I guess.”

“I’d bet it’s flamin’ high, if you got through Empire’s Edge,” he chuckled. “Clearly enough to make Bon feel insecure about—”

Poppins grabbed him and pulled him away from me, whispering in a harsh tone that I could still hear, “Stop fraternizing with him! Can’t you tell he’s dangerous?”

“Hey man,” I raised my hands, “I really am sorry about all that. I was drunk, and obviously a bit too used to solving my problems with violence. But I promise I won’t pull shit like that in the future, if you can forgive me.”

Poppins opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, I heard a shout from behind me.

“Hey,” Erani called, “you mind helping me pick something?”

“Oh,” I called back, “I, uh…”

“Yeah, why don’t you go talk to your lady friend, if you got so big a crush on her,” I heard Bon interrupt me with a shout as I looked back at Erani. “Just get out of here and let me do my job! I’m trying to protect the people from this—”

I turned around to see Bon getting run over by the monster, which roared in anger and blew out a cloud of poison smoke across the man’s face.

“Oh, shit!” I ran forward to his help, alongside Jannin and Poppins, who both drew their weapons when they saw Bon take the hit.

“What’s going on?” Erani asked. Her eyes were still closed, so I was sure she’d only just now been made aware of the fact that other people were here.

“No danger, sorry!” I yelled back as I ran forward and helped Poppins drag Bon back, away from the monster, as he coughed profusely and Jannin took his place, warhammer in hands.

“...Do I need to stop meditating? It sounds like there’s danger.”

“No, seriously, I’ll tell you if it’s serious,” I said. “It’s just those guards, they’re—”

“You’re saying this isn’t serious?!” Poppins demanded. “He’s hurt!”

I sighed. “No, as in, she doesn’t—look. I’m trying to help, okay? Isn’t that enough?”

“If you want to help, get your hands off of my friend. You’re so good at fighting, go kill that thing.”

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes and got up. It was probably a good idea to get rid of the rampaging monster so I could go talk with Erani, anyway.

“Hey Annor,” Jannin said as I walked up beside him.

“Oh, uh, hey,” I said, for a moment forgetting the fake name I’d given them.

“You a frontline or backline fighter?”

“Frontline, I guess,” I said, absentmindedly casting Crippling Chill on the monster, which was pawing the ground in preparation for another charge.

You have cursed Level 8 Gloomspur with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1259.

Gloomspur, huh? Interesting name. And only Level 8? Yeah, this wouldn’t be a problem.

“Actually,” I said, “just let me take it for a moment. Step in if it seems like I’m in over my head.”

Jannin shrugged. “Sure. Less work for me.”

I stepped forward, toward the Gloomspur which was now visually wilting under the effects of Crippling Chill. But nevertheless, it charged right at me, though clearly more labored in its movements. Just as it got within reach, I activated Gravity Well to surprise it, grabbed onto its fur, cast Sanguine Bond, activated Noxious Grasp, shot it point-blank with a Ray of Frost using the hand grabbing it, and…

It collapsed. Under the cocktail of debuffs and drains and continuous damage sources, it went limp under my hand and fell to the ground. So I just bent down and placed a hand on it to finish it off with Grasp.

“Woah.” Jannin said. “Uh…what did you do?”

Bon sat up, rubbing his head. “What the…What happened?! What did I say about stealing my kill?!”

You have offered major contribution toward the slaying of Level 8 Gloomspur.

You have earned 46 XP. Your XP is 434.

“Whoops,” I said, pulling my hand back. “Got kinda carried away. I was just focusing on disabling it so it wouldn’t hurt you, and…”

Bon scoffed. “Yeah, carried away. You sure do that often, huh?”

“Uh, hey,” Erani called once again, “everything alright over there?”

“Oh, right, yeah, it’s all going fine,” I called back. “I’ll be over in a minute.”

“C’mon, men,” Bon said, getting to his feet and brushing himself off. “Let’s get going. Clearly we can’t work in peace around here.”

“I don’t think I want to work in peace, if this is what that looks like,” Jannin followed.

Poppins lingered for a moment, eyeing me. Then, he just said, “...Thanks for helping,” and turned to walk off with Bon.

“Okay,” I muttered to myself. “Fuckin’ weirdos.”

And then I walked back, over to Erani, where she sat against the tree.

“What happened with you while I was gone?” she asked.

“Friends came to visit. What about with you?”

“Failed to make a decision.”

I chuckled. “You want me to help?”

“Yeah, I was hoping maybe Index could have some insight on this.”

“What, you don’t value my all-important feedback?” I joked. “I’m hurt.”

“Well, I imagine Index’s literal omniscient perspective would be slightly more valuable,” she said. “But I’m willing to take suggestions from both sides.”

“I don’t know,” I said, “Index definitely has some misses. Probably shouldn’t take everything it says at face value. Some of its recommendations are…suboptimal, in my opinion.”

“Well I’d take any recommendation at all, honestly. Even the suboptimal ones. You mind telling me what it thinks?”

“Sure,” I said. “Hey, Index, you wanna listen to her options and give some insight on—”

“Oh, Erani definitely needs to take option three,” it said.

I blinked. “W-what?”

“I know what she’s worried about. Tell her to take option three. Strike.”

“Okay? Hey, uh, Index says to pick option three. Something called Strike?”

“Wait, what? For the Spells?!”

“Yep,” Index said.

“Yeah.”

“Oh,” Erani frowned. “Okay. I get what you meant by suboptimal recommendations.”

“No, no,” Index said, “I’m definitely correct on this one. Tell her to hear me out.”

“Uh, Index is pretty confident in its recommendation. I guess we can listen to its reasoning?”

Erani sighed. “Sure. But after that, you two seriously need to help with picking this gods-damned Talent.”