Dain snapped awake in his bed with a ragged breath, sweat prickling down his temples despite the chill in his body.
His heart was hammering against his ribs like it wanted out.
… What was that?
He sat upright, rubbed his chest, then dragged his palm over his sweaty forehead with a scowl.
This was the fourth time in a row that his sleep had been utter trash. And what was it this time? He swore he heard something screeching just a second ago, but he was still in his bedroom, far from the Elderhush Forest or the golem cave or any place that could let out such a sound—so it was probably just a lingering echo from that golem. Even his dreams were filled with golems now.
He liked them just like every other kid who first learned about them did, but he didn’t like them that much anymore.
Leaning back on the headboard, he exhaled through his teeth and turned to the window. It was sundown outside. The street lamps outside set the window aflame and left his study desk in long shadows.
He rolled his shoulders, stretching the stiffness out of his back. Mentally drained as he was, at least he was physically rested now.
Kicking his blankets off his legs, he padded over his desk and eyed the cloth-bound book he’d hauled back from Karr’s shop. ‘The Practical Guide to Title-Offering, One-Title Through Three-Title’ was an absolute treasure of a find he was already itching to dig through, so he dropped into his chair and cracked his neck, getting ready for a long reading session.
Alright.
Show me the goods.
He dragged the book in and cracked it open with the kind of reverence other people gave hymnals. The first few chapters contained exactly what he expected: names and details of the bread-and-butter Titles most Obricans had. They were mostly job-related Titles like ‘Miner’, ‘Smelter’, and ‘Builder’—with title abilities that mostly boiled down to ‘swing your pick better’ and ‘haul rocks faster’—so he skimmed through them with increasing boredom.
He didn’t need his epitaph to be ‘Here Lies Dain, Died Lifting Bricks Marginally Better Than the Next Miner Over.’ He wanted strong Titles with title abilities worth a gamble.
No labor-related Titles.
Where are the cool ones?
He thumbed deeper into the guidebook until the font sharpened and the lists of ingredients needed to obtain the Titles gained some weight. Near the back of the book, ten Titles in particular stared back at him.
***
Name: ‘Knight’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-6
Attribute Addition: +5 Base Might, +1 Base Swiftness, +3 Base Resilience, +5 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Valorbound’, which will allow them to passively boost the might, swiftness, and resilience of allies around them by thirty percent of their own base attributes. The boost cannot stack with multiple ‘Knights’, and only the strongest ‘Knight’ in the area will apply the boost.
***
Thirty percent was no small number. Valorbound was the reason why ‘Knights’ and the next two Titles were highly coveted by the crowns… and basically every other wealthy household on the continent.
***
Name: ‘Champion’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-8
Attribute Addition: +8 Base Might, +4 Base Swiftness, +4 Base Resilience, +2 Base Clarity, +2 Mana
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Valorcrest’, which will allow them to passively boost the natural stamina recovery and regeneration of allies around them. The boost cannot stack with multiple ‘Champions’, and only the strongest ‘Champion’ in the area will apply the boost.
***
Name: ‘Sentinel’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-7
Attribute Addition: +3 Base Might, +8 Base Resilience, +4 Base Clarity, +4 Mana, +1 Mana Regeneration
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Shieldbound’, which will allow them to passively boost the resilience of allies around them by half their own base resilience. The boost cannot stack with multiple ‘Sentinels’, and only the strongest ‘Sentinel’ in the area will apply the boost.
***
The ability to increase a wealthy man’s base resilience and strength simply by being around them was an invaluable title ability to possess. ‘Sentinels’, in particular, were guaranteed very well-off lives in Auraline and Obric. Boosting the resilience of a noble by half of the base resilience of a ‘Sentinel’—who should have their base resilience in the mid 20s at the very least—meant the noble would be at least twice or thrice as tough as a normal person even without any relics.
Against assassins, ‘Sentinels’ are invaluable to have.
In an army, though, both ‘Knights’ and ‘Champions’ would instantly be given high ranks so they can lead and enhance their own troops.
They weren’t known as the trifecta of the most desired Titles on this continent for no reason. Unfortunately, the magic materials required to get them—even using the easiest and most common recipes—were… difficult to obtain, to say the least.
Polished sunsteel for ‘Knight’ can’t be obtained on ground level. People have to climb the mountains on Peninsula Auraline to get the ores straight from the source, and most people can’t make the climb.
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Sunmane lion’s pelt for ‘Champion’ is also impossible to get for the same reason. Those lions are only found in the Dawn Plains, and most people can’t even get there, let alone beat a sunmane lion.
And the easiest recipe to get ‘Sentinel’ requires a titanbone fragment… nah. There’s a reason why most ‘Sentinels’ are sons and daughters of wealthy men who can afford to buy the fragments.
He continued flipping through the pages, checking out the other seven Titles that he could obtain, and was inclined to obtain.
***
Name: ‘Warrior’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-5
Attribute Addition: +6 Base Might, +3 Base Resilience, +2 Mana
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Steelheart’, which will allow them to passively boost their natural stamina recovery rate and health regeneration over time.
***
Name: ‘Scout’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-5
Attribute Addition: +2 Base Might, +8 Base Swiftness, +2 Base Clarity, +2 Mana
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Trailstep’, which will allow them to passively reduce their sound, weight, and physical presence when moving, making them harder to detect.
***
Name: ‘Assassin’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-6
Attribute Addition: +4 Base Might, +6 Base Swiftness, +2 Base Clarity, +2 Mana
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Deathmark’, which will allow their attacks to inflict a lingering mana poison that slows stamina recovery and weakens regeneration in struck targets.
***
Name: ‘Ranger’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-6
Attribute Addition: +2 Base Might, +7 Base Swiftness, +3 Base Clarity, +3 Mana
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Trueflight’, which will increase their accuracy, dexterity, and effective range with all ranged constructs and weapons.
***
Name: ‘Slayer’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-7
Attribute Addition: +7 Base Might, +3 Base Swiftness, +3 Base Resilience, +4 Mana, +2 Mana Regeneration
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Bloodhound’, which will allow them to see the lingering mana trails of all nearby magic beasts, even through terrain and obscured sight.
***
Name: ‘Guard’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-6
Attribute Addition: +3 Base Might, +6 Base Resilience, +3 Base Clarity, +2 Mana
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Oathguard’, which will allow them to designate one ally and passively boost that ally’s resilience by their own base resilience. The boost cannot stack with multiple ‘Guards’, and only the strongest ‘Guard’ nearby will apply the effect.
***
Name: ‘Mage’ Title Tag
Type: Consumable Trinket-Class Relic, Common-7
Attribute Addition: +20 Mana, +3 Mana Regeneration
Ability Description: When ingested, gives the holder the title ability ‘Manaform’, which will allow them to release their mana as condensed, physical forms of light, usable for offense, defense, and utility.
***
The more he read, the more his personal shortlist stayed more or less the same.
‘Slayer’ or ‘Mage’.
Ignoring the Tag required as the base offering—which he already had four of—he’d need the nose of a duskgrave tusk-hog, three claws from a stoneback razorpard, and a bundle of bloodmurmur thymes with the roots intact to obtain ‘Slayer’. Those were the materials he’d need for the easiest recipe.
For ‘Mage’, he’d need one elemental material of any kind, three thick folds of nightloom silk, and ten bottles of will o’ wisps. Will o’ wisps should be easy enough to find in the Elderhush Forest at night, and nightloom silk should be plentiful in a local tailor shop. The soulfire metal he’d bought from Karr would suffice for the elemental material, which meant—if he really wanted to—he could get the ‘Mage’ Title as early as tomorrow morning.
And the materials for ‘Slayer’ shouldn’t be that hard to get, either.
Duskgrave tusk-hogs and stoneback razorpards can be found in the forest, and I’m pretty sure I saw bloodmurmur thymes being sold in Karr’s shop earlier.
As he weighed the options, he mulled over what he wanted carved into his body for the rest of his life. Manaform wasn’t that powerful by itself, but ‘Mage’ was a Title with strong promotions that’d give him even stronger versions of Manaform, making it so he wouldn’t have to rely completely on relics for power.
But if he didn’t care so much about innate abilities, then ‘Slayer’ was obviously the better choice. ‘Slayer’ could be promoted into something like ‘Beast Slayer’ as the Two-Title, which would allow him to track down even rarer magic beasts, and rarer magic materials typically meant stronger relics.
Essentially, it boiled down to whether he wanted more innate and comprehensive power that he couldn’t ever lose, or a faster-growing arsenal of relics with a variety of effects that he could lose if his relics were damaged.
He tilted his head, chewing the thought as a faint whuff of wings passed overhead. He ignored it. Noisy birds, nothing more.
What would Everbright choose?
Orland would pick ‘Slayer’ without question. He had picked the ‘Slayer’ Title. The man lived and died by his relics. In general, relics at the higher grades were much stronger than innate powers at the same grades, which meant one’s potential ceiling of power would always be higher if they chose to go the relic route. Rumors had it, even, that Orland stacked so many relics on himself that he once lost a hundred in battle against the Vyrmgaard Tyrant and still had two hundred more to spare.
Dain had to admit that didn’t sound like such a bad strategy at all, and Orland wasn’t known as the strongest man in the world for no reason. If he was going to be a relic seeker as well, then he should pick ‘Slayer’ without question.
… But what would Marosa the Tombjackal choose?
The legendary tomb raider would pick ‘Mage’ without question. She had picked ‘Mage’ as her Title, and now she was a Four-Title lady who could go toe to toe with Masterwork grade warriors and monsters without even a single relic on her body. Granted, she picked ‘Mage’ because she was the most aloof seeker there was—she’d regularly lose track of her relics again and again—but it was worth knowing there were ‘Mages’ out there who could compete with seekers going the relic route.
He scratched the back of his head. Two paths, both paved. One would help him stack relics like bricks in a tower, and the other would help him build the tower inside him.
I think…
I’ll go with—
The floor gave a sudden lurch.
The desk rattled. His chair jumped. He jolted upright, bracing his single hand on the table as the tremor ran through the floorboards like an earthquake.
“What in the—”
A second rumble ran under the inn, throwing him off his chair and onto the floor.
He hit the floor with a grunt, teeth clacking, and lay there for a beat before sitting upright.
The vibrations ebbed into silence.
He turned to the window just to see what was going on outside—and all he saw was a massive cogwork eye staring back at him, all bronze and glowing blood red.
Then the golem’s voice ground out, janky and metallic.
“TARGET LOCATED.”
