After several minutes of walking, I heard a whistle and sound seemed to cut out around us. I turned to look at Deacon and he raised an eyebrow, “So, how long are you going to pretend to have your classes damaged?”
I stopped walking and turned to face him. He kept going and I had to jog after a moment to catch up, “How did you know?”
“You wouldn’t be that irritated about going to a healer without knowing it was pointless. You panicked while talking with the captain, right?” Deacon said, nonchalantly. “Figured the reports would make him back off if you were also affected by them, didn’t you?”
I sighed as my shoulders slumped, much to my annoyance. “Is it that obvious?”
“No.” Deacon said, shaking his head. “I only figured it out because I know more than the captain did. Grimoire and Calmar could probably figure it out, but I don’t think they realized how much power you actually have.”
“Doesn’t feel like it.” I muttered.
“It never does, I suspect.” Deacon mused. “More power and crystals usually equals new or different problems. An orphan needs to eat, but has nothing to buy food with. A merchant has all the crystals, but needs customers and goods. A farmer needs whatever they need, but all they have is food.”
“You’re saying that if I didn’t have the powers I do, I’d care less about the people breaking system rules.” I asked, trying to understand where he was going.
“You wouldn’t even know what the system rules even were, probably. Most don’t, I suspect. I don’t even know them all.” He looked over at me, “Though I’ve a few guesses to a couple. Mostly through stories and observation.”
I motioned to the invisible sound barrier, “And you felt the need to have this talk now?”
“We’ve got about three hours of walking before we get to a staging area, what would you rather talk about?” He asked. “I’m open to suggestions.”
We walked in silence and I felt the bubble around us dissipate, the sounds of the environment returning. “Well, I’ve got free points to spend. Any recommendations?”
There was more silence as Deacon thought about it. “You’re at the technical limit, right? No more literal changes or whatever?”
I nodded, “Mental stats don’t seem to share the limit or at least I haven’t gotten any messages about it. I haven’t really noticed any changes either, though.”
“Really? No enhanced memory? No faster thinking or clearer sight?” He asked, considering it. “Though, I suppose yours have also gone up so fast you might not have realized how much you’ve improved.”
Tilting my head, I considered the idea. Is my thinking that much faster? I can notice things easier than I used to… “Maybe… I don’t know what the base level is either, I guess. Or the average.”
“Depends on where you are. Most schools will have higher than normal mental stats than an army or even a noble house.” Deacon shrugged. “Average is a bad statistic to base growth on.”
“That… feels wrong.” I didn’t know why I thought that, but it felt inaccurate. “Shouldn’t that be the best way to depict growth.”
Deacon stopped and turned to look at me. “Think about it like this. If the average income of a person in Cotton Rock is around 1,000 Crystals a day, does that mean everyone gets 1,000 Crystals a day?”
“What? No, obviously not.” I said, furrowing my brow.
“Of course. That’s because the upper and lower outliers make the number different than what is accurate. The same is true with levels.” He started walking again, “The fact is, some people are better at leveling and earning crystals than others. Whether through actual work, or passive income from things like businesses or contracts.”
Frowning, I followed after him. It took a few minutes before I responded. “What’s that mean for improving my stats?”
“What were the magic stats again?” He asked over his shoulder.
“Mana, Power, and Control?” I listed them off.
“Upgrade Control as high as you can. Based on Shadebolt, you’ve got no problem with power so far, but if you can improve your control and reserves, you’ll be better off.” He said. “How many points do you have?”
“Fifteen. I was thinking 10 Mana and 5 Control.” I said, opening my status to look at it.
“I’ll agree to that. Try and see if you can get another feat for either before leveling Power again.” He shrugged, “Though that’s just my advice. I assume there’s a reason to increase physical stats over the maximum effective value.”
“Skills and traits work off total values.” I said, even as I made the additions, bringing Mana to 40 and Control to 35. “Sprinting is actually a problem right now.”
“Really?” He tapped his finger to his chin, “That’s fascinating. I wonder how that works.”
“System bullshit?” I suggested, which caused Deacon to laugh.
We walked in silence for a while, and I had to constantly adjust thanks to another trait, Seven League Gait activating. Deacon was trying not to laugh as I had to shorten my steps. I didn’t want to turn it off, though. I needed to start getting used to how all of these things worked.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Then I tripped and fell on my face. I started swearing as Deacon burst out laughing. I surrendered and turned it off. “Fucking traits.”
“That seems like a weird one. Good if you were alone, I guess.” Deacon offered me a hand up, which I took. “By the way, did you use that book Calmar got you? It’s supposed to be a good spell, right?”
I nodded, “Not sure how useful it’ll be against a swarm of small creatures, but it looks good.” I brought it up to examine it again.
Piercing Flame
Sometimes, the enemy wants to hide behind something solid, be that a wall, or just armor. This spell deals extra fire damage to any object between itself and the target. Multiple strikes with this spell at the same area increases the damage by (Mana Power divided by ten) each strike.
Tier 0: Causes burns to the target. Objects between the user and the target take increased damage.
Requirements:
- Fire Manipulation
- Magic Power 20
- Mana 10
I was honestly surprised, it seemed like a pretty basic spell, but with a lot of use. “I’m surprised the requirements aren’t higher. I’m still awful with my Manipulation skills.”
“Something to practice with your knuckles. And eventually those tonfas you ordered.” He patted me on the shoulder. “You really do need to focus on one thing, eventually. You aren’t going to get good at anything spreading yourself so thin.”
“I know.” I grumbled, “I’m going to try and focus on Gravity Field and my sword for anything big enough.”
“We’ll take turns so you’ll have time to recover. I need the practive.” He patted the guitar strapped to his back.
I agreed to his suggestion and we continued down the road. There were several farmhouses, barns, and stables with adventurers camped inside. They were close enough to go out and kill a few bugs every so often, and far enough to be able to retreat to safety in case of an emergency. It was smart, but we wanted to set up our own camp.
After passing a few farmhouses, Deacon pulled his guitar to his front. He did a once over on the strings and adjusted the knobs at the end a bit. I drew my sword and checked to make sure my armor was on right.
Then Deacon strummed the first note on his guitar. The world grew quiet, a screaming chorus going quiet that I’d barely registered. Then more notes followed, and I felt something flow into the sound. It was a grim sounding melody, but that made sense. Because as I looked around, I started to see the results.
Bugs were falling from the sky. They’d hit the ground with a disgusting splat, chitin cracking and guts shriveling as rot had already set in. Even those that survived soon dissolved into a mess of rotted meat and brittle chitin. The numbers kept growing, too.
We’d left the main road after around a minute of Deacon’s music. The numbers continued to grow, but our destination was a large wooden barn a kilometer away from the main road. I looked around for anywhere my spell would be useful, but Deacon didn’t need the help right now.
At the barn, I opened the door for Deacon and we stepped inside. After a quick check, he stopped playing and let out a sigh as he waved his hand up and down. “Ouch. Going to need to develop all the right calluses all over again.”
“Do you need a Heal?” I asked, holding out my hand.
He shook his head. “If it doesn’t heal naturally, it won’t get the right effect.”
I shrugged and looked towards hte closed door. “So, what, I open the door and cast the spell? Maybe throw some bait?”
Deacon nodded at the door, “That’s the plan. Even if a few get in, they’re not hard to squish.”
I looked at him for a second before shrugging and heading over to the door. I opened the door and targetted the area just in front of the door with Gravity Field. I willed it as strong as it could go, and then there was a strange sound.
It was the rapid, steady sound of something popping. As I looked outside, dozens of bugs were dragged out of the air and slammed into the ground. There were a few that were still alive, but I didn’t think that’d last long. I checked the permissions on the spell and then stepped into the field. When I confirmed nothing had happened, I went around and started crushing the bugs that were still clinging to life.
1032
I didn’t even need to draw my sword, though I had it out anyway. A swift stomp was enough to end any that had survived impact with the ground. Three times gravity is kind of crazy. It would get stronger with Magic Power too, but Deacon had the right idea with his recommendations. My current power was enough for my current problems.
After a few casts, I figured out the time limit was around 30 seconds. I didn’t know if it was related to any stats, so I didn’t know if there was a way to increase it. My guess was there was, but it was either a trait, or just improving the spell itself. It made a good way to kill large numbers of bugs.
1233
Deacon’s turns were humbling, though. Whenever it was time for him to take over, he’d just start strumming his guitar and things would drop from the sky in droves. It was disgusting, but they were all dead on impact, and the smell wasn’t pleasant. It didn’t last long, though. The bodies just continued to rot away until they were gone, leaving nothing.
After one swap I asked, “Shouldn’t they start avoiding us after a while of doing this?”
“No idea. If they were that smart, would they even be swarming like this and fighting each other?” He made a good point. “I’d be surprised if bigger bugs didn’t show up eventually, though.”
His words weren’t prophetic, at least. Our entire stay, I kept a lookout for them, but the largest were as big as my head, and were often the ones I had to dispatch with my sword.
1588
I was also making sure to collect my experience as I got it from the quest, spending it as I got it on my Sneak class. So far I had made it up to level 14 and I’d collected a bunch of bonus rewards. Insecticide went up to Inseticide III
Insecticide III
You are the destroyer of insects. Title for reaching 1000 kills in the Summer Screaming Swarm.
- Increased damage to Insect Creatures.
- 5% Poison Resistance
- 20% Disease Resistance
- +1 Agility per 3 levels since title earned (21)
I’d also gotten a bunch more of the boxes that I left in my Spatial Closet. I didn’t need to be juggling more stuff… even if I did practice actual juggling during my downtime. It was a great way to occupy my mind instead of letting it run wild, thinking about my friends. Friends who hadn’t wanted to leave Paige alone and had gone to jail with her, rather than come with us with Deacon acting as a monitor.
Friends Calmar, Porter, and even Elias were working to keep safe.
Friends I was worried wouldn’t be there when we got back tomorrow.
“Dani! Your turn.” Deacon said, waving a hand in front of my face to get my attention. “If you’re having trouble, we can call it for a couple of hours.”
Taking a deep breath, I put the balls I’d been juggling away and equipped my sword using Personal Armory. “No, I’m good. Let’s keep going.”
And we killed more bugs.