timewalk
To master the path of the sword, the staff, or the fist, one must first master oneself.
- Kamari Ren, Ahn Khen Elder, legendary master and ior of the Ninefold Way: Fists of Coherent Iy.
Mato
Mato caught himself staring at the y spiral staircase asding out of the library and the darkness into which his friend had just disappeared. With a start, he collected himself aurned his attention to his cookfire and the thick beef stew he was supposed to be stirring.
Please be careful. had finally reached for his dreams, but now he was gone, and Mato would not be there to protect him as he had always do left him feeling strangely hollow inside.
“He’ll be ok,” Ali said, as if reading his thoughts. “He’s careful, and Lyeneru is strong.”
“Mhm,” he said, dling a generous helping from the pot into a bowl and handing it to her. “But that was a Death Knight,” he said. By all ats, Lyeneru Silverleaf was one of the most powerful Pathfinders i history, but even with her immense bow, she had only been able to drive the Death Knight off. She hadn’t killed it. Their hunt would be extremely dangerous, and was not even level forty yet.
He shook his head and sighed, trying to dislodge the difficult thoughts. He would not be able to help, and the most he could do was wish his friend a good hunt.
“It seemed that Lyeneru was more ied in ’s trag skills than throwing him into battle against that monster,” Malika observed, accepting the sed bowl of stew and inhaling the aroma with obvious relish.
“Thanks, guys,” Mato said. Their efforts to make him feel better had eased some of his ay.
“Yum, you’ve outdone yourself today,” Ali said, as she rapidly spooned dinner into her mouth.
“How do you fit so much food into such a tiny body?” Mato grinned.
Cooking has reached level 8.
“Oi!” Ali excimed, but her words were muffled around a mouth full of food, ing out as a half splutter. She swallowed and then said, “You guys both hit level forty, did you unloything good?”
“Um, let me check,” Mato muttered. In the excitement following the death of Alexander Gray, the arrival of the Death Knight, Lyeneru’s dramatitrahe onsense, and the tinuing mop-up operation against the remainder of the undead horde, he had totally fotten about the notifications and his css growth. Sitting with a warm bowl on his p, he finally directed his attention inward to i his growth.
Druidic Shapeshifter has reached level 43 (+4).+40 attribute points.
Arboreal Sanctuary has reached level 27 (+3).Brutal Restoration has reached level 29.Natural Prowess has reached level 19 (+2).Survival Instinct has reached level 19 (+2).Battle Trance has reached level 11.
“Forty-three.”
“Great work,” Ali chirped excitedly.
“Nice. What else?” Malika demanded.
“Well, I got a lot of points for my passive skills and Arboreal Sanctuary,” he said, w his way through the skill notifications.
“That makes sense, you were a tree for most of the fight, and you were shouldering about three-quarters of my damage the whole time,” Malika pointed out. “Your Tree Form is iing – you share a ton of health and mana regeion, but I noticed you lose the stamina regeioirely.”
“I don’t have any stamina or endurance as a tree,” he replied, trying to bite down on his annoyance as Malika predictably pointed out his weaknesses. “But ’t you turra mana regeion into stamina?”
“I ,” she answered. “But… I lose about twenty-five pert iransfer, and I miss those fights when yetting hit a lot and your Battle Trance is shared.”
“I didn’t think of that.”
“It was the smartest choice,” Ali chipped in. “That Blight aura was insane. Did you see how fast it wiped out my Forest Guardians?”
“Good point,” Malika nodded.
Hmm. She was right, his ree Form had been the perfect choice for the fight – much as he hated not being able to hit anything, ralizing the Blight aura was the most critical role he could py, and he had earned four levels for literally standing atop his own roots. The only other thing he had done was to siphon a rge portion of the damage Malika had been tanking to himself, soaking it all against his greatly increased vitality as a tree.
“I like my Tree Form,” he decided aloud. It was truly araordinary skill, but learning to use it was going to require him to figure out some strategic subtlety. He g Lira sitting quietly by the fire to find her smiling softly.
In the er of his eye, he saw Malika’s hand wave. “Anything else? e on, you know I’ve the patience of a hungry squirrel.”
Chug in appreciation, Mato shifted his attention back to his notifications and the image of his iree. He spent twelve points on vitality, and then thirteen on endurance. While his Tree Form did not have endura wasn’t like the points were wasted – they would be shifted to t as wisdom iransformation. Seven points went tth, five for wisdom, two for perception, and his st poio boosting intelligence.
At once, a new notifipinged on his awareness.
Css skill slot unlocked.New skills are avaible for Druidic Shapeshifter.
Aah, there it is! Biting the inside of his lip, Mato read on.
New skill unlocked.
Css level has reached 40.Survived a battle with less than 5% health remaining. Tanked an enraged raid-level threat.Last StandLast Stand is triggered automatically when your health drops below 5%.Stamina: Gain + [skill + endurance / 10] % armor and + [skill + vitality / 10] % additional temporary maximum health. Duration: 30 seds. Recharge: 15 minutes.Physical, Defense, Endurance, Vitality
New skill unlocked.
Css level has reached 40.Mentor: Lirasia.Melded with an Elder Tree. unicate with pnts.Grown pnts with your aura.Fought as a tree with a wisdom attribute surpassing 325.
Rampant Growth repces Wilderness Lore.
Rampant GrowthYou are oh nature, uanding the subtle bance of ecosystems and what disrupts it. You pass freely through dense growth. Mana: Cause rampant growth in any pnt you or your mana touches. Simply grow pnts faster, or use them to slow, impede or even damage your enemies.Nature, Pnt, Area, Wisdom
New skill unlocked.
Css level has reached 40.Ied a beast bloodline or race.Has unicated with more than tes.Has three beast forms. Beast TamerMana: Tame a beast to use as a panion. Both parties must remain willing. Nature, Minion, Wisdom
Mato quickly shared the new choices he had with his friends, sing them to get a sense for his preference.
“You survived a fight with less than five pert life remaining?” Lira asked, raising an eyebrow. She didn’t say any more, but Mato could hear the implication loud and clear. He had heard it all his life; “you’re too reckless”, or “be more careful”. But it stung a little ing from his new mentor.
“Um, that would be when Ali and I fell into the ruins and the Kobold Fire Mage almost finished us off,” he answered. It was not his fi moment, losing trol to his old Primal Rage and nearly killing Ali. He k had been close, and he would never have lived if it wasn’t for Ali’s incredible efforts to save them both, but it was quite ahing to see just how close it had been, written pinly in a skill unlock requirement for everyoo see.
Lira nodded. “Sounds like that was a tough battle. Maybe we talk about it aime?”
“Er, sure.”
“What are you thinking you’ll take?” Ali asked.
“I don’t thi Tamer is my style,” he said, shifting his attention back to the subject at hand. “But the other two look good.”
“But you’re such a beast,” Ali quipped, and it was only when Malika chuckled that he realized she was teasing. He shifted unfortably, surprised at how sensitive he was being.
“Three beast forms?” Malika asked. “Your tree isn’t a beast…”
“I think it must be ting his Beastkin form,” Ali said. “You know, Beast-kin!”
“Oh, maybe,” Mato allowed. He wasn’t going to pick Beast Tamer anyway, but he was struggling to choose betweeher two. “Last Stand looks great for tanking, but Rampant Growth looks like the best choice for bance, I’m not sure how to decide,” he said. There was also the fact that Rampant Growth was a direct result of his taking Lira’s mentorship and melding with the giant tree, which meant it was likely a much stronger than average.
I wish were here, he thought, suddenly missing his friend’s clear logical reasoning ah of knowledge reted to skills.
“I see the case for Last Stand,” Malika said, “but why do you want Rampant Growth? With Ali’s Guardians, we don’t really need extra trol skills.”
“I don’t have stamina or strength in Tree Form, so most of my active skills don’t work,” he answered. He had needed his Tree Form to push back the blight, but while the fight raged on around him, he had found he had little he could actually do, other than siphon damage intended for his friends. The form had incredible potential with the versatility of his greatly expanded Sanctuary aura and the ability to still tank damage for his friends, not to mention the enormous boost to health and mana regeion. “Rampant Growth is a mana skill, so I would be able to attack with it while in Tree Form.”
“Oh, hmm, that’s a good point,” Ali said, her brow furrowing in thought.
“What do you think, Lira?” Mato asked. It was she who had reended a more banced approach, and this seemed to be a direct choice between band specialization in tanking.
“I would suggest Last Stand,” Lira said, muato’s surprise.
“Not Rampant Growth?”
“Rampant Growth is a powerful skill, and I highly reend it. It was the root and foundation of my Pnt Mastery, Tree Meld, and Tree Passage skills when I was still a sapling,” Lira said. “But you are a tank, and your responsibility is wider than just yourself – if you die, it is not just your potential that ends, but that of your friends as well.”
She really didn’t like that five pert. Her advice seemed sound, though. He would never be able to live with himself if he didn’t do all in his power to protect his friends.
“Hey Mato, do you ever see yourself in a primary damage role?” Malika asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.
“Not really, why?” he asked, only moderately surprised now that he didn’t mind not being the oo do the most damage anymore.
“Well, you’ve taken to tanking and the bear, and you seem to be ied in developing the Tree Form, especially with Lira’s mentorship – which, by the way, I think is an excellent choice,” Malika observed. “But don’t you have a skill for Wolf Form that you seldom use?”
“I sometimes use that for trag.” He liked the st perception, trag, and pack-fighting bonuses.
“We normally have for trag, and Ali has wolves. Besides, the wolf is primarily a dexterity-based damage form, isn’t it? You’re really not ied iributes to make the best use of it. When was the st time you used it?”
“When we were trag Ali and Lira,” he answered easily, but he could see what Malika was getting at. “Before that, it was trag you and in the forest.” And that had been before the Goblins had id siege to the town and they hadn’t even reached bro.
“Are you suggesting he switch out of Wolf Form and iake both Last Stand and Rampant Growth?” Ali asked.
“Yup,” Malika said. “Doesn’t it seem to make the most sense?”
A brief silence pooled between the panions. Gng over at Malika, he saw a brief iioween her and Lira – perhaps the Dryad felt she had uimated her, and Malika se? Malika’s expression of -jutting defiance, every inch the Street Rat, faded before Lira’s wise, knowing smile.
“That’s… I really like that idea,” he agreed, feeling a sudden rush of excitement. He could take the survival skill and still grow in the banced way Lira had reehere didn’t eveo be a downside; he would lose his Wolf Form and the unique skills it came with, but he could still talk to beasts, and now pnts, so he could still supplement ’s trag. Wolf Form was still only level four, so if he ged his mind, it wouldn’t take long to recover the lost skill levels.
He sought Lira’s eyes to firm.
“You are wise to listen to the sel of your friends,” she said, and with that, his mind was made up. Matered the ges.
You have gaihe css skill Last Stand.
Wolf Form will be repced with Rampant Growth, all skill levels will be lost.
He studied the message for a moment, but his mind was made up: he accepted the switch.
You have lost the css skill Wolf Form.You have lost the general skill Wilderness Lore.You have gaihe css skill Rampant Growth.Natural Prowess has been updated.
A chorus of notifications chimed in the background as the glowing gree flickered along the trunk of the tree in his mind. Noting the st one, an ued side effect, he pulled up the description for Natural Prowess.
Natural Prowess – level 19Attributes most appropriate to your form are increased by +67.3% [40 + skill + base wisdom / 10].Mana: Wisdom, Intelligence, and Perception are increased. Beastkin, Reserve: 20%Stamina: Endurance, Vitality, and Strength are increased. Bear Form, Reserve: 20%Mana: All attributes are increased. Tree Form, Reserve: 20%Nature, Buff, Wisdom
That makes sense, he thought. Natural Prowess seemed to be a modal skill – applying uniquely in each shapeshifted form – and losing Wolf Form had caused the skill to adjust accly.
“Good,” he said aloud. “Aill hungry? I’m eating like a tree, now.”
***
Name: Mato BahrRace: BeastkinActive Buffs: Bear Form, Natural Prowess
Css: Druidic Shapeshifter – level 43- Arboreal Sanctuary – level 27- Swipe – level 27- Brutal Restoration – level 29- Bear Form – level 27- Rampant Growth – level 1- Bestial bat – level 26- Natural Prowess – level 19- Survival Instinct – level 19- Battle Trance – level 11- Last Stand – level 1
General Skills- Identify – level 10- Cooking – level 8
Aptitudes- Languages: o, Pnt- Mana (Affinity): Nature- Strong (Racial): +7 tth- Tough (Racial): +10 to Endurarons & Tithes- Mentor: Lirasia
Attributes- Vitality: 242 (+97)- Strength: 179 (+80)- Endurance: 240 (+116)- Dexterity: 12- Perception: 43- Intelligence: 11- Wisdom: 83
Equipment- Body: Banded Feral Pte Armor – level 20
Armor: 1368Physical Damage Redu: 53.18%
Health: 2420/2420Stamina: 1920/2400 (480 Reserved)Mana: 830/830
Malika
“What about you, Malika?” Ali prompted. “grats, by the way, you earhe most levels of all of us.”
“Thanks,” she answered, smiling with happihat momentarily startled her. Alexander Gray had been aremely dangerous foe, a neancer, summoner, and he had had more than thirty levels on them. Well, thirty levels on me, she corrected. Ali was higher leveled. Holy, she had worried they wouldn’t be able to do it, even with all four of them against him and his summoned army. But she had beeed with how well her skills had stacked up against him.
It won’t always be that good a match, she reminded herself. But she couldn’t deny that using her Soul Strike to attack his mana, bined with the hasted attack speed from Diviep, had proved the perfect ter to the neancer and his abilities.
“Good work,” Mato said, “You really kicked his ass.”
“Only because you make a good healer, Mr. Tree,” Malika grinned. Standing within the blight aura had been excruciating, but with the bination of Ali’s Acolytes, her own tinuous healing, her substantial iment in endurance, and Mato’s aura destroying the blight and siphoning the lion’s share of her damage, she had been able to e.
“And you make a good tank,” Mato said.
She reflected proudly on how far she had e with her css, grateful to have had the perfect opportunity to redirect her fate. She was still upset with the cil and how they had cowered behind their rules instead of helping, and it rao see Jax Hawkhurst among them, showing his face as if his criminal activity were of no sequence, but that was a fight for another day. Maybe a day when she was stronger… I have to get stroo survive.
There was that old feeling. Odd hotly she could bee that girl again, beien up by on street thugs. Angrily, Malika thrust those feelings into the back of her mind, wishing nothing more than to crush them. Never again. Never!
“Let me see,” she answered, looking inward to find dozens of dense lines of blue-white text waiting for her.
Soul Monk has reached level 41 (+5).+50 attribute points.
Martial Artist has reached level 20.Soul Strike has reached level 24 (+2).Healing Mantra has reached level 23.Enlightened Evasion has reached level 22.Diviep has reached level 23.Sed Wind has reached level 11.Crity has reached level 9 (+2).
Level forty-one. Ali had been right; she had earned five levels for the fight. Either she had been close to leveling, or she had had a greater impa the fight thahers. Probably both. Sometimes it went like that, and at other times the pendulum would swing the other way, she was certain. She decided to not dwell on it much, other than to be happy she rogressing well.
Fifty points, hmm… Always, her attribute allocatio her wishing she had more to work with. A little more dexterity and wisdom, this time, she thought. After a few quick calcutions, she spent een points oerity, immediately feeling a new lightness suffusing through her muscles. Then, she added seventeen points to wisdom. Given her o tank pain and damage i fight, she split the remainder between vitality and endurance, spending seven on each. As soon as she applied her tribute points, her notification chime sounded.
Great! I wonder what that unlocked?
Css skill slot unlocked.New skills are avaible for Soul Monk.
New skill unlocked.
Css level has reached 40.Martial Artist has reached at least level 20.Dexterity has surpassed 240.Spirit JavelinStamina: Project your energy forward, pierg through everything in its path. Range: 20 feet.Soul, Ranged, Dexterity
New skill unlocked.
Css level has reached 40.Defeated multiple hasted monsters.Dexterity has surpassed 250.
Flurry of BlowsStamina: The soul unlocks possible paths. Your punch is followed by [1 + skill / 10] additional hasted punches. Recharge: 30 seds.Physical, Melee, Haste, Dexterity
New bloodline skill unlocked.
Ior of the Ahn Khen bloodline.Css level has reached 40.Martial Artist has reached at least level 20. Soul Strike has reached at least level 20. Wisdom has surpassed 180.Soul SightYou see the flow of energy (stamina) all around you. You sense hostile i. You anticipate the physical movement and attacks of your oppos. Range: 30 feet.Soul, Bloodline, Perception, Wisdom
Malika gasped. “I got a sed bloodline skill!”
“Didn’t you say that was rare?” Ali asked.
“Very rare,” Lira put in.
“Yes!” Breathlessly, Malika shared the details with them.
“That’s an easy choice,” Mato said. “Soul Sight looks amazing.”
“I agree, grats Malika!” Ali said.
“It’s one of the best starting bat perception skills in the Ahn Khen bloodline!” Malika said. She could scarcely believe it, but the text did not vanish as she studied it.
“Maybe with a perception skill you won’t run into walls in the dark?” Mato suggested, hiding a grin.
“Oi!” Malika retorted, but his joking did nothing to quell the bubbliement withihis is perfect! Wasting no more time, Malika selected Soul Sight for her st skill slot, barely even gng at the other two choices. As she added the skill, a not-quite-painful prig sensation ran down her spine, grabbitention and making her heart qui, but the sensation quickly passed.
It’s a passive skill, so it should just work.
“Mato, you use stamina, you do something?” she asked, turning to look at him.
“Sure,” he said, making his body twist and into his Bear Form.
Instantly, the entire world lurched, and an inteabbing pain shot through her brain, ng all the way down her spine. She staggered as her vision flickered and fshed with an angry roiling vortex of shimmering colors and she saw the stone of the ground right before everythi bck.
***
“Malika! Are you ok?”
She heard her name being called repeatedly ahe gentle warmth of holy magic healing her. She groaned as her vision shuddered and she opened her eyes.
What happened? She put her hand up to her head where it was still throbbing. She felt several sharp jolts of pain as soon as she touched her head, and her hand came away with a little blood.
“You just passed out.”
Ali, Mato, and Lira were all looking down on her with extremely ed expressions.
“You hit your head oone floor and cut it.”
“I just added the skill,” she said, leaning gingerly on Mato as she got up. She hissed in pain as another jolt of pain stabbed behind her eye. She looked around and h in her vision were several areas of ed shimmering haloes that followed her gaze around, leaving her severely disoriented and quite nauseous.
“I had a perception skill that was way too intense when I first got it,” Ali said. “I don’t think it was quite as painful as yours, but it did take some getting used to.”
“I have the worst migraine, I think I want to lie down,” she said. It was quite the uatement, she had never experienced pain simir to this – and for some reason, her endurance didn’t seem to be helping much.
Mato helped her over to a couch where she y down and accepted a cup of tea from Ali’s hand.
“I think I’ll just rest for a bit,” she said, taking in her friends’ ed faces.
“I’ll watch over you,” Mato decred at once.
The st thing she remembered was Lira’s artfully arched eyebrow and Mat a quite marvelous shade of pink.
Rezan Jin Rezan sat in lotus pose on his favorite stone sb, wearing nothing more than his loincloth, gazing out over the raging waterfall as he had tless times over the years. This was his favorite meditation spot, the brisk, icy mountain air felt refreshing on his dark ahered skin. Back at the head of the trail, his two disciples, Ha and Basir, struggled to keep their fire going, bundled up in their furs trying to ward off the snow and ice.
The cold will be good training for them.
He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, and slowly opened himself to his Eyes of the Soul, the skill honed and passed down through his bloodline for tless geions. His mind soared up above the rock like a Snow Zephyr taking to the skies, and he saw himself suddenly far below as an intensely glowing kernel of yellow light. As he rose above the waterfall, his two disciples flickered into view. Smaller, but shining steadily; an intense white for Ha, and an obsidian gleam from Basir.
They grow well. If only they didn’t pin quite so much, like chattering cleft-sparrows.
His awareness tio rise, s high above the nd. Much of it was so barren ay now, where ohe children of Ahn Khen lit his sight like the steltions of the night skies.
He liaking in the view of his small vilge, Kezda – as he always did – led at the foot of the mountain; a bright jewel filled with the many flickering lights of the awakened souls that lived there. Some shoeady blue, sing red, and some flickered gently in the darkness. He knew each by name. Most of them, he had watched growing up.
He tio soar above the clouds, watg the tiny lights sparkle and flicker across the aral nds.
So few now.
He slowed his breathing once again and rexed as he spread his awareness out. He sat for several hours, just being aware while the st light of the day slowly faded.
Suddenly, a light flickered far to the west. A tiny, blue-white nova sho the edge of his awareness, which despite his many decades of meditation, still snatched his attention, causing curiosity to fre intensely within his heart.
Who are you, lost child? He shifted, his viewpoint crossing hundreds of miles in an instant.
The light flickered and dimmed dramatically.
Just an anomaly. Rezan sighed. He had seen it so many times before. When people touched their souls during their dreams, sometimes they would flicker briefly aurn to normal.
It’s not an awakening.
He suppressed the pang of disappoi as the light dimmed and faded. I always hope too much, he chided himself. Beginning to withdraw his attention, the pale blue-white fme fred out once more and then steadied, pulsing slowly in the darkness. A tiny delicate thing, a cool and calm.
His breath caught in his throat. Though he watched the light for a while, it remained, stubbornly refusing to go out.
You are a determined soul.
Suddenly, the light fred, but shot through this time with sparks of angry red that threatehe iy of the soul. Bravely, it tried to restore itself, but the fual instability of the red light had crossed its core and was beginning to tear the fragile thing apart.
No! For the first time in decades, the tranquility of his meditation shattered, and his eyes snapped open. Leaping to his feet, he rushed back to his disciples’ camp. They both looked up in surprise at his unonly short meditation.
“A soul has reached the threshold and is struggling to awaken,” he announced. “We have work to do.” He strode through the camp, leaving a trail of shod scrambling in his wake as his disciples processed his words.
I evehere in time?
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timewalk
