Slowly, ever so slowly, Rain beca aware of a ringing sound between his ears. He mumbled and stirred, disoriented. He’d been falling, and then…
“Woah!” He jerked awake. His mind rapidly replayed the events leading up to and including the fall as he struggled to sit up. Imdiately, he noticed a problem with this: he wasn’t lying down.
“Woah there, stop squirmin’. Guys, he’s awake!”
Carten. So I’m not dead then. Why can’t I move? Oh. It’s like that scene from Star Wars where Chewie carries C3P0 on his back after he gets ripped apart. Shit, I didn’t get ripped apart, did I? Do I still have my arms?
Rain’s world tilted as Carten shrugged off the crude harness that they had strapped him into so he could be carried like a backpack. Carten set him down on the ground and started untying him. “Ya gave us quite a scare there, Little Mouse. Don’t try to move. I’ll get ya free in a second. Didn’t want your arms flappin’ around on .”
Rain forced himself to wait as Carten undid the ropes that had been bundling him up, ntally dismissing his still-ringing alarm. His mind felt hazy and slow as if his thoughts were made from molasses. He blinked owlishly up at his companions, their faces swimming in the dim light. Even the rock walls of the tunnel he was in were sliding around worryingly. His eyes sluggishly tracked a Lunar Orb as it orbited Carten’s head in a warped circle.
Am I…drugged? What is this?
“Rain, welco back,” Jamus said, smiling down at him as Carten freed his arms. Rain brought a hand up to his head feebly. The motion was difficult. Sothing was definitely wrong with him.
“Jamus, what happened? After…after I hit the ground.”
“Ah, good, there’s no mory loss,” Jamus said. “You died is what happened. She brought you back.”
Rain followed Jamus’s finger. Aliah was standing nearby, watching him. Carten freed his legs and pulled away the last of the harness.
“Died?” Rain said stupidly, struggling to sit up, his weak limbs trembling. Carten helped him into a sitting position and propped him against the wall.
“Yes and no,” Aliah said. “Your health was fully depleted, but you didn’t actually die. I healed you, but your body was shattered. It was a very close thing.”
“Shattered?” Rain said, finding it difficult to follow the conversation. “Sothing’s wrong. I feel—”
“That’s the dreamleaf I gave you,” Aliah said. “I had to knock you out so you didn’t hurt yourself. Your bones haven’t fully nded. It’s been almost a full day since you fell.”
“A full day? But I was just…” Rain licked his teeth. It felt like his tongue was covered in a woolen sock. He activated Purify to clear the horrible taste from his mouth. Imdiately as he did so, his thoughts started to flow clearly again; whatever chemical he’d been dosed with had been burned out of his bloodstream.
“Woah!” he said, canceling the skill. “That’s trippy.”
“You good now?” Carten asked.
“I think so. I still feel weak, but the…dreamleaf, was it? Yeah, I think Purify took care of it.”
“Fascinating,” Jamus said. “Aliah has used that skill several tis in your presence, but it didn’t have that effect.”
“Dreamleaf is both a dicine and a toxin. It depends upon your perspective,” Aliah said. “Purify is weird. My advice is to not think about it too much. Can you stand?”
“I…think so.”
Rain slowly got to his feet. His legs trembled, but he waved away any offer of help.
“Just don’t do anything too strenuous,” Aliah said. “You are suffering from soulstrain due to overhealth. It’s serious. Your body won’t be able to take any more healing for a few days.”
“This…doesn’t feel like soulstrain. I just feel…weak,” Rain said.
“It’s a different type,” Jamus said. “There are plenty of ways to injure your soul.”
“Oh,” Rain said. He was starting to feel a little better, but he wasn’t going to be up for much more than walking for a while. He looked around in a sudden panic. “Hey, wait a minute, where’s Val?”
“He’s up there,” Carten said, pointing along the tunnel they were in. Rain saw a light in the distance.
“Wait, alone? Isn’t that…dangerous?”
“Yes,” Aliah said with a sigh. “But we saw a blue flee across the bridge when we crossed, and he’s been impossible ever since. He insisted on taking the lead.”
“Sounds about right,” Rain said with a smile. “A blue, huh? What else did I miss?”
“Oh, it was amazin’!” Carten said, excitent clear in his voice. “Aliah, she—”
“Hold on,” Aliah said. “If we’re doing storyti, let’s get Val back here. I don’t want to go through this twice. ssage: Val. Rain is awake. Co back.”
She looked at Rain, her voice returning to normal as the echos of the spell faded. “I’ve got questions for you. That fall should have killed you. Sorry, but you just don’t have the health to survive sothing like that.”
“Yeah, tell about it,” Rain said. “I thought I was a goner.” He licked his lips. “Say, anyone got any water? My mouth feels like it’s full of sand.”
Carten passed him a flask. “Go easy, we’re low,” he said. Rain accepted it and took a conservative drink, then restoppered it and handed it back. Belatedly, he realized that Carten’s armor had taken so serious damage. It looked like it had been bent back into shape after sustaining so massive impact.
Probably the fall…
“Thanks,” he said, then cleared his throat. “Well, when I went over, I knew I was probably screwed. All of a sudden, things seed to…slow down, I guess? I don’t know if it was magic or just the regular old realization of my impending death. I had just enough ti to use a skill point on Force Ward before I hit. I rember right up to the actual impact, then nothing. It feels like it just happened.”
“Hah, I knew it!” Carten said, moving to slap Rain on the back, but stopping himself as Aliah shot him a warning look. He nodded to her, then turned to grin at Jamus. “Pay up.”
Jamus sighed and reached for his belt pouch.
“Wait, you guys bet on how I survived?” Rain said, incredulous.
Jamus passed a few Tel to Carten, then retied his pouch. “No. Well, yes, but that isn’t what this is. We didn’t put money on that one. No, this is just the bet we made earlier about what skill you’d take.”
“Oh,” Rain said. He shook his head.
Adventurers.
The light of Val’s orb rged with Aliah’s as he reached them, and he bead at Rain. “Rain! Welco back to the land of the living!”
“Thanks, I guess,” Rain scratched at his ear.
“So, Force Ward, huh? I only heard the tail end of that. I guess that ans I won the bet, Jamus.”
“Yes, yes. Good job,” Jamus said, doffing his hat and running a hand through his wavy hair.
“What did you bet on, Jamus, if not Force Ward?” Rain asked.
“Oh, I thought Carten might have caught you or sothing. He wouldn’t say, and I didn’t think Force Ward would be strong enough to protect you.”
“Yeah, neither. I’m going to have to check the numbers on that. I think this Strength ring also had sothing to do with—huh, I guess it’s had it.” Rain looked at the blackened ring adorning his finger. To confirm, he pulled up his nus to check his current status.
Yup. No more health boost for . Damn it.
Attributes
Richmond Rain Stroudwater
Level 18
Experience: 22749/22750
Dynamo
Health
200
Stamina
200
Mana
5100
Strength
10
Recovery
10
Endurance
10
Vigor
10
Focus
10
Clarity
200
Free Stat Points
Statistics
Total
Base
Modifier
Health
200
200
100%
H.Regen
100/day
100/day
0/day
100%
Stamina
200
200
100%
S.Regen
100/day
100/day
0/day
100%
Mana
5100
5100
100%
M.Regen
60.4/min
12.6/min
-2.1/min
495.6%
Movent Speed
10
Perception
10
Resistances
Heat
Cold
Light
Dark
1
0%
1
0%
1
0%
1
0%
Force
Arcane
ntal
Chemical
1
0%
1
0%
1
0%
1
0%
Rain pulled the charred ring off and slipped it into a pouch, dismissing his windows. He’d go through the rest of it later. He cleared his throat again. He still felt thirsty, but didn’t want to use any more of their limited water.
“So, after I passed out, what happened?”
“Ooh, let tell it!” said Carten.
“Might as well have lunch I suppose,” Jamus said, shrugging out of his pack and bending to dig out a ration bar. He bit into it and made a face.
Rain smiled. Serves you right, Jamus, buying all those rations. You couldn’t have gotten so beef jerky or sothing?
His smile faded as the dark side of their supply situation crossed his mind. His eyes sought out the completion percentage for the lair, and he gave a relieved sigh when he saw that it was down to 23% remaining. They might get out of this yet.
Carten launched into the story, animatedly speaking through a mouth full of his own ration bar.
“So, the ram hits , right? And then I’m flyin’ and fallin’, but Aliah, she’s all ‘not today’ and fuckin’ wrecks the thing, Val’s words not mine, and then she’s like ‘whoooosh’ an’…”
Rain sat, thinking. After listening to Carten’s retelling of the events since the chasm, the first thing he’d done was to thank Aliah profusely for her heroic dive off the cliff to save him. She had accepted his thanks awkwardly, and he decided not to make too big a deal of her saving his life, not after how uncomfortable she had seed while Carten was singing her praises. He’d have to find so way of thanking her properly once they were out of the lair.
He’d also used Essence Well to refill a good portion of Jamus’s mana. Val and Aliah had already recovered to full by the ti he’d woken up. Aliah’s stamina was only at around 3/4, though there wasn’t much he could do about that. Her health was also down a sliver, which Rain guessed ant she was unable to heal herself for whatever reason. He had decided against asking her right now and added it to his ever-growing list of questions. He rubbed at his sore neck, then returned his attention to his skills nu.
Skills
Aura tamagic
Tier 0
Amplify Aura (10/10)
Multiply aura intensity by 200%
Multiply aura mana cost by 300%
Extend Aura (10/10)
Extend aura range by 10 ters
Multiply aura mana cost by 300%
Tier 1
Aura Focus (10/10)
Focus on an aura to boost its output
Multiply aura intensity by 300%
Multiply aura range by 300%
Multiply aura mana cost by 300%
User loses all external senses while focusing
Aura Synergy (7/10) Exp: 753/4400
Increase all aura output by 0.7% for each rank in any aura
Effective boost: 41.3%
Tier 2
Aura IFF (5/10) Exp: 3027/4400
User may exempt entities from direct aura effects at will
Selected entities receive 50.0% aura output
Defensive Auras
Tier 2
Force Ward (3/10) Exp: 150/1600
Increase physical resistance by 12.717% for all entities
Range: 4.24 ters
Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated
Magical Utility
Tier 0
Intrinsic Clarity (10/10)
Multiply base mana regeneration by 300%
Intrinsic Focus (10/10)
Multiply base mana by 300%
Tier 1
Channel Mastery (10/10)
Allows intuitive control of channeled skill intensity
Minimum skill intensity: 0%
Maximum skill intensity: 200%
Skill mana cost modified by intensity adjustnt
Tier 2
Magical Synergy (10/10)
Enables limited synergistic cross-coupling of magical attributes
25.0% of Focus contributes to M.Regen
25.0% of Clarity contributes to Mana
Offensive Auras
Tier 0
Refrigerate (6/10) Exp: 1468/1600
62-71 cold (fcs) damage per second to entities and environnt
Sufficient damage causes slow
Range: 8.48 ters
Cost: 30 mp/s
Immolate (5/10) Exp: 566/1100
52-59 heat (fcs) damage per second to entities and environnt
Sufficient damage causes ignition
Range: 7.07 ters
Cost: 25 mp/s
Utility Auras
Tier 0
Purify (10/10)
Purify poison, corruption, and contamination
Range: 14.1 ters
Cost: 100 mp/min
Winter (7/10) Exp: 1842/2200
Boost M.Regen by 99% for all entities
Range: 9.89 ters
Cost: 7 mp/hr
Tier 1
Detection (10/10)
Sense selected items of interest
Not occluded by mundane materials
Resolution: 4.16 mm
Range: 14.1 ters
Cost: 10 mp/s
Essence Well (10/10)
Transfer mana to all entities within range, including user
Transfer Rate: 14.13 mp/s
Efficiency: 20%
Range: 14.1 ters
Velocity (8/10) Exp: 998/5800
113.04% boost to speed for all entities
Range: 11.3 ters
Cost: 8 mp/s
Free Skill Points: 2
He’d ranked up in once in Detection, Velocity, and Aura Synergy, as well as twice in Force Ward. It was the last skill that he was currently trying to figure out.
Ok, so at rank three, it gives 12% mitigation at a cost of 1 mana per point of damage mitigated. It wasn’t rank three when I hit, though. Humm, need a reference.
Rain popped open a panel displaying one of the other defensive auras to use as a guide for how the skill would have looked at rank 1.
Dark Ward (0/10) ( )
Increase dark resistance by 4.239% for all entities
Range: 1.41 ters
Cost: 1 mp/dmg mitigated
Humm. Aura Synergy leveled too, so that isn’t quite accurate, but whatever, close enough. Call it 4% at 1 mp/dmg. I used all my modifiers, so…
Rain switched to Force Ward and activated it. He paused montarily to investigate the skill, pressing a finger against his hand. It didn’t feel any different, and there was no imdiately obvious visual effect. Shrugging, he activated all of his modifiers, watching the displays for both Dark Ward and Force Ward. Unfortunately, only the skill he was using changed to reflect the active mods.
Force Ward (3/10) Exp: 150/1600
Increase physical resistance by 152.604% for all entities
Range: 55.1 ters
Cost: 54 mp/dmg mitigated
Wow, everyone in range is 150% immune to physical damage right now. I wonder what that ans? Do we heal if we get punched? I’ll ask Jamus in a minute. First things first.
Amplify is 2x power, Aura Focus is 3x power, and Channel Mastery is 2x power. Force ward gives 12% base at level three, tis 2, tis 2, tis 3, is more or less 12x12, so 144. This shows 152. Close enough for . That ans skill intensity boosts apply to the resistance percentage. Therefore, yesterday it was 4% tis 12, so 48%.
Would reducing the damage I took from that fall by half have been enough? I guess so, seeing as I’m still alive and all… Wait, did I even have enough mana to cover that? The cost right now is pretty insane. Blocking 200 damage would cost over 10,000 mana. Would that cause undermana, or would the skill just cancel? What does undermana even do, anyway? mory loss? I can’t rember the impact, which is probably for the best, but everything up to that point is crystal clear. I feel like I should be traumatized or sothing…
Best not to dwell on it. Where was I?
Oh, right. Yesterday, Force Ward would have cost 1 mp/dmg mitigated, tis 54 for all the mods. That ans, with a full mana pool, I could have blocked 100 damage with another 100 getting through because of the 50% rate. I didn’t have full mana, maybe around half, so the skill would have blocked 50 damage, with taking the remaining 50, plus whatever else was left from the fall after I ran out of mana. In hindsight, Extend Aura was a bad idea, but I kinda had other things on my mind.
Aliah said my health was totally empty, so that ans a fall of 50 ters caused at least 450 points of damage. It had to have been close. I don’t think I’d have survived without the skill, or without the Strength ring, or without the imdiate healing. I wonder if I reached terminal velocity?
Rain sighed and dropped the skill, dismissing all of his windows and switching back to Winter. He was running on fus after transferring all of his mana to Jamus with Essence Well. He let his head fall back against the wall with a thump.
I really almost died. Did die, depending on your definition. That’s three tis now. Once in the sewer, once with the Kin, and now once more by falling off a cliff. I’m catching up to Val at a worrying rate. Wait, no, I forgot about the Musk Wolf. Four tis.
Rain shivered and pulled himself up to his feet with the help of the wall. It was ti to get going unless he wanted to add death by dehydration to the list.
“Ready to go?” Val asked.
Rain nodded. “Yup. So, tell about this essence monster you saw.”
Val grinned. “Crafty bugger. It’s a little rodent thing, about the size of a Lago, but it’s level five and fast as lightning. It was sitting there on the bridge when we climbed out, mocking . It stuck around just long enough for to see its na, then scampered across. I would have had the damn thing, too, if Aliah hadn’t stopped .”
“You’d have gotten yourself killed, and you know it,” Aliah said. “There were more bats, rember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Val said. “I’d have been fine. I had plenty of mana by then.”
Aliah gave him a skeptical look as they started moving down the tunnel, but didn’t make an issue out of it.
“Anyway,” Val said. “If you see sothing called a ‘Dire Darkmonk’, don’t so much as look at it funny. It’s alright if you’re around, but I need 100% contribution. If it cos after you, don’t block it, don’t kick it, don’t shoot it, don’t do anything that might cause damage. Just get the hell out of the way and let deal with it.”
“I’ve been aning to ask about that,” Rain said. “Contribution…I’ve noticed it’s different in here. Outside, I got credit for pointing out those slis, even though I didn’t actually do anything to them other than find them. In here, though, only stuff I’ve damaged directly has counted. Those bats, for example. Sending them into the wall gave 100% contribution for the ones that fell to their deaths. Who determines contribution, and why did the rules change?”
Aliah sighed. “In a lair, contribution is damage based only. Nothing else will affect it. Not healing, not mana regeneration, not even buffs like Velocity. As for why, that can wait. We’re still in danger. You can ask all the questions you want when we’re back on the surface.”
“Right, sorry,” he said. Aliah had been very tolerant of Carten’s loud description of the battle, though she had looked uncomfortable while the gregarious man had been lavishing her with praise. Rain shook his head and resolved to keep his mind on the issue at hand, naly their survival. He was feeling the absence of the Strength ring on his finger keenly.
He switched to Detection and released a pulse, searching for monsters. Imdiately, he got a hit from straight behind them. He whirled, turning to face the source of the signal. There was only one, and it felt slippery to his mind, even though he had used a full-strength Detection Nova. He scanned the darkness, seeing nothing.
“What is it,” Jamus asked, but Rain held up a hand for him to wait. It hadn’t felt like the signal was moving toward them.
On a hunch, he used Detection Nova once more, this ti searching for a very specific type of monster. Again, the signal ca back to him, about 25 ters back along the tunnel in the darkness.
“Um, Val…” he whispered.
“Yeah?” Val asked, keeping his voice down to match.
“Your Darkmonk,” Rain said softly. “It’s following us.” He smiled. “And it’s alone.”
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