Luke headed in the direction of Sylen’s south gate.
Evening settled in the distance, the sun escaping for the day during his conversation at Celen’s house. Deary rain settled around him, not harsh, but effective enough to start clearing the cobbled streets. Faint wisps of light pulsed on the weathered buildings to the sides.
In an absentminded state, Luke steadily walked down the middle of the street. A few carriages were annoyed at his blocking the traffic-ways. Each time a coachman tried to speak up, they caught sight of his face and kept quiet.
Their patrons, often the wealthy or time-starved hunters, would ask what the hold-up was. Each ended up accepting the delay when informed the Ice Defier was walking at his pace, a scowl on his face, leaving a wide ice path behind.
What was losing a little time when it meant staying out a Defier’s way?
Xera, nonplussed as usual, interrogated Luke, “Is it ice time again? What are we going to slash? We’ve got a line behind us now—neat to see. I didn’t know you could get people to behave so well.”
Broken from his reverie, Luke neutered his facial expression and sucked in the ice, drifting to the sidewalks, much to the relief of the impromptu traffic jam behind him.
“A little caught up in my head is all. It’s time I send a call to Veyri.”
Catching the Sigil Stone from the air, Luke funneled essence to the stone, configuring it to connect to Veyri’s stone. A silhouette of a red haired archer with a golden bow overlaid its exterior, a high but rough-edge voice came out the other end, “Wallace, about time you called me. You’re ready for the Vampiric Wing then, I take it?”
“More than ready, I doubt it will be a challenge at all. I’ll team up with your pipeline this once, with a few conditions.”
A suppressed scoff could be heard on the other end, “Your Defier status going to your head already? That was quick. Lay them out, Wallace. What are the terms?”
Taking a turn on the street, Luke cut into a side street, where various middling people shambled about. He pushed his back to the building wall and flared out his aura.
People left him well enough alone after that, satisfied to speak more freely here, Luke continued, “I had a certain talk with an old friend and his granddaughter recently. They leaked information that likely isn’t hidden, but those around me sought fit to keep from me. Probably afraid I’d become too overwhelmed.”
“How drastic this Tide is starting to get out. Good, could be what I need for the final push to reach Expert in lightning elementalization. What does any of that have to do with our conversation, Wallace?”
“Not scared of what’s coming? High rank hunters like you will probably be right alongside me. Facing the worst of the monstrosities.”
Veyri’s voice took on a more serious edge over the sigil stone, “Only the weak and unprepared are scared of coming opportunity, Wallace. If I become overwhelmed, it was just meant to be the furthest I could go. The current stagnation is no different from death in my eyes.”
That response caught Luke off guard. He grew a small newfound respect for Veyri. Refreshing really, considering the opposite happened when he interacted with others most of the time.
“On to the conditions, I want no more than three to come along. If I feel they’re slowing down my growth, I have the right to disband the party immediately.”
“That goes without saying, Wallace. I find it odd you want three in particular, but if those greenhorns get stopped easily in the Vampiric Wing, I’ll have no use for them in the tower. Anything else you want?”
“Each will have to sign a magic bound contract that they aren’t allowed to reveal what they learn about my abilities. Lastly, I get priority on any gear upgrades that drop, and all beast crystal drops go to me.”
A strain could be heard on the other side, “Taking advantage, are we? To think days ago I saved your life. You have a short memory, Wallace. I have a condition of my own, then.”
“Go on.”
“I only have two prospects I’m interested in raising for the near future. I’ll agree to all your conditions if I get to come along. To help stroke that overinflated ego of yours, I can step aside and promise not to interfere. You seem the type to like that. In fact, having me along can help ‘shield’ you from uninvited eyes trying to get close to Sylen’s newest Defier.
Luke laughed, “That eager to make me yours, huh?”
“You’re saying that like I don’t already have you in my clutches, Defier boy.”
“I’ll take your counteroffer, no matter the circumstance. I wouldn’t be standing here without your help, Veyri.”
“Took you longer enough to realize that, what time for the Vampiric Wing tomorrow? I’ll get my two knuckle headed greenhorns to show up.”
“Late tomorrow morning, can you manage it?”
“Without a doubt. See you then.”
“See you.”
Luke cut the connection to the sigil stone, and after a short review, he concluded that most of his cleanup after the explosive growth period recently was over. Much of what was left could only be accomplished in actual combat.
Musai had strongly suggested he take the entire day to consolidate, so that was what he would do. And so far, had done. It was then Luke remembered he acquired a sizable chunk of skill points recently—still unspent.
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As it happened, in the back end of the side street Luke found himself on, there was a shabby outdoor bar. The food looked apostatizing enough. Luke sat on a plain cushioned stool and ordered bread, cheese, sauced meat, and some beer to wash it down. Nothing heavy though, Luke was a lightweight, and the southern portion of Sylen was likely the worst part of the city to be mentally blunted at night.
A scantily clad tora waitress took his order, touching him a little too much. Luke flushed out below freezing mist, and the girl left well enough alone. Minutes later, he had his food in front of him and prepared a decent tip to prevent any future headaches.
While munching on the food, Luke mentally cycled through scenarios on where to spend the over twenty skill points he had accumulated. Dumping four points into Infusion was a no brainer, the ability the centerpiece to so many of his tactics.
The real problem came to if it should be funneled into Siphon, in the hopes the ability scaled tremendously, or to max out Essence Lance first, easily his best ranged tactic, with plenty of other flexible uses.
To Essence Bond and Essence Fissure, he had to delay them. Useful abilities to be sure, with an attributed Essence Fissure standing out more than once, but ultimately both abilities slowly grew until the next Tier upgrade, making Luke cast them aside for now.
Pausing with the food, Luke brought up the Interface and proceeded to feed skill points into Infusion, dropping his skill point stack from twenty-seven to twenty-three. The ability blacked out on the status screen spell section, and a barely remembered message invaded the log.
[Warning: Infusion has reached rank V and is going up in tier; unable to use Infusion for thirty seconds]
“Well, I’ll be damned, this time the upgrade is in a much more peaceful situation. Could probably chop those living armors in half with my bare hands by now,” Luke reminisced.
“Why would you do that when you have me? When did we fight living armor?” Xera said.
“It was before we found each other, Xera. The first time I met Veronica was around then, too. I never did understand why she said the white and black orb was-” Luke stopped himself, reminded that some information was best not to talk about in public.
“Go back to the story, Master. I wanna hear more. What else did you do before we met? It must’ve been boring without me.”
“If anything, it was the harshest part of the journey. Rats of all things were dangerous.”
Luke continued the chat with Xera. At this point, others had already come to challenge him for the blade, so trying to hide her sentience was a moot point. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Wayfinder—being a Numbered rather than a class artifact.
He really needed to spoil the compass a little. Wayfinder had been hard at work lately.
The upgrade for Infusion finished, and the notification pressed at Luke’s attention. He flicked a finger, and the information expanded for his viewing pleasure.
[Infusion, Tier 2]
Infuse Reaver essence on up to two targets—yourself, an ally, or an owned weapon. Increases damage and speed by 70% for the next twelve strikes, reducing in effectiveness by 5% per strike. Grants 15% resistance based on nearby enemies. Each hit carries a 20% chance of permanently stealing one attribute point from an enemy. Lasts until all charges are used. Persistent on Reaver, stacks unable to fall off. Cost: 15 Essence per target. Cooldown: 10 seconds
Thoroughly studying the upgrade of his baseline ability, Luke was reassured the skill points were well spent. Twice as many hits as before, twice as high a chance to steal attributes from others, a higher resistance based on his enemies, and—most of all—it appeared Infusion became permanent once applied to him.
He’d have to do some testing to be sure.
Leaving that for a more apt environment, the Reaver fed points to Siphon, bringing it up to Tier 1, Rank 2. After a short peek, he did a Hail Mary, upgrading it again to Tier 1, Rank 3.
Come to think of it. This would be the only ability I’d yet to try and apply elementalization to.
Infusion stood beyond him, outside of that one instance with Rising West. Essence Fissure was consistent at this point, and nothing needed to be said for Essence Lance in that regard. Last came Essence Bond, the skill he believed with effort could be enhanced by the technique in time before the Tide.
If given a chance, he’d test out Siphon as well, but with its nature of only applying to enemies, it wasn’t as easy to use in safety as say, Essence Bond or Infusion. A short jaunt in the illusion realm with Sooty probably would do him some good, a last errand before bed. Just as he thought to take the remaining points into Essence Lance, he stopped himself.
Placing a palm under his chin, Luke thought, What if I try to focus on upgrading Essence Lance the manual practice way?
Normally, he’d place all his bets on increasing his offensive power, but something had been troubling him lately. Roll of the Reaver hadn’t upgraded once without skill points, and Luke was lost in the sauce about how to upgrade it through practice. He’d stolen thousands of attributes by now. If his singular passive ability didn’t upgrade that way, then what way would it?
Essence Lance had upgraded through repeated use, with the Authoria event being the most recent example. Based off that knowledge, Luke pivoted, pouring all remaining points into Roll of Reaver. He’d have to do it the old-fashioned way for Essence Lance this round. Ten points evaporated from the remaining thirteen, forcing up Roll of the Reaver to Tier 1, Rank 3. After another level, Luke would take it up to its maximum allowed rank under Tier One, that being rank 4. However, the last three points left were insufficient for his current plans.
Done upgrading the two abilities, Luke pulled them up side by side.
[Siphon Tier 1, Rank 3]
Place a draining mark on target enemy. Steals a low amount of stamina and energy resource from target every second. Stackable, refreshes duration if target experiences direct damage of 7% or more to their health. Considered an Essence debuff. Current stack limit of three. Duration 6 seconds. Cost: 20 Essence
[Roll of the Reaver Tier 1, Rank 3]
With each successful stat steal, invoke the Roll of the Reaver. Stat-steals are converted to rolls between 2-9, determining the number of points stolen. The higher the roll, the more stats are permanently added to your own. Vastly increased probability of a high roll for HP.
Siphon had increased its maximum stack limit by one, duration by another second, and reduced the refresh condition from 8% to 7%. In return for ten points, the upgrade was well worth it in his opinion.
Roll of the Reaver had increased its highest roll to 9, up from 8. Not exactly revolutionary, but every bit counted in his book.
With the ‘easy’ method to grow in power out the way, Luke set about finishing his dinner, leaving in a hurry toward the Defiers guild right as he was to exit the bar, a half-cloaked Tora woman with violet eyes, yellow fur, and ear piercing stepping in his way.
She gave a polite smile, with what fangs most Tora turned to be more ferocious and aggressive, but the Reaver had been around enough Tora by now to understand their different facial expressions.
The woman offered her furred hand, pointing her claws out to allow Luke ease of access to shake back. She said, “Defier Luke, I’ve heard constant scouting reports about you lately. Veyri is confident you’ll be the piece I need.”
Shaking the mystery Tora’s hand, Luke asked, “You know Veyri? And what do you need me for?”
Dropping her hand, the Tora woman introduced herself, “Sometimes I forget you’re still new to Sylen, based on what is known about you, anyway. I rarely need introductions, I’m Moniba, leader of the third-best tower team in Sylen. Veyri is a protégé and a vice-captain in training.”
Knowing where this was going, Luke backtracked to the stool he had previously left, breaking in the seat cushion.
“You want to talk, I take it?”
“Like any hunter on the trail would to a future tower climber—or rival.”