Anton looked at Caitlyn and smiled, “So you accepted the Goddess's blessing, huh?”
“Goddess’s Blessing?” Felix asked,
Caitlyn smiled, “Yes, I did. Just so you know, you missed out on two very powerful titles by not accepting her blessing?”
“I did?” Anton asked, a bit of curiosity evident in his voice.
“Yep, Ascendent and Leap of Faith. Each increased my base attributes by 10.”
“Those are good bonuses,” Anton agreed, “You deserve them, though,” Anton continued with a smile.
Anton was interrupted when a soldier asked Caitlyn about accepting God’s blessing and how hard it was. Anton half-listened as he stepped back. He noticed that everyone was listening to Caitlyn and paying attention to everything she said, including those on the perimeter, keeping the beetles from getting into the Hangar.
“Caityln, your Charisma is overpowering everyone's attention. Cut it out. Also, we have beetles to kill!” Anton called out to shock everyone into action as he pulled two monofilament longswords from his inventory and moved outside to help the soldiers push back the wave of beetles that were trying to overpower the lines.
Caitlyn joined Anton a moment later. Anton watched as Caitlyn went to work. She’d called out, “In the name of Keres,” and then killed a beetle before moving on. One thing he noticed was that the wings on her back winked in and out of existence as needed while she danced from beetle to beetle. As he watched, Anton realized that Caitlyn was making four attacks for every single attack anyone else made except himself.
Within a minute, the soldiers once again had the surge of beetles under control. Even so, Caitlyn went around the hangar to the east while Anton headed west to make sure no one was having any problems with holding the beetles off. As Anton came around to the back of the Hangar to meet up with Caitlyn again, A sigil that resembled the dagger sigil on the back of his hand floated above Caitlyn’s head.
“How did you get the Sigil,” Anton asked.
“I invested some of the Conviction I just earned to create it. It’s just a basic Sigil that appears above me. Its purpose is to let everyone and everything know I’m dedicating my actions to the Goddess Keres. It’s only temporary, though. I had to expend 10 Conviction temporarily; the sigil will last for one full minute per level of my conviction. While it’s active, I don’t need to call out every time I kill something. Why aren’t you dedicating your kills to the Goddess?
“She marked me against my will. I’m not really sure if dedicating my kills or actions to her is going to be worth it,”
“I get that,” Caitlyn said as they took a break from killing beetles. Anton pulled out a canteen of water and shared it with Caitlyn before she continued, “One of the other things she blessed me with is the ability to talk to her once per day. I can ask questions and get some answers about how things work.”
“Really?” Anton asked.
“Really.”
“Well, the next time you talk to her, make sure to ask her how we’re supposed to purchase new skills and spells from the SYSTEM. Pavo’s Military Supply Node doesn’t have a huge selection. Mostly just equipment that military personnel might need. We need a merchant that has access to more items,” Anton said.
“We need to keep these beetles from overrunning the Hangar for the next 20 hours. That should give you plenty of time to think of any questions you might want me to ask the Goddess, ” Caitlynn said.
“Time to get to work then. One thing first, though. Remember, if you received a skill or spell that’s letting you ask the Goddess questions, you can use your skill or spell points to boost that spell if that will help you in any way.”
“Hey! That’s right,” Caitlyn said excitedly, “Every level of my spell, Commune, lets me speak with the goddess for one minute a day.”
“And you’re level one right now?”
“Yes,” Caitlyn agreed, “I also have 23 Spell Points right now.”
“If you remember from the messages we received a while ago. You can earn spell points with each level you earn, which you can use to level a spell automatically, or you can use the spell to earn spell points for that specific spell, which level the spell for you. Each spell level requires an equal number of spell points: 1 at level 1, 3 at level 2, and level 5 would require 15 spell points.”
“Five minutes sounds like enough time to have a conversation with the Goddess,” Caitlyn said as her eyes defocused for a moment. She then refocused on Anton, “Done! Commune is now Spell Level 5.
“Not really sure how the Earned Spell Points work, but they go up and down with use or lack of use. Now, though, Commune can go no lower than Spell Level 5,” Anton said.
“That’s good, I guess. We better get back inside and let Felix know what’s going on. He might have some questions I need to ask as well.
“Sounds like a good idea. You go do that. I’m going to see if there are any other survivors nearby.”
Caitlyn nodded and headed inside as Anton activated Specter and began going through the nearby area in an expanding circle. Right off base to the northwest, there was a trailer park. Anton didn’t detect any life signs there. He continued northeast toward Dover. Just over a half mile away, he found another housing development area. He saw the telltale signs of the beetles moving through the area, but something else drew his attention. He was in his Alternate Dimension as a Specter. Off in the distance, he could see a bright glow coming from the ground, which seemed to have just as many auras of weak souls coming from it as the Earth Node.
Anton rose into the sky to the low, hanging clouds about a mile up and looked around. Off to the Northwest and Northeast, he saw two large groupings of soul energies. From this far away, he couldn’t tell what type of creatures they were. He could tell that there were a lot of them, though.
Anton floated north away from the hangar until the two sources of auras were directly east and west of him again. This time, he saw four groupings of souls—the Earth Node and beetles to the South, the group to the east heading toward the inlet. The large group to the west was still spreading out, but the center of it looked to be in the southeast part of Dayton, and it seemed that whatever was being spawned was chasing large concentrations of people that were fleeing through the city to the Northwest. The newest group he detected was north of his position. The last grouping was different. Whatever they were, they were airborne and fast.
Anton shifted his position to the east to see what was making its way toward the inlet. He found another 20-foot hole in the ground where a blue light glowed. The creatures spawning from this node were flooding out of the ground and heading toward the inlet. The creatures were about the same size as the beetles but looked more amphibian. He followed them over to the water line, where they dropped off into the water and didn’t resurface.
He backtracked to the blue node and used Spectral Reach to touch the glowing blue light at the bottom of the hole in the ground. He had a good idea of what it was; he just wanted to be sure.
Congratulations! You have found a Water Node!
Anton deactivated Spectral Reach and headed toward the group of auras off to the west. As he drew closer, Anton noticed that small fires were lit everywhere, and he could see the small pearlescent orbs rushing to and fro as they chased humans north into the city of Dayton. It looked like the fire had been spreading for a bit now. At the center of the auras, he could see a bright red hole sitting in the ground that was spawning these salamander-type creatures that were lighting everything on fire. Not because the creatures were on fire, though. Anton watched as the human fought back. Whenever one of the boxer-sized lizards was cut or shot, their blood would ignite as soon as it came into contact with the air. The Salamanders that were at least thirty feet away survived the blast just fine. Anything within that range vanished with the flash.
Buildings in a three-block area were on fire as others ran from the never-ending swarm of spawning salamanders that were a fiery death trap. Pretty sure of what he’d find, he moved down to the hole, lowered himself, and used Spectral Reach to touch the Node.
Congratulations! You have found a Fire Node!
An Earth Node by the Hangar, a Water Node to the Northeast, A Fire Node to the Northwest of the Earth Node. Was that an Air Node Northeast of his current position? There was only one way to find out.
Anton deactivated Spectral Reach and rose into the night sky. It wasn’t hard to find the Air Node. The swarm of birds, which looked like sleeker and meaner versions of a pigeon, were spawning vertically out of a hole in a farm field. Once airborne, they spread out in all directions and seemed to be focusing on anything moving near their node.
Anton quickly verified that the node in the ground was an Air Node. Once that was verified, he rose to the clouds and looked back down on the city and base below. There were four nodes, one for each of Earth, Air, Water, and Fre. Interestingly enough, the creatures being spawned didn’t seem to be going toward the node of their opposite element.
As Anton looked down, he realized that the Earth Node was at the bottom, or southmost point of a diamond. Air was at the top, or North. Water was to the East and Fire to the west. Anton pulled up his basic map and, with a thought, input the points of the nodes into the map. His Basic Mapping skill had reached skill level 29 and now had a range of almost two miles now. All of his running around had leveled his mapping skill in the background.
Anton quickly looked through his skill list and noticed that a couple of other skills had also increased to level 29: Dodge, Firearms, Language: Common, and Two-Way Fighting Style. Some of his other skills hadn’t, though. One skill he figured would be as high as his Long Blades skill was Firearms, but it hadn’t risen above level 29. Long Blades was level 38. Anton wondered what was happening and then remembered he’d turned off the notifications for skill leveling. He quickly looked through the archived notifications until he found a SYSTEM Message which explained what was going on.
SYSTEM Message
Skill Progression Update.
Due to unforeseen consequences that have been thoroughly tested and analyzed, Skill Level gain and loss have been adjusted going forward. Current Skill Points and Skill Levels earned or lost prior to this announcement will not be adjusted.
Skills now have a maximum level of 100.
Skill levels can be increased through use to a certain point or by investing Skill Points into the skill.
Skill use will allow you to earn up to 435 Skill Points, which equates to level skill level 29. No more than 435 Skill Points may be earned in his way. Permanent Skill Points are still earned by increasing your Class level as usual and may be invested into any skill to grant permanent skill levels.
Skill Level is determined by adding Earned Skill points and Permanent Skill Points.
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Earned Skill Points may be lost when skills are not utilized within the time limit given below. Earned Skill Points for skills that are not used frequently will be reduced by 1 Earned Skill Point for each time frame listed.
ONLY Earned Skill Points are lost due to lack of skill use. Permanent Skill Points are a class investment and represent a choice to invest in specific skills permanently and may not be lost due to lack of use. Permanent Skill Points can be sacrificed or forcibly removed, however.
Earned Skill Point loss due to lack of use Chart.
The following chart includes Earned Skill Points all the way up to level 100 to account for any Earned Skill points that exceed 435 at the time of this message. Eventually Earned Skill Points will only encompass levels 1 -29.
Level 90 – 100, 1 skill point each day not used.
Level 80 – 89, 1 skill point each week not used.
Level 60 – 79, 1 skill point each month not used.
Level 40 - 59, 1 skill point every three months not used.
Level 20 - 39, 1 skill point every six months not used.
Level 2 – 19, 1 skill point every year not used.
Level 1, no skill may be reduced below 1 Earned Skill Point once gained unless the skill point is forcibly removed.
NOTE: Some Abilities may accelerate Earned Skill Point gain or loss.
Anton reviewed the information and closed the SYSTEM Message. So, the SYSTEM had adjusted how high someone could level their skills by using them and required them to spend Permanent Skill Points that were only earned by leveling their class. It was not really something he needed to worry about at the moment, but it was something to keep in mind going forward.
Anton used his Basic Map to move until he was at the center of the diamond and looked down. There was a large building just north of the tree line. Anton checked the front of the building on the north side and found a sign with “Midnight Athletics” on it. The place looked a little run-down, but otherwise, the building seemed to be mostly intact.
Anton moved back to the center point of the diamond, or square, that the four Nodes he’d found made. That center point was just inside the tree line south of the building. There was a circle of black stone or metal that sat about a half foot off the ground. The circle-shaped platform consisted of three circles, one within the other. The two outer circles were only about one foot across and acted as steps up onto the center circular platform that was about 30 feet across. At the center of the platform, a rectangular piece of the same material as the platform stood vertically. It looked like an oversized “door” that was 10 feet high and five feet across. As Anton floated around it, he estimated that it was about six inches thick. Both sides of the “door” appeared to be the same material as the pedestal.
Anton circled the “door” and then landed as he deactivated Specter. As he rematerialized on the material plane, a tooltip appeared in the air before him. This was different because it wasn’t a notification. This message box appeared as if it would be visible to anyone nearby. As he watched, words in common scrolled slowly down the window.
Elemental Anchors Set.
Universal Connections are available to seven Universes at this time.
As the first person to stumble upon this Universal Gate, you may assist the SYSTEM in randomly determining which Universe this Universal Gate connects to. Failure to choose will result in a random selection being made by the SYSTEM when the Universal Gate becomes active for the first time. Note: Once linked, the destination of this Universal Gate may not be changed.
Please select a number between one and seven.
Anton decided to help the SYSTEM out and called out, “Four.” It was the middle number between one and seven. What could go wrong?
This Universal Gate will linked to a Companion Universal Gate in Universe 7.
Universal Gate will become active when the Elemental Node Periodic Stabilization Event is Complete.
The Universal Gate will remain linked to its Companion Universal Gate until the next Stabilization Event.
Gate locations are locked until destroyed. They cannot usually be moved. If a Universal Gate is moved, the link to the companion Universal Gate is permanently destroyed.
When active, a plane of energy, a portal, appears above the vertical surface of the stone. Travel to Universe 7 is accomplished by stepping into the portal. Travelers will arrive on the opposite side of the vertical “door” through a second portal that appears above the opposite side of the vertical rectangle.
Travelers from Universe 7 will arrive from this second portal.
Anton looked at the Universal Gate for a few more minutes to see if anything changed. When nothing did, he activated Specter and rose into the sky. Now that he knew this Gate was here, he also noticed that none of the summoned creatures were coming within 1,000 feet of the platform or dais.
Granted, they all seemed to be busy swarming the local population, well, except for the creatures spawning from the Water Node, which were heading away from the Universal Gate and toward the inlet. The creatures spawning at the Air Node to the north were heading west into a housing area, while the salamander-type creatures had appeared in the middle of a commercial district but seemed to be mainly moving north and west. The beetles from the Earth Node that could head north toward the Universal gate were beelining toward the hanger Felix, Caitlyn, and Amelia were defending. Of course, it was only 500 feet or so from their spawn point.
Anton checked the clock on the map, and it showed that it was just after 2 a.m. If all four nodes continued spawning, it would be another 19 hours before the Universal Gate opened. Could he try to save the people of Dayton, Ohio, or should he focus on the base? Better yet, it looked like this was going to be a primary place that people were going to come to. Should he try to claim a domain in the area? Still, he should probably see what he could do to help people before worrying about the Universal Gate. The Fire Node was the node that had the most people around it. It's time to see what he could do about that and maybe earn some experience and money.
Anton moved over the Fire Node and looked down. The area looked like a construction zone where a large building had been torn down and never rebuilt. The Fire Node was in a 20-foot-diameter hole on the southwest corner of Blue Hen Boulevard and South Bay Road. Unlike the Earth node, the salamanders spawning in the hole spread out in all directions and then headed north and west toward the housing district on the west side of the South Dupont highway.
Anton moved in that direction until he started to see the brighter soul energy of humans. He found it interesting that the pearlescent energy that formed the core of each entity that he saw varied in brightness. It was like comparing a 100-watt light bulb to a 60-watt bulb. It wasn’t much of a difference, but he could definitely knew which was which. The only thing that sucked about his ability was that it didn’t work when he was entirely in the Material plane. If he was Manifest, he could see their soul energy, but if Specter was deactivated, he only had his normal senses to rely on.
Anton landed next to a house on the west side of New Castle Avenue and the south side of East Water Street. Was it just him, or was there something about choosing a place named after water? He brought his focus back to his current situation as two of the salamander-type creatures moving down the street turned toward him. He was sure that he was both fast enough and fire-resistant enough to take on these creatures in close quarters. It was just a little bit of fire, after all.
Note to self: standard weapons against creatures that contain blood that ignite when exposed to air are a terrible idea. Anton was pretty sure of his sword skill and utilized his monofilament longswords to behead both salamanders at the same time. Unfortunately, the heads turned into fireballs that rolled down the street while the blood that geyser from the bodies turned them into mini flamethrowers. Anton was hit by the blood, which stuck and ignited him while both of his long blades heated up and rapidly vaporized. The heat was so intense that it didn’t even turn the metal into liquid; it just disintegrated steel.
Later on, Anton would learn that while the swords were quite remarkable and the steel used in them was well sourced, they still had a melting point of around 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The blood, once ignited, turned into plasma, which had a temperature range of 10,000 to 14,500 degrees Fahrenheit. While it had looked incredibly cool for Anton to step between the two lizards, force them to try to bite him simultaneously, and then decapitate each, His luck, while high, couldn’t prevent the flood of blood that exploded out and covered him from head to toe.
Why did these monsters affect him? It was simple, really, and was not magical. They were spawned monsters of an elemental nature. Their blood igniting into plasma was a byproduct of a chemical reaction created when it was exposed to air. So, the damage he received from the plasma was considered natural damage, and his ability, Anti-Mage, did not help him negate any of that damage. In the space of one second, Anton was covered by the flaming blood and reached temperatures approaching 14,000 Fahrenheit. Anton’s swords, clothes, and even his body were reduced to ash by the time he was able to read his notifications as a Specter.
You have Died!
A quick check of his combat log let him know that he’d taken approximately 28,000 points of damage in a single second. Okay, that would explain why everyone was running from these things or shooting them from afar. While he waited for 14 seconds for his body to reform, Anton moved to the roof of the nearby house and double-checked his Psychic Energy (PE) Regeneration rate. If he couldn’t get close, he would have to use a ranged attack. Mind Bolt seemed perfect for this. Mind Bolt costs 10 PE per use. Currently, he was regenerating 30 PE every 10 seconds, so as long as he didn’t attack with Mind Bolt more than twice per combat turn, he’d regenerate 10 PE per Turn, or 60 PE each minute.
His Stamina could easily keep up with that attack rate since attacking these things physically was a hell-to-the-no! Could he keep ahead of these monsters was the question he was currently asking himself. His Personal Status indicated that he could move at roughly 268 miles per hour or approximately 393 feet per second, so 3,930 feet every combat turn. If he could move that fast, then yeah, he should be able to keep ahead of these things while he attacked from range.
Another thing he could try to do was use his Anti-Mage ability to destroy and disintegrate them, but the process was not instantaneous and could expose their blood to the air. That idea was not worth the risk. He’d have to be relatively close, and if they exploded, he’d die again. Why was dying while killing monsters a concern now? Well, it seemed that the SYSTEM was being kind of a dick.
When he’d died, he'd received another Notification right after his Death message, which made going suicidal to kill creatures more powerful than himself an absolute last call because it was no longer worth it.
SYSTEM Message
The Ability Immortal has been reviewed and updated as follows.
All experience that would be gained with, or immediately after, the physical death of an individual with the Immortal Ability and any subsequent deaths caused by the immortal that occur while the Immortal’s body is being reconstructed do not generate experience for the Immortal.
While this may seem like an unfair change, the SYSTEM would like to remind those with the Immortal ability that they do not lose XP or levels each time they die—receiving XP. At the same time, or immediately after their death before their reconstruction, was an obvious oversight and abuse of the ability.
The oversight has been rectified; adjustments have been instituted.
Anton sighed as he realized that as adjustments went, it was entirely fair. Also, it wasn’t like he couldn’t still take advantage of his Ability. Anton rematerialized on the roof and targeted one of the salamanders in the middle of the intersection as it tried to scurry across. Unlike his Spectral Scream, this Psychic Skill was controlled and precise. The salamander died as the Mind Bolt hit and caused blood to leak from its eyes and ears. Anton assumed blood was bleeding from its eyes and ears because sparks of fire that engulfed his target appeared there first. A moment later, the salamander flashed out of existence. When the flash cleared, the three other nearby salamanders had also gone. It looked like their natural fire resistance couldn’t stand up to the heat their blood generated either. Good to know.
A few of the Salamanders noticed him on the roof and turned toward him, but he was already moving west down East Water Street. When he was more than 400 feet away, he stopped, turned, and sent a mind bolt to the nearest salamander in the center of the street. Another Mind Bolt, another flash, and six Zerenders, the name the SYSTEM assigned the monsters, disappeared in a fiery flash.
Thus began the systematic destruction of the roads throughout the housing area of Dayton as Anton would target one Zerender and take out a small grouping before moving to another area. His range was only 415 feet with Mind Bolt, but that was far enough away that only a very limited amount of heat washed over him from each death.
As he ran from rooftop to rooftop, sometimes dropping into his Specter Form to move to the opposite side of large groupings, the people in the area continued to flee to the north and west. Anton wasn’t sure if his efforts were going to help these people ultimately, but they definitely helped him. He was killing between two and twenty Zerenders that ranged from levels one through 10. Also, while rarity didn’t seem to affect the amount of XP each generated, he was only receiving 100 XP per level. Killing the Zerenders offered better rewards. A level one Zerender offered two silver per kill. A level two offered four silver, and so on.
Anton didn’t care why he was earning more money; the higher treasure turnout was going to be really nice for the soldiers in seven days when this cycle started over. Ammo was expensive, at least this way; if they could buy a bullet for a silver and kill one of the Zerender with only one bullet, they’d make a net gain to buy more bullets or better weapons. If they could use magic to kill them from afar, that would be even better.
Anton put those thoughts out of his mind and went to work. He had 18 hours to go before the Nodes shut down their spawning cycle for six days. Mind Bolt, Move, Mind Bolt, and then Repeat the cycle. Hopefully his Stamina and Endurance would hold out through the whole monster spawning cycle.