Chapter 163

Warlock Summoner vs. Warlock Devastator.

An interestingly beneficial pathway regardless of which choice he took. On one hand with the summoner option he could have an additional 4 minions, with all of his minions being powered up by 5% to all stats. On the other hand with the devastator option he was still able to acquire at least 1 more minion while focusing primarily on himself - having his passive physical damage increased by 1% of his mana pool at any given time depending on how full it was. It didn’t cost him mana to use either, the effect was passive unholy damage.

And 1% of his mana pool was nothing to scoff at. In fact, that was a very, very large amount when compared to most people. It was more than enough to annihilate a normal person multiple times over, and just by looking at the class he got a very distinct notion - likely from the system itself - that he could deactivate this passive trait at will.

Which was good, seeing that he didn’t want to accidentally blow someone up if he gave them a teasing shove or accidentally stepped on someone’s foot.

This was even more the case because devastator was the one he was going to pick now that he was focusing on shoring up his close combat abilities - which had been an inherent weakness up until recently. Yeah, 4 new minions would be absolutely great, but he was quickly beginning to realize that even though they were extensions of himself - he as a person was the real power player here. Though Athela and Azmoth were both far stronger than most enemies they came across, and Fay was a great utility demon to have on his side, he was confident in his ability to beat any of them in a fight one on one if the heavens descended and decided to see who was stronger. Though this had not been the case in the early levels of his development, back then they’d been way stronger than him and had saved his life countless times.

Even with his given weakness to rogue-like characters, Athela - who was far more dangerous than most rogues or assassins they’d come across, would still have a very hard time beating him if they ever went all out in a sparring match. His regeneration and massive amount of magical firepower alongside his insanely strong aura were just too far above her for the demoness to compete.

That didn’t mean they were useless, they were far from useless, but in the end they truly were extensions of himself and his own power according to the system. He had to weigh just how beneficial four more would be when compared to the passive this devastator class gave, and the passive was - in his opinion - better. At least for now, but that didn’t mean his demons couldn’t catch up to him in both level and dao insights. In fact he very much meant to do just that and invest in their own growth one way or the other when things calmed down, because he needed - and wanted - a squad that was equal or at least close to equal to his own strength. Still thinking of the early days during the integration, they’d literally carried him as a weak and clueless novice warlock through hell; through thick and thin, and now it was going to be his turn to carry them to even greater heights.

[You have selected Warlock Devastator as your new primary class. Congratulations! You have gained 1 additional demonic minion slot: 2,863,496 demons have already applied to be your new minion prior to this notification.

Warlock Adept’s +2 Willpower, +3 Intelligence, +2 Free Stat Points, -5 Base Charisma, -1 Charisma per level has been changed. Warlock Devastator now applies +3 Strength, +2 Sturdiness, +2 Willpower, +4 Intelligence, +2 Free Stat Points, -5 Base Charisma, -1 Charisma per level.

Devastator Trait has been acquired.

Devastator Trait: When this trait is toggled on, physical strikes apply additional passive unholy damage equal to 1% of your current total mana pool. This trait does not require any actual mana to use, with the most passive damage being done at full mana capacity.

Warlock Devastator Class gives additional bonuses as follows: 12% defense for all heavy armor, 9% damage for two handed weapons, +3% bonus applied to Intelligence stat, and 25% increased effectiveness to all body enhancement spells of any category cast by yourself.]

Wow. That was… a LOT of applications.

How the hell was he supposed to go through them all? Why was he suddenly such a popular choice? What had happened between now and the last time to make it to where literally millions of demons had taken notice of him in the nether realms for a chance to apply?

It was definitely a good problem to have though. He only wished Athela was here to vet them like last time… Ugh. And if any of them even thought they could replace Athela, which was a likely upcoming scenario, they could get fucked. He even became angry immediately upon thinking it, then realized just how ludicrous it was to act that way and began to internally laugh at himself. He really did like that crazy spider bitch.

Fay, who’d been watching his screens with him, smile slightly after seeing the number of demonic applications. Letting out a still-shaky but content sigh, and rubbed her cheek affectionately against his chest. “I got in before all those other idiots realized how great you were.”

Looking down and blushing slightly at just how sincere she was being, he suddenly became very aware of how this may look when Luke winked at him and head-bobbed to the demoness in his lap. Riven quickly and subtly shook his head though, this wasn’t the time or the place to even think about that kind of thing after what Fay had just been through. “Thank you Fay, it means a lot hearing that from you.”

Still rocking in the chair and comfortingly rubbing the traumatized succubus along her back, he abruptly felt a surge of unholy-flavored power coalesce around his core. Internally watching his soul aperture, he saw a new wave of disjointed runes beginning to float about the soul space - not really having any pillar or piece of the core acting as a true attachment. Rather, they acted to soak up mana leaking from the surrounding pillars - making his energy use far more efficient and empowering what he believed to be his new passive Devastator trait.

Very interesting.

Snapping his fingers and putting intent into the action, as well as toning the flow of passive power down to only a fraction of the 1% he could actually utilize before he blew up the room, he snapped his fingers while focusing on the ‘air’ as an intended source to be attacked.

A large spark of black, green and a hint of red cracked over his hand just with the mere snap, and he’d not used a single mana point to do it.

Now he could only wonder just how much 1% would truly look like, and a wide smile crossed his lips. “Fay, I’m going to get up and see what Azmoth has looted from their wares. Is that ok?”

She aggressively shook her head and tightened her hold around him. “No.”

He sputtered a laugh, grinning down at her as she pooched her lips defiantly up at him. “Oh come on!”

“You can’t leave.”

“I’ll only be a few feet away!”

“No.”

He was about to roll his eyes and get up anyways, but quickly realized that she was being serious. When he shifted, she began to tremble again - and it was very apparent to him that she was still only barely holding on by the way her breathing picked up. She was still very traumatized after being kidnapped, and it’d likely be that way for quite a while.

He let his body slump back down from where it’d tensed to get up. Eyes softening and nodding down at her, he felt her body stop its trembling seconds later while her breathing slowed down to normal levels.

“I’ll stay right here.” Riven said with a comforting smile, and he motioned at Azmoth with a head bob. “Hey man, mind bringing that table over-”

He didn’t get to finish the sentence as Azmoth screamed out in victory while jumping up and down - startling everyone in the room with just how excited the huge demon had become over the course of the last two seconds.

“AZMOTH FIND IT!” The huge armored demon yelled, whirling around and stomping over to where Riven and Fay sat while cupping something small within two of his hands. “AZMOTH FIND IT!”

Reminding himself that although Azmoth was sometimes more mature than his age should indicate, this demon was still a newborn. Chuckling at the brutalisk while Fay scowled menacingly up at the armored titan, Riven glanced down at Azmoth’s clawed hands. “What is it you have there buddy?”

Azmoth’s razor teeth breathed a cloud of hot air, flames simmering from his mouth in excitement along the obsidian plates of his eyeless face. “Azmoth’s stone.”

The demon opened up his hands, and to Riven’s shock and surprise - revealed a small red bauble. It was slightly different than how Riven remembered it from the depths of Negrada’s hellscape, but it was definitely the same thing. It just lacked the inherent energy and power that’d once been contained inside, and there was a crack along one edge of the red glass-like orb.

“Is this…” Riven picked up the bauble presented to him, turning it around in his hand with a curiously raised eyebrow. “Wow. It is. Azmoth, have you kept this bauble the entire time?”

[Dark Arts Miracle Stone (Unique) (Broken): The prayers to Jograz Metz were heard, the blood price had been paid, and he answered with this gift. This stone once housed the demon Azmoth, an infant hellscape brutalisk, before the stone was used and Azmoth’s departure left the stone inadequate for proper functioning. Now it appears to only be a memento, but it does still hold faint traces of Jograz Metz’s aura.]

Azmoth took the stone back when it was offered to him, and the large demon reverently put it in his mouth before swallowing it whole - oddly enough. Sadly shaking his head, Azmoth’s shoulders sagged and he gave the impression of a kicked puppy dog as he let out a long, high pitched groan very uncharacteristic of the behemoth. “I not have stone. I gave to Athela as present. Cultists take stone from Athela when kill her.”

He looked up, staring at Riven wordlessly until he managed to get out a slowly phrased question. “Will Athela come back? I miss Athela.”

Riven nearly died of cuteness overload, and he reached out to pat the large demon’s lower left hand. He'd not realized that Azmoth had given Athela this memento as a present, nor had he realized that she'd kept it on her person so long. It must have some significant meaning to it for them to have shared it like that. “Yeah. She’ll be back, I promise I’ll find a way. I have that soul shard, don’t I?”

Azmoth hesitantly nodded. “Yes. When though?”

“I don’t know bud. I’ll have to figure that out too, but it’s a priority. That I promise.”

***

Riven wiped the blood off his lips, licking his fingers and tossing the cultist’s arm to the side.

The items these cultists had acquired outside the realm of Chalgathi artifacts were rather niche, most of them oriented towards ritualistic magic that Riven had only touched on in passing. There were some rings that Riven could use though, and some other stuff that was actually oriented towards utilizing miracles - though only a few of them were outside the realm of Unholy. Though they were scarce, he handed these items over to Luke for whenever his soul repaired to properly function.

“Horned Helm of Soothsaying, Godsent Charm Box, and the Bristled Pinewood Cloak. These are for you.” Riven shoved the items over to Luke across the table, who donned them one by one. A leather helm with deer antlers stuck to the front, a small wicker box with some kind of plant akin to pine cones inside, and a cloak with interwoven pine needles stitched into the fabric were given to him. Each was a miracle-boosting item, each was oriented towards the Fae Foundational Pillar and the Forest Sub-pillar. “How’s your recovery coming along by the way?”

Luke tightened the cloak around his waist with a cloth belt, then made sure the charm box was appropriately fastened to it. Adjusting the horned helmet one more time, the old silver-aired elf widely smiled. “I can feel the soul slowly starting to repair itself, I even went down 1% in terms of soul damage on my status page. It’s slow going, but changing into a thrall was the best decisionI could have ever made. It’s actually healing me!!!”

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Riven nodded, appreciating just how happy and excited the old man was. “Good to hear. I noticed it too, but I figured I wouldn’t say anything yet. Do you think you’ll be able to use those items when your abilities are back in business?”

Luke nodded, suddenly going serious. “Yes, though I specialized more in Storm than Forest. I still have a few Forest miracles however, as long as the pillar etchings weren’t utterly destroyed.”

“Good.”

Riven went back to sorting the materials on the table. There were odds and ends including string, animal bones, human hair, a scalp, oddly colored salts, shriveled herbs, and a number of differently colored chalk pieces rolled up in parchment.

“I don’t know what any of this shit is.”

Riven deposited them into his inventory nonetheless, not wanting to waste it as it’d obviously been useful to these cultists - so it probably had SOME value. The dead cultists and the eldritch demon had also carried some caster equipment for mages, specifically warlocks, but it was a little bit below what he wanted to equip in terms of value. It’d still be good to bring back to his budding empire though, as he was sure some novice warlocks would be able use the wands, gloves and two amulets he’d found.

But there were five items he did find interesting. Two were basic enchanted gold-band rings, each of them boosting his intelligence by a small amount that he slipped onto his fingers next to the witch’s ring of grand casting. Then there was a basic brown ‘Whip of Debaucherous Taming which was… unique. There was also the white blade with black runes, a demon slayer blade, that’d been used to kill Athela - and he promptly stored that for experimentation purposes to see if he could somehow defend against these kinds of weapons in the future. And lastly there was Fay’s outfit that’d been so kindly stored away upon her kidnapping - which they’d no doubt kept for the enchantment value and which he’d promptly given back to her after tearing them new assholes.

[Gold Band of Minor Intelligence: +7 Intelligence]

[Gold Band of Minor Intelligence: + 9 Intelligence]

[Whip of DebaucherousTaming: 15 average damage on strike, induces pain and pleasure when struck, with an enchantment effect that causes any humanoid target to be more prone to following your commands.]

[Chelfine (Demon Slaying Blade): 102 average damage on strike, with the chance to apply holy burns. Utilizing this weapon against a demon can cause the demon’s soul to degrade at a rapid pace, permanently killing them regardless of contract or not.]

The whip would be a good present for Allie, considering she had her own man-harem going on. If not, well he’d figure out someone who could use it. Would be a waste to simply toss it though.

Placing the whip and the blade inside his bag of holding, and adjusting the rings on his fingers, he glanced over his shoulder to where Fay was passed out on the bed - chest rising and falling after having put her purple witch’s hat, skirt, and crop top outfit on. The feathered boots he’d gotten her that helped with her flying were set beside her on the floor, and if Riven had to guess she’d be out of it for quite some time even if she’d slept earlier that day.

“We’ve got some drugs here.” Luke held up a bag of herbs and tossed it over to Riven. “We used to smoke that stuff as kids in the highlands near my village back home. It’s called reeter weed, makes you feel happy and hungry.”

“Sounds familiar to something back from my own planet.” Riven grinned, stuffing the bag of herbs into a side pocket and nodding in appreciation. “We’re going to get so high after this…”

“Definitely deserve it.”

“Agreed. This waking nightmare I’ve been living in is going to run me ragged. Anything back beyond that hallway?”

“No. Just a small closeted room that didn’t have anything of value in it and

A faint whisper echoed throughout the chamber, drawing Riven’s attention to the black and red mass that’d been swirling in an orb for the past half-day. Slowly, ever so slowly, the ball of swirling energy began to dissipate - and in place of his items was a more unified version of the artifacts he’d come to know… but they shifted eerily, as if not having taken completely solid form yet.

[The Apocalypse Beasts, Chalgathi, Personal Quest Update: 5 of 5 set pieces for Chalgathi’s Inheritance have been acquired. Checkpoint reached. Current Chalgathi artifacts have had their stat pages completely revealed due to acquiring all 5 pieces. Chalgahi Cultist Breastplate, Chalgathi Cultist Amulet, Chalgathi Cultist Pauldrons, Chalgathi Cultist Claws, and Chalgathi Cultist Mask are ready to completely merge into one set item after acquiring necessary aspect from soul. As this is a system world quest, this prize is meant to be a boon to the wielder and not a detriment - thus this query is being issued: Do you wish to keep the connection between Gluttony’s Sin Core with this item set? Doing so will allow the armor to evolve and grow with you, but will give you compulsions from time to time that can become overwhelming if your willpower isn’t regularly increased to combat the effect.]

Riven blinked. “I increase my willpower all the time anyways and I have Gluttony already knocking at my door through the core, why would I care? Gimme that evolving armor set!”

He slapped the button real, real hard.

[Connection to Sin Core has been maintained. Analyzing and configuring now.]

[Chalgathi Cultist Amulet (The Great Maw), Chalgathi Cultist Pauldrons (Twin Cannibals), Chalgathi Cultist Mask (Fallen Apostle), Chalgathi Cultist Claws (Bloodfallen Rippers), and Chalgathi Cultist Breastplate (Hunger’s Despair) have all converged into one item after completing this item set. ]

[Chalgathi Cultist Armor Set: Messenger, has been completed.]

[Messenger (Mythic Heavy Armor Set, Sin Artifact, Gluttony Aspect) (Evolving Symbiote) (World Quest Item: Panu) (Unique Soulbound Sentient): This Mythic tier armor set was created on the world of Panu during its integration cycle by the pureblooded vampire Riven Thane. Having far surpassed the realm of normalcy, this armor set has been afflicted with the original sin of Gluttony. As a messenger of sin and a holder of a sin shard, Gluttony has blessed this armor to even further heights so that the wielder may one day become the tidebringer of wanton destruction Gluttony seeks. All shall perish before the great maw, all hail the abyssal depths.

> Devour - This amulet can use shadowy tendrils to attack and pull in prey for devouring. If bitten, a potent paralytic poison is applied to your enemy. Devouring enemies allows this item set to slowly grow.

> Identifier’s Clause: Wearing this item increases your ability to identify information concerning items or living creatures, being the equivalent of a low tier identifier class. Your own basic information will be much harder to identify.

> Blood in the Eyes: These pauldrons absorb blood mana passively from your surroundings up to a maximum of double your normal mana pool. These pauldrons act as a reservoir for your passive vampiric regeneration, this suit’s Launch ability, and acts as a mana font to pull from like you would environmental resources. Once the pauldron’s eyes dim, your extra resource pool has run out.

> Ripping Claws: Punching someone with the spikes of your gauntlets will cause massive hemorrhaging damage over time.

> Launch: The back of your suit can open up, creating a blast of sin energy that damages enemies and acts as a propulsion method to blast you in a given direction at speeds dependent on how much energy you drain from the stored reservoir of your pauldrons.

> +20% to all base stats

> +300 Strength, +600 Sturdiness, +300 Agility

> +1858 Defense to all Plated Areas of Armor

> + 965 Defense to all Bloodsilk Areas Between Plates

> Natural sunlight does not affect you while wearing this suit

> Liquid breathing is bestowed upon you while wearing this suit

> All senses enhanced by 40% while wearing this suit

> Allows passage free from harm in any underverse controlled by Gluttony

> Immediately identifies and locks on to any nearby Sins or Commandments

> This armor set will occasionally urge you to undertake feeding frenzies. Wear at

your own risk. A high willpower is needed to combat the urges.]

Mythic. That was one Riven hadn’t heard of before. He’d heard of ‘Elite’ tier and ‘Legendary’ tier, though even these he’d had very little information about before now. He knew Allie had legendary tier soulwoven armor after she’d sacrificed a group of people in the tutorial, but ‘Mythic’? Not even Negrada’s merchants had talked to him about this.

So… He assumed that this was a pretty good armor set?

And by the looks of the rest of the status page, he couldn’t be more right. He had a little bit less than 400 sturdiness right now, and this item set not only gave him a 20% boost to those base stats - supplying him with somewhere around 75 more sturdiness points - but it also gave a flat 600 sturdiness stat points off the bat. Same could be said about his strength which was only 199 right now - yet this suit gave him an additional 20% to those numbers and then another 300 flat strength points? He had 466 points of Agility already, but he was ALMOST doubling it with the 20% boost and then another 300 flat Agility points after that.

“Is this even fair?”

Chalgathi and/or Gluttony must really want him alive… or perhaps this was just how all of the Chalgathi item sets were. If that were the case, then each of the 5 people who made it to this next part of the world quest would be overpowered as all hell - just with different flavors of aspects dependent on their own souls and how those souls bonded to their artifact pieces.

Though Riven had a very hard time believing other people in this questline had an aspect as powerful or as dangerous as Gluttony was.

Riven stopped his gawking to look up when the shimmering around the item set began to clear. Slowly the colors began to fade, and in place of the swirling energies was a completed, single item that combined all five of the others he’d acquired. The pieces were so interlinked however, that he doubted he’d even be able to detach them from one another if he tried.

And it looked a lot more intimidating now that it was all finished, with many similarities to his original pieces but also some major differences.

The second difference was the helmet. And it was a helmet. No longer a porcelain mask, a very smooth, ivory-colored metal shimmered in the firelight. It had slits for his eyes, and was molded in the form of two jaws coming together to interlink vertically down the middle like two halves had been smashed together to create the intricate helmet. The seven crimson peacock feathers had changed - morphing into what was akin to shorter neon red feathers that almost looked like blades coming down the spine of the helmet and along the back of the neck.

Where the helmet stopped, a red bloodsilk layer connected it to the rest of the armor. Coming down the neck and attaching to the top of the full-body chest armor and pauldrons - it could also be seen in patches of crimson between different layers of plating where the ivory metal extended along the armors and further into gauntlets.

The gauntlets were absolutely wicked, with slightly elongated points at the knuckles that crackled with red and black energies. The pauldrons were almost exactly the same as they had been - vampiric, horned skulls with brilliant glowing red eyes. The full-body chest armor had the same vertical maw of black teeth down the center, and it had what looked like four flat patches of black metal imbedded in the ivory along the back. These black slabs each sparked with a similar energy to the gauntlets, but instead of sparks - they exuded wisps of red and black that drifted into mist; similar to what happened when Riven charged a blood lance.

No doubt those black slabs were the equivalent of thrusters used for his suit’s new ‘launch’ ability. How the techies working on mechs in Chicago would be so jealous of this baddie. Perhaps they could even study it? That’d be neat.

The armor’s metal cut off at the waist, but it fully encompassed the upper half of his body. Two additional large flaps of bloodsilk hung down from the armor’s back to cover the posterior and sides of his thighs down to where his knees would be before ending entirely. Perhaps the flaps were to keep his thrusters from burning his legs? That’d make sense. He walked around it, admiring the item set as he gave a low whistle. He’d have to find boots and leg armor to complete the outfit, but that was certainly doable.

Curiously enough, Jackal - his weapon now in canine form, was looking intensely at the armor set with a cocked and intense expression. When the armor set: Messenger, turned its helmet to stare back at the shadowy dog on the floor, Riven nearly keeled over in surprise.

The staredown between Gluttony-blessed weapon and Gluttony-blessed suit armor continued for another ten seconds until Jackal gave a nod of approval and settled back down. The armor suit then slowly turned in the air where it hovered, stopping only when it faced Riven. Wordlessly the great maw split apart, as did the bloodsilk along the neck and then the two sides of the helmet where the metal looked like two jaws coming together.

The arms peeled open next, and the gauntlets turned outwards.

The suit was inviting him in.

“I’m not going to be trapped inside you if I wear you again. Am I?” Riven asked hesitantly, wanting to put the suit armor on but also not willing to trap himself again if that was a prerequisite.

A low hiss from the armor echoed through the room, but the suit armor eventually turned its ivory helmet back and forth in a ‘No’ gesture.

Riven nodded in approval. “Very good then.”

Stepping forward and turning around, he let himself walk backwards into the armored suit. The breastplate snapped shut with the teeth interlocking on his chest, then the bloodsilk along his neck zipped up. The helmet came after, letting his red glowing eyes look out through the slit in the metal, and his arms and gauntlets were after that. Lastly, a bloodsilk layer began stretching down along his legs, over his undergarments, and all the way down to cover his feet. Immediately he felt a rush of power flood his body, and Riven gasped at the immense weight of all this newfound energy he felt bounding through his muscles.

He felt like he was a fucking god.

He was... the GOAT.

“You really need to put on your metal boots and leggings.” Luke commented while stroking his chin, only to have Azmoth agree with a nod. “Amazing up top, but it also looks like you… what was the phrase Athela used earlier. Skipped leg day at the gym one too many times, I believe?”

Azmoth snickered, and Riven gave Luke a frowning glare.

“Fine. I’ll go put on the leggings, but now the colors won’t match. Damn, I’ve gotta find some ivory colored spray paint so I can color code this outfit.”

“Color code?” Luke repeated, the corners of his mouth lifting up with ill-hidden amusement. “Never thought I’d hear the day a vampire started talking about color coding their outfits.”

“Well how many vampires have you known? I bet they ALL like to color code. I’ll tell you this-” Riven held up one ivory-encased finger. “The vampires at the Blood Moon Requiem’s trading post are all very fashionable.”

Luke snorted and rolled his eyes. “Perhaps you’re right. Now, what’s the plan? Do we head back to Brightsville after this? We still have the option to teleport to your guild hall, right?”

“That or we can use Jackal, my weapon has the ability to create portals too and one of them is registered to Riven’s Eye - the world-spanning wormhole.” Riven gestured down at the shadowy dog who silently stared up at them from beside the severed cultist head. “I’m a man of culture, my dear friend Luke. I have not one, but two methods of getting us back home. Problem is it’ll still take a bit to channel the effects. But 24 hours from now, we’ll be right as rain.”

"And the demonic contract you can acquire?"

"That'll wait for now... I'd preferably want Athela to be here when I do it, but we'll see. I'll talk to Allie first and decide when we get back home."

"And the dao treasure map? Weren't you going to check on the world forums?"

"Oh for fuck's sake grandpa just let me have some time, ok!?"