“Okay, you stun the one on the left and I’ll lock down the one on the right. Then I’ll rush in and hit them with my rot aura. While I’m using my aura on both of them I’ll use my staff to attack the one that you stun.” Ember whispered to Thorn. She was verifying the plan that they devised this morning on the walk out of town.
“Yes.” He replied with a nod. “Just let me know when you're ready. Don't take too long though, they could dash at any point.”
“Got it. Although, are you certain you don’t want to do anymore than the one attack? I appreciate the skill experience but I don't want to hog it either. I know you're trying to get an uncommon class when you hit level ten so don't you need the skill experience too?” Ember questioned.
Thorn’s shoulders bounced as he stifled a laugh. “Thank you for your concern, but I’m going to be using two skills at once when I attack so our skill experience gain will be fairly even.”
“Alright.” Ember replied with a shrug. She crouched into a running stance while she took aim at the jackalope on the right, it had white fur with a black spot across one eye. “Countdown from three, fire on the fourth count. So, it’ll go three, two, one, fire. Got it?” She asked.
“Mhmm.” Thorn whispered with a nod. He then lifted his enchanted staff, taking aim at his target, the red eyed white furred jackalope on the left. “Three…” He started.
Ember’s heart rate started to increase. She saw the silverish white and blue sparks beginning to arc around the tip of Thorn’s staff and used that as her cue to refocus on her own skill.
“Two…”
Ember extended her hand forward to direct the man of her spell to her target.
“One…”
She could feel her heart racing when she felt her mana start to drain away from her and into the ground. She Tried to sense out the feeling of the mana draining out of her while her skill started to coil, wriggle, and writhe under the jackalope’s unsuspecting paws.
“Fire!” Thorn said. While at the same time his staff released a loud cracking pop and a small silver streak shot straight at his target.
When Ember heard his shout and saw the crackling cacophony go careening off to his target she let her skill finalize and the thousands of threads of mycelium that waited writhing in anticipation shot out of the dirt entangling the feet of the spotted jackalope. In only a split second from being released the electric bolt struck the solid white jackalope, its pristine fur was singed in the area where it was struck while the center of the strike was a black and red hole of charred flesh.
“Go.” Thorn reminded Ember while she stood there watching their attacks hit.
With Thorn’s final reminder Ember shot out of the bushes, she reared her staff back in preparation of a running strike. Right when she was about to make contact with the injured jackalope it managed to roll over and kick the ground hard enough to send itself rolling just out of her reach. Her strike swished through the air and threw her slightly off balance due to the lack of resistance she had anticipated. With only a small stumble after she first changed direction she made it back to the white rabbit which was doing its best to limp hop away from the area.
“Oh no you don’t!” Ember shouted at the white furred jackalope. She slid her grip down the shaft of her staff to hold it in a baseball bat style grip. She swung the staff at the jackalope right as it tried to take another hop away. Her staff collided with a deep thudding whack, she had caught it mid jump, so as the power and momentum transferred from her to the jackalope’s tiny body. It then flew away from the strike and slammed hard into a tree just a few feet away.
She spent a moment to watch if the jackalope would move again. When she didn’t see any more movement coming from it she turned her full attention back to the one she had trapped in her mycelium web. She saw that it was still in the same spot and was continuing to struggle to break free from the mess of mycelium that grew up and entangled itself between the rabbit’s limbs.
“Hmmm…” She hummed in curiosity as a thought popped into her head.
[Rot Aura 5MP/S]
Ember’s eyes grew wide at the results from her little experiment. She remembered how the mushroom on the log had sped up its growth and digestion speeds when she hit it with her rot aura. So now she was curious to find out if the mycelium in her ensnare skill would get a similar boot from her aura. To her great amusement it greatly increased the effectiveness of the skill. When her aura hit the writhing mass it nearly doubled in density and even started to wrap around the torso and neck of the jackalope she had entangled within it. After only three or four seconds the little critter quit resisting, fell limp, and its body began to wriggle and squirm along with the roots that encased it.
[Rot Aura: Passive]
“Eheheheh, excellent.” She laughed after she powered down her skill. She stood there and watched as the mycelium actively broke through the skin and entered into all of the open orifices of the remains. She winced when she noticed the tendrils wriggled and threaded themselves under the skin horribly shifting all of its original features. ‘Groooossss.’ "Ew, ew, ewwww!" She whined to herself before she sighed heavily. She resigned herself to dig into the mass of mycelium, flesh, and fur until she was able to dig out the jackalope's horn. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see what it was she would be touching and reached in. She almost threw up at that moment. 'It's only spaghetti, just spaghetti and I dropped something in it. Yeah just digging through a pile of spaget...' Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt the horn in her fingers.
“I got this one!” Ember shouted over to Thorn. When Thorn turned to see what Ember was gesturing to by saying this one he saw her lifting the jackalope’s horn into the air, except it was still attached to a skull with bits of half rotten flesh and mycelium clinging to it. He had to fight to hold back his laughter at the response he saw Ember have to the state of her prize.
“Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!” Ember yelled as she flung the rabbit skull in Thorn’s general direction. “Why is it every time I start to think that I have a cool affinity, something like this happens, or a corpse explodes!” She flung her hand around exaggeratingly while she spoke, half out of frustration and half to get the mushroom and meat chunks off. “OH! On that note when I leveled up to two I was offered CORPSE EXPLOSION! Like what the hell!?! I don't do that shit on purpose,” she paused to shake her head in disgust and give a little shudder, “it just happened as a side effect to the gut bacteria being kicked into overdrive or something by my weird rot aura.”
Thorn looked at Ember with shock on his face. “Y-You didn’t take it did you?!?” He almost shouted as he jogged over to her location from the bush line. “That isn't a skill that should be offered to a classless person without some training from a necromancer or a skill shard.” He quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to imply that you have any ties to necromancy.”
Ember took a step back from Thorn after he stopped, he was standing a little to close for her comfort. “Okay… uh, to your first question, no. I didn’t take corpse explosion, first off, it's disgusting who in their right mind wants to have chunks of dead people flung at them!?! Every time a body blew up near me I got covered in blood and gore!” She hugged herself and shuddered. “Plus,” she let out a sigh, “I couldn’t think of any good scenarios that I could put it to use. Most of the time I've only fought one to three things at a time. That skill sounds like it would only be good in large scale combat or tight places. Which again brings up the gross factor. If I have to be close to it I'll never use it, so I didn’t think it was any better than my mycelium trap skill.” She ended her tangent with a little smug grin. She felt proud of her new ensnare skill and all the work it's done in such a short time.
“Good. Don’t take it or anything else you think might be tied with necromancy.” Thorn said with a serious look on his face. “While it may be true that no class is outright banned or illegal to have, there are a few classes that are highly frowned upon, shunned, or even illegally hunted. Necromancers, Cultists, bandits, and slavers are the top classes to avoid if you want to have any peace in your life.” His eyes burned with conviction as he explained. “Sorry I got a little scared you might have negatively influenced your future class choices by taking it. But if I had used my head and thought about it for a second before jumping to conclusions I would have remembered you just used ensnare as your new skill, not corpse explosion.” He gave her a goofy grin and chuckled.
“Yeah, I did just use it, but if it is really that serious of a problem to have one of those classes I appreciate the heads up and warnings.” Ember replied honestly. “But now that I'm done showing off my new skill, let's collect the last horn and head to the pond down the trail. That is where the giant pool of slimes live, like I seriously think that pond is just crystal jellies, no water, at all.”
Ember let Thorn harvest the last horn while she finished cleaning her own off. Once they finished they continued on their way to the pond of crystal jellies. While en route they encountered another seven jackalopes but they took them out carefully and tactically trying to conserve as much mana as possible. When they finished their last fight against three jackalopes Ember received a very welcome notification.
[Notice]
[Rot Aura level 2 has reached experience threshold]
[Rot Aura Level 2 > Rot Aura Level 3]
[Rot Aura - An Aura emitted from the user in a two meter circumference, when damage threshold\durability of target reaches 10% of maximum the target will begin to rot. Rotting begins from areas of high damage and spreads through undamaged areas. Rot Aura Encourages the natural process of decomposition in any affected materials. Examples: living tissue will decay, metals rust and tarnish, stone corrodes to sand]
[Rot Aura Level 3: Passive - 1.5 point of rot damage per second per 10 mana generated.
Active - 1.5 point of rot damage per second per 2 mana per second while casting.]
[Notice]
[Ensnare Level 1 Has Reached Experience Threshold]
[Ensnare Level 1 > Ensnare Level 2]
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
[Ensnare Level 2: Send your mana into the ground to have nature spring forth to trap and/or slow your enemies. 9 MP Per 1 square foot of area affected up to 100 square feet. Additional costs based on toughness of the terrain (EX: Soil, clay, stone, ect.) up to an added 10MP. Highest toughness material currently able to be penetrated: sandstone.] (Nature, Rot, Area)
A Cheesy smile grew larger across Ember’s face as she read along with her notifications. She walked over to Thorn and started to repeatedly slap his arm in excitement. “Eheheh guess who just leveled up both of her skills.” She paused for a moment, but when she noticed he wasn't going to play along she let out a huff. “Well you're no fun… But seriously, I leveled up both of my skills! The first time felt like it took forever but the second level of aura and first for ensnare felt a lot faster this time.”
“That's awesome Ember. How did they progress if you don't mind me asking? If you prefer, I can share the same about mine.” Thorn proposed so as to not come across as rude for asking about her status.
Ember looked up at Thorn from her notification information. “I don’t mind. I don't really get how it's rude, but then again I didn't grow up with it… is there a way to show you my information or should i just tell you?”
“Yes. There is a way to share but it will be your full status not just skill information. So it will show your attributes and affinities as well. The reason you should care is because if someone saw that your mana was at two hundred and fifty but you still only had fifty lifeforce they would know the best way to kill you is ambush, or one big area attack you couldn't dodge or block.” Thorn warned.
“How? I trust you and willow enough to share.” Ember replied
“Oh… umm..” Thorn felt a little warm all of a sudden. “You just join hands with the person you wish to share with and both of you think or say share status.”
“Okay lets do it!” Ember said excitedly. She then reached out and grabbed both of Thorn’s hands before he could react.
“O…Okay...” He said as his face grew slightly red. “Just think share status and you will see yours pop up before it is replaced by mine. Just please don’t let anyone know what my third skill is. Are you ready?” He asked.
“Mhmm” Ember replied with a nod and thought to herself, ‘share status.’
[Name: Ember Abiss
Title: None
Race: Human
Age: 23
Level: 2
Class: “Locked”
Affinities: Rot, Nature, Void
Lifeforce: 50
Mana: 13 / 90
ki: 45 / 60
Alacrity: 5
Acuity: 10
Vitality: 5
Vigor: 5
Tenacity: 9
Fortitude: 6
Free Points: 0
Active Skills: 0/5
Passive Skill: 0/5
Classless Skills:2/5
Rot Aura - lvl 3
Ensnare - lvl 2
Rot Aura - An Aura emitted from the user in a two meter circumference, when damage threshold\durability of target reaches 10% of maximum the target will begin to rot. Rotting begins from areas of high damage and spreads through undamaged areas. Rot Aura Encourages the natural process of decomposition in any affected materials. Examples: living tissue will decay, metals rust and tarnish, stone corrodes to sand (Rot, Arcane, Area, Switch)
Rot Aura Level 3: Passive - 1.5 point of rot damage per second per 10 mana generated.
Active - 1.5 point of rot damage per second per 2 mana per second while casting.
Ensnare Level 2: Send your mana into the ground to have nature spring forth to trap and/or slow your enemies. 9 MP Per 1 square foot of area affected up to 100 square feet. Additional costs based on toughness of the terrain (EX: Soil, clay, stone, ect.) up to an added 10MP. Highest toughness material currently able to be penetrated: sandstone. (Nature, Rot, Area)]
----------------------------------------
[Thorn Vyne
Title: None
Race: Human
Age: 22
Level: 5
Class: none
Affinity: Light, Lightning
Lifeforce: 50
Mana: 12 / 168(+8)
Ki: 83 / 90
Alacrity: 7
Acuity: 12
Vitality: 6
Vigor: 5
Tenacity: 16
Fortitude: 9
Free Points: 0
Active Skills: 0/5
Passive Skill: 0/5
Classless Skills: 3/5
Hard Light - Lvl 4
Volt - Lvl 3
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 1
Skills:
Hard Light Level 4: Create Physical Manifestations of Light. Cost Based On Volume Of Object Created. 1MP Per Cubic Inch. (Light, Utility)
Volt Level 3: Shoot a bolt of electricity at your enemy. 7.5% chance to Stun for 5-10 Sec. 4.5MP Per 1DMG. (Lightning, Ranged, Debuff)
Mana Manipulation Level 1: Greatly Increase Your Sensitivity And Control Over Your Own Mana. Increase Maximum Mana By 5% of Base Mana (160). (Sensory, Metamagic, Buff)]
Ember took her time slowly reading over Thorn’s Stats and skills. Most of her interest was on his skills and their descriptions. She knew about his hard light skill but she hadn't seen him use it very often so it surprised her that it would be his highest leveled skill. Volt was the most useful in their hunts so far and it would appear to be his only combat skill.
“Can I ask you about some of these?” Ember asked.
“Yeah, that's fine, but I have some of my own as well.” He replied.
“Ok so Volt… I honestly thought it was a debuff with added damage, not a damage skill with an added debuff. But when it levels, does the cost go down or does the chance to stun go up?” She asked. “Both are good options but I think it would be good to learn about chance based effects.”
Thorn took a moment to think back to his last skill level up. “Yes.” He said with a nod and tried to hold back a laugh.
“Yes? Yes to which?” She asked again. Her body language started to grow more exaggerated as she asked.
“Just yes.” Thorn said matter of factly.
“So both?” She asked, frustrated.
“Yes…” He paused. “Yes to both. The stun chance started at two and a half percent chance to trigger, at level two it jumped up to five percent, then finally at three it hit seven and a half. I was hoping it would continue with the doubling effect from the first level up though.”
“That's still a good increase. That like one in twenty guarantees a stun. I guess it has worked so well on the jackalopes because it actually damaged them so much they were in shock. Not Shocked so bad they were stunned.” Ember said. The end of her comment made her start to giggle to herself.
Thorn gave her a wry smile. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Now it's my turn right? So my first question based on your status is this, how are you so small but older than me?!?” He asked her, “jokes aside, I seriously thought you were between seventeen and twenty max.”
Ember rubbed the back of her neck and let out a sigh. “I have had people thinking that I am younger than I actually am my whole life. This is nothing new to me, but yeah I’m twenty three. I used to hate it when I was younger, but now that I’m getting older I'm starting to notice how much of a blessing it actually is. Like when other people my age look seventy I’ll still be looking good like I’m thirty.”
“Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. That's like a few of the tribes, they live longer than us and age slower.” Thorn stated. “Oh, you haven't met anyone from one of the tribes have you?” he asked.
“Actually I have. Her name was Tila.” Ember answered. “She works at the tailor you sent me to the first time I made a jackalope explode. She said she was a… umm… kit something… kitsune. She’s a kitsune.”
“Okay so she is one of the tribes that have longer lifespans. The Kitsune have been seen as old as two hundred and sixtyish I believe.” Thorn informed her. “So there's a chance that the store belongs to her.”
Ember shook her head. “No, I don’t think she's much older than we are. At least that's how she acted. She was very energetic and friendly and now that I look back on it, I'm like forty percent sure she was trying to flirt with me while I was there.”
“Don’t think too much into it. She was most likely trying to give you compliments to get you to buy more from her.” Thorn said.
“Oh, speaking of buying more, I should get some more adventuring clothes when we get back to town. Oh and have another hoodie made while I'm at it.” She smiled while looking down at her hoodie. “That’s it, I’m going to see Tila, pick up my shorts and hoodie, and place another order.”
“That sounds all well and good Ember, but first we should finish what we started. We are almost to the pond. It should be less than a thirty minute walk now. How about a quick break for lunch before we head to it? I would rather flee full than hungry.” Thorn joked.
“Fine, I brought sandwiches today. Let’s go a little farther though, I think we are almost where I stopped last time.” Ember suggested.
“Sounds good.” Thorn replied.
After sharing statuses with each other the two made their way to the fallen tree where Ember had lunch the last time she was out here. Thorn took off at a quick pace, his hunger starting to get the better of him, while Ember Hummed to herself and followed behind with a smile.