Chapter 35:

We tried to follow the plan, but the plan wasn't having it. Jonas and I advanced slowly to meet the badger. Bjorn and Helga split off to either side, skirting around to get at the cubs. Still, the bear didn't come to us; instead, it stopped and spun, gathering the cubs under its legs so that we had no access to them.

When anyone got close, she'd slash out with her back paws, her significant bulk doing its job well enough, sheltering them from Astrid's arrows. Despite the awkward positioning, the beast was stout enough that it could walk relatively uncovered while still sheltering the smaller ones. It could move almost as fast as we could run, so it had no problem chasing us around the room.

And when Astrid was moving, she couldn't shoot nearly as fast or as accurately. So, as we all moved about the room, it was rather ineffectual; we tried to do anything. The stalemate lasted for several minutes until we made a mistake. Astrid backed away slowly, shooting arrows when she could and turning and running when she had to.

The rest of us were jumping in and trying to take shots at the beast's legs, but it wasn't getting so fixated on any of us that we could get in close, unimpeded, like with the last one. No getting too close. Any one of the legs or snout could slash out at you, and there's no blocking it. Even a dodge was quickly followed up by vicious snapping from the little ones underneath her, so you couldn't just roll underneath the swipe and come up slashing without being bit several times before you even finished your roll.

As Astrid turned to start running, Bjorn made an approach as well. The paths crossed, and Astrid bounced off of them like she'd hit a brick wall. She landed on her ass in an "oomph." While she was trying to get up, a small badger darted out and bit her boot. Its teeth sunk deep into her ankle, and she screamed in pain. Helga rushed in, sword-slashing in an attempt to save her. But so was Jonas. They didn't get in each other's way, but it gave the badger something to focus on as it gnashed its teeth and swiped its paws, not having room to dodge.

Jonas was forced to attempt to block the massive paw, the size of his chest, and it crashed into him, sending him stumbling, stepping on Astrid, and knocking Helga over, her sword pinned between them. Bjorn and I ran in, attempting to help... but it was just a clusterfuck.

I felt vicious claws shredding my legs and the gush of my femoral artery as I bled out in seconds. Hopefully, everyone else was finished about as quickly as I was because seconds later, I was stumbling out of the portal, the knife tucked back into my belt. That was nice. I touched it briefly, wondering what sort of state it was in.

Around me, my four other companions emerged as well, each seeming exhausted. We joined the small queue to sell the loot we had gotten. No one talked during the time, though, as we all stayed pensive, silent. I was frustrated that we hadn't been able to beat that last fight. It felt like something we were just on the edge of taking. If we had better weapons and a little bit more practice working together or maybe a better plan, we could have gotten through it. But we just weren't ready just yet.

The other bit of me was excited. I felt that over the last day and a half, I had made significant gains. I was hoping that with my cut of the loot, I would forgo getting an actual weapon and get the modified stats rule so I could apply the three points I had waiting. Also, it would be nice to check them more freely, only seeing the parts I was interested in in a slightly public setting. If anything, this day had made it clear that between watching the fight and running this challenge, I would need a lot more power.

After we finished exchanging our loot for coins and giving everything up, it turned out the entry fee was not much of a concern, and I was left with 53 coins, just enough to get the information to let me cast the modified ritual. This would hopefully let me actually allocate stat points and restrict what parts of my status were shown when I didn't want to see the full thing.

Bjorn and Jonas were excited about the amount of money, but when I reminded them about the ritual, neither of them seemed exactly enthused. Both wanted to save for a weapon or spend their money drinking. At least Bjorn did. Jonas convinced him to drink at the house where the booze was free for the next month. But still, I was worried about them.

Before everyone ran off to do their own thing, I made us study the loot table for several minutes afterward. We needed to know what we should be looking for and make sure that we didn't miss any pieces of the monster. Nor do we do extra work grabbing something that isn't actually worth anything. We quickly all had a general idea of what dropped, and the sum of the items gave hints about what would be further on in the challenge run. Like the eye of a giant tarantula eye being worth 200 coins was nice, but getting that, I didn't sound particularly like something I was excited about.

Of course, it only had a relatively low probability of showing up, so perhaps that would be nice.

It was very late in the evening, maybe even the next day already. By the time we all went our separate ways, we agreed to meet up sometime tomorrow before lunch at a particular restaurant that Astrid recommended, where we could talk about further cooperation. The two women seemed very happy with having made back their investment and then some. Bjorn and Jonas headed off, but I immediately went to this shop and purchased the alternator virtually any second I could.

I was already planning how to move my bed to accommodate its greater size for the choices, but it turns out they had private rooms in the back of the shop where you could practice rituals of many kinds, the status ritual being one of the simplest. It only cost me one of my three remaining coins to use it. I locked myself in and quickly carved the updated set of runes, performed the modified ritual, and watched as my character sheet unfolded in front of me.

Level: 5

Status: Tier 4: Valhalla Proper

Weapon proficiencies

Sword: F-4

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Spear: F-2

Striking: F-7

Halberd: D-3

Dagger: D-2

Grappling: F-7

Stats

Strength: 23

Speed: 31

Constitution: 12

Focus: 3

Free Points: 15

Blessing: Loki's Eye

Class: Unlock Challenge Available

Strength: +0

Speed: +0

Constitution: +0

Question Everything

Focus: +2

Jester Shop Access

Additional effects: ???

Despite my new ritual, surprisingly, little had changed. But the things that did change were quite exciting. Five levels in two days, 15 stat points to assign. That was a big decision I needed to make. I had gotten more stats from that training, but it sounded like that would be a one-time thing. It only worked as well as it did because my stats were already very low, so intense training would actually have a bigger effect. And I suppose that it also probably was why Loki was telling me not to put points into focus that I had gained.

One additional point in focus was interesting. It might have been from the sort of battle trance, as I have been calling it, that I slipped into a few times, where the world narrowed, and all I could see was my opponent. The dagger increasing in proficiency was nice. It did feel a little bit smoother, but I really wasn't sure how useful weapon proficiencies were to me. Not the proficiencies themselves but the status. If I wanted to shrink my status, I might consider removing them from my slimmed-down ritual. They seemed to mostly be just telling me how good I was with a weapon, which was not the most useful. Still, it might be good to know when talking with teammates.

The only other thing that changed besides my level and proficiency was that now the class. Instead of reading 'N/A' it now read 'unlock challenge available,' which got me excited. I suppose this is what Loki meant so long ago when he said I would know what the class was about when I needed to, but the status didn't tell me anything about what the unlock quest is. It says available, so it sounds like I need to go get that, which is like a quest to go get a quest. A little annoying, but what can you do?

The additional effects indicator for the blessing remained in tantalizing promises of future treats. But I wasn't sure if it would ever leave. It seemed that the blessing evolved with me.

I just made my selections, watched over the ritual, and thought carefully before I finally made my selections. This would be the first assignment I would get and potentially could make or break my build. Fifteen points was a lot. I don't know if I'd ever have to spend this much at once. I could more than double my constitution, bringing it up nearly in line with my other stats. I would be heavier and more solid and able to take hits, but something told me that wasn't a good idea. My constitution was still low enough that I might be able to train it naturally, but I had no points in it. I wouldn't be able to raise it on its own, just through hard work and getting hurt.

Kind of shitty to do to my teammates, making me a slightly less effective fighter. But death wasn't something I had worried about for a long time, and well, I might as well take advantage of that. So, I just put it into strength and speed at a two-to-one ratio, bringing them more in line with each other. I felt myself grow significantly stronger and a touch faster. With the amount of power I can now put into my blows, I might actually be able to make a real difference in that bear fight. In fact, I should go challenge Bjorn to an arm wrestling match sometime soon. I might be stronger than him now. I definitely couldn't take a hit, though.

I looked at just the stats version. I performed a modified version of the ritual, pulling up just the stat block as a test.

Stats

Strength: 33

Speed: 36

Constitution: 12

Focus: 3

Free Points: 0

Satisfied that it worked, I made a few changes and created a shortcut for two different kinds of rituals: a limited ritual showing just proficiencies and stats and one showing just stats and the ability to make choices. Now, I can check my level and assign stats from when I was with other people. I still wouldn't want people to see my stats, but it wouldn't get me in trouble, like maybe the Loki's blessing. Then, I also set up a full sheet except for the weapon proficiencies so I could save some space. Satisfied, I left the room after cleaning up.

Stepping out in the night air, I let out a deep breath. Looking up at the stars in the sky above, I thought longingly of my bed. I really wanted to rest, but a class-unlocked quest sounded way too tempting. Turning away from the path home, I went into the urge to learn more.